If you haven’t booked a ticket for the AdvanceTrack Conference 2022, this blog will give you an introduction to the speakers you’ll be hearing on the day and an insight into what you’ll learn from them. 

This event will cover every element involved in helping your clients to run more efficient and adaptable businesses, whilst making sure both you and your clients are successful financially. 

Here’s a reminder of the key details:

  • What: The AdvanceTrack Conference 2022 – This year, the conference will be focused on Building clients up in unpredictable times
  • When: Tuesday 10th May 2022 
  • Where: The National Gallery, London (by kind permission of the Trustees and Director of the National Gallery)
  • Cost: £30 and all proceeds will be donated to ohmi.org.uk and rnohcharity.org charities. 

We do ask a small charge for the ticket, but all proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to causes close to our heart. You’ll know charities have really suffered during Covid, and we see an opportunity to have an even bigger impact with our event. 

Meet the speakers

Paul Shrimpling of Remarkable Practice:

Paul’s passion for the accountancy profession was forged in his experience of growing, from scratch, a family manufacturing business.

The annual check-in with his accountant failed to deal with the emotional roller coaster of building the business, surviving two deep recessions and eventually selling the business.

This business education and the 21 years working exclusively with the leaders of accountancy firms underpins Paul’s determination to challenge accountants to better Humanise the Numbers.

Yes, accountancy will always be about the numbers, but accountancy must also be about the people and how they feel about the numbers.

Vipul Sheth, of AdvanceTrack:

Vipul Sheth is the founder and managing director of AdvanceTrack. As a Chartered Accountant, he has set out to change lives from the very beginning. 

“When I was growing up, my parents had the best accountant, someone who brought them critical analysis, business experience and truth. He was there to navigate all the difficult paths for them. This is what an accountant is supposed to do and our job at AdvanceTrack is to make sure that you have the time to do more of that.

We want everyone to be able to be an accountant that doesn’t just do a set of accounts, but is someone who changes lives.”

Matt Flannagan, of Bluehub and Appacus:

Matt Flanagan is the Co-Founder/Head Trainer at Appacus as well as MD at BlueHub. Through his seminars & educational programmes, he helps forward-thinking accountants to get the most out of cloud accounting and the surrounding app ecosystem. 

In his signature programme, The App Advisory Scale, he helps firms to build & implement app advisory services that generate additional revenue. Since 2014, he’s worked with leading Top 100 firms such as Taylorcocks, G+E, BHP and Old Mill, as well as many small to medium-sized firms. 

Matt is recognised as one of the leading voices in the cloud accounting & app ecosystem and is regularly invited to speak by software vendors such as Xero & Dext. You can find out more about Matt and how he can help your firm here.

​​Andrew Jordon of Connect4:

Andrew is the CEO at Connect4. He trained as an accountant in London in Corporate Tax and M&A before working in house as a consultant Finance Controller in the sunny climes of Brisbane. Andrew then switched to software as a member of Fathom’s leadership team, the management reporting tool before going on to found Connect4 in early 2020

Olly Cummings of Capitalise:

Olly joined Capitalise as Commercial Director in our first year, seeing us through three funding rounds. He’s a trained accountant (EY),  an ex-corporate finance professional (Smith & Williamson, HSBC), an ex-venture capitalist (Nauta Partners) and more recently helped establish and scale the partnerships team at MarketInvoice. He’s passionate about helping small businesses get the funding they need, and is a mentor at several small business accelerator programs.

Anneli Thomson of Sandler:

Anneli Thomson is a business development expert, specialising in sales development, growth and management training. Anneli is an award winning, dynamic, enthusiastic speaker who informs, entertains and motivate business owners, Managing Directors, senior managers and professionals.

In her spare time, Anneli is a part of Team Great Britain for Triathlon and competes across the globe.

Aynsley Damery of Clarity:

Aynsley is a chartered accountant, and former founding partner of Tayabali Tomlin, Accounting for Entrepreneurs – a multi award-winning accounting firm that specialised in business advisory. He sold that firm to Crowe in 2018.

He is the founder and CEO of Clarity – a business advisory platform for accountants, that enables more fee earners to offer more advisory services to more clients, more often.

He has advised thousands of businesses around the world and sits as an advisory board member on a number of companies and charities. Aynsley is considered one of the most influential accountants in the UK on social media and is a regular international keynote speaker.

Ian Gregory of AdvanceTrack:

Following an early career in engineering, academia and management consulting, Ian turned his talents to IT, delivering projects to a range of clients in healthcare, manufacturing and professional services and teaching at several leading business schools.

He has worked in over 20 countries for numerous multinational and small businesses, is a published author and has a Doctorate on knowledge transfer into businesses. 

David Hassall of XU Magazine:

David splits his time running a Platinum Xero Partner accountancy practice and XU Magazine, the magazine for Xero users by Xero users. He has been in the accounting industry for 12+ years and has a strong interest in fintech.

