Like its clients, AdvanceTrack has enjoyed another busy month.

For starters, we held our second annual AdvanceTrack Conference. The event, held in central London, brought together more than 100 practitioners and technology specialists to discuss key issues and opportunities for the profession.

We covered the ‘business growth accountant’ in a lively session with Paul Shrimpling, while Martin King-Turner took us through the latest developments on that dreaded topic: GDPR.

The Profitable Firm’s Karen Reyburn talked about the four ‘make or break’ areas for accountancy marketing, while BlueHub’s Matt Flanagan pointed firms to where they should currently be on their MTD journey.

Vipul Sheth, AdvanceTrack MD, said the event illustrated to accountants the importance of building client relationships by having more up-to-date information about them, particularly on the bookkeeping front.

“I’m driving home the message about our investment in technology to run an efficient and reliable service to our client firms, and an increasing focus on building a scalable bookkeeping service,” said Sheth.

“Remember, with Making Tax Digital accountants are going to need reliable financials and do it for hundreds of thousands of clients.”

Sheth added: “What you really need to consider is you have a set of skills that can change clients’ lives. You must understand the finances, their industry, and the whole thing put together – that’s really your role. If you understand that then we can help you do more of that, and you’ll become more profitable and go home earlier.”