Louise Wilson of MoneyPenny:

​​Having been a previous client of Moneypenny, Louise was so impressed with the service quality and inimitable culture that she decided to make the career move and join our Business Development team in 2017.

Louise now heads our finance sector, and it’s thanks to her determination that Moneypenny has a team of dedicated receptionists answering calls and chats for hundreds of accountancy professionals. Her unrivalled experience means she has a profound understanding of the challenges our clients face in outsourcing and growing their firms.

Don’t miss out on our first live event in three years 

This will be our first live, in-person event in three years, and we’d love to see you there! 

The conference is the day before Accountex 2022. Plan to come a day early to get the most out of your time away from the office.

If you’re interested in attending, speak to your client manager for more information. Details of the event can be found here.

With the AdvanceTrack Outsourcing Conference a couple of months away, it felt like a good time to use my blog to set out what the conference is setting out to achieve and, more broadly, put that in context of what’s going on in accountants’ working lives.

The theme of our conference

Essentially, the easiest way of describing what our conference is looking to inform accountants about is ‘building back’. Practices must support their clients through a journey towards some semblance of normality. That means more ‘help’.

Now, I know that practitioners have worked incredibly hard over the last couple of years firefighting on behalf of their clients. They’ve provided with essential government advice and led them through grants, loans and tax deferrals.

But we know that as businesses come out of recession, a lack of cash and resources can see them collapse as they try to regrow. There are other external pressures – inflation, wage pressures, and a government looking to collect more tax more quickly.

Businesses need someone in their corner who will say to them ‘we can help you’ and then ask: ‘how can we help?’ Practices have an existing client base – alongside potential new clients – who want help to both survive and grow. Practices have to be efficient, consistent, and scalable where possible. The rewards for optimal accounting practices are potentially huge.

What delegates can expect

If we continue the discussion, then delivering what is required to the client means your firm will need new skills, new technology, new ways of working and potentially a new strategy. I like to think that we will offer great insight on all these things in the conference.

It’s never a ‘hard outsourcing sell’, that’s not how we work at AdvanceTrack and that’s reflected in the conference programme.

We will broach practice development, what you and your people need to do to be more relevant; to capture the client information (or conversations) that enable practices to serve clients better. Even in an increasingly tech-focused profession we will always acknowledge that if you don’t talk to your clients you won’t know their direction, and therefore be unable to provide them with the support they need. (I recently blogged about why outsourcing is in fact the opposite of ‘being impersonal’). You will hear about all these topics and more.

The near future

We think that our outsourcing services will help you be more efficient and scalable. This in a world where Making Tax Digital will push your practice to have clients with better-organised and up-to-date information.

The AdvanceTrack Outsourcing Conference is being held on 10 May 2022 at the National Gallery. A host of speakers are already confirmed. Please click here to find more details.

On Tuesday, 10th May 2022 we’ll be holding the AdvanceTrack Conference 2022. This year, the conference will be focused on building clients up in unpredictable times. 

If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s the importance of adaptability. You’ve learned so much, and your use of technology has contributed to the highest level of efficiency you’ve ever had in your firm. 

In 2022, our clients will need us more than ever. 

They’re feeling tired and uneasy after serious turmoil. Now, it’s all about truly helping. It’s about delivering a maintained level of support to drive them to do better. 

This event will cover every element involved in helping your clients to run more efficient and adaptable businesses, whilst making sure both you and your clients are successful financially. 

This is a conference for leaders in accounting who want to take away ideas to implement in their own practices. 

What you can expect:

  • Industry insight and support – the whole event will be focused around how you can take action in your firm and begin implementing change in light of recent industry trends.
  • Connections to drive change – Notable speakers from the industry will be available to make connections with and learn from, so you can begin transforming your firm.

Hear from speakers including:

  • Matt Flanagan from Appacus and BlueHub
  • Paul Shrimpling from Remarkable Practice
  • Anneli Thomson from Sandler
  • Vipul Sheth, founder of AdvanceTrack
  • Ian Gregory, CTP of AdvanceTrack
  • Louise Wilson from Moneypenny
  • Andrew Jordan from Connect4
  • Olly Cummings from Capitalise 
  • Aynsley Damery from Clarity

The conference will run a day before Accountex, so you can get the most out of your time away from the office

This will be our first live, in-person event in two years, and we’d love to see you there. We’re really excited to announce the event will take place at the National Gallery* in London on 10th May. 

This means you get to enjoy a stunning landmark venue in London only a day before Accountex, so you can get even more value from your trip to the city!

Bonus: Your ticket cost will make a difference to someone’s life.

We do ask a small charge for the ticket, but all proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to causes close to our heart. Your money will be going to two fantastic charities: ohmi.org.uk and rnohcharity.org. You’ll know charities have really suffered during Covid, and we see an opportunity to have an even bigger impact with our event. 

I hope you’ll join us live and in-person! 

If you’re interested in attending, speak to your client manager for more information. Details of the event can be found here.

*by kind permission of the Trustees and Director of the National Gallery