AI, or outsourcing? Or both? AdvanceTrack MD Vipul Sheth takes a big picture view on how things might develop for your practice – and for us.

 

Will AI be so clever, intuitive and powerful that you won’t need outsourcers to support your firm? And, by that definition, does that mean you’ll be able to reduce your own headcount?

These are the kind of questions that we’re hearing (or, quite frankly, we’re being asked) at the moment. Let’s not beat around the bush: there are a number of people in the outsourcing space that see AI as a huge competitor to their entire business models.

What about us at AdvanceTrack? Well, we’re not complacent enough to think that it definitely won’t impact us. In fact, the opposite. Those of you that have worked with AdvanceTrack will know that we’re big investors in technology. Our IT has to work with your practice’s systems, and securely. It needs to be ‘on’ as much as physically possible, and also enable fast and effective communication (of both knowledge and data) between us and our practice partners.

We’ve seen various technological leaps and iterations over the past 20 years, and we view AI as another leap. Broadly speaking, we will use AI.

AdvanceTrack is, by definition, an extension of practices’ own business. And if you’re thinking of using AI, or having it placed upon you through developments and updates across practice and accounting platform tech, then it makes sense that it will impact our systems, our operations – our way of doing things – too.

Big data, big questions

Certainly, we can envisage the likes of Xero and QuickBooks looking to add intelligence into their offerings. After all, with masses of data at hand they will be able to turn that into knowledge to be actioned upon. This evolution will drive hundreds and thousands of micro-decisions made on your behalf, which will save practitioners seconds, that turn into minutes and then hours.

Perhaps, at AdvanceTrack, our masses of information at hand will be similarly leveraged by AI tools? It’s still conjecture – and we would be rightly cautious about what that would mean for your clients’ data security.

AI may well free up your people’s time even further than current levels of automation can do. That’s true – but that will be the case for AdvanceTrack’s people, too. We’ve no doubt that our offering will evolve, in tandem with the way practices operate too.

We’re still not at the stage where just a review is needed of client files. There is still plenty of up-front work and checking before the validation stage. Things will change, and it’s possible at a faster rate than we can envisage. But, whatever the pace of change, we hope to still be very much in the mix of helping practices grow – perhaps with AI in there too, helping us all grow faster and higher.

Vipul Sheth is MD of AdvanceTrack Outsourcing

If you’d like to talk to us about helping your practice grow and develop, please get in touch by clicking here.

We’re out and about – and we hope you are too. There are plenty of opportunities to meet us and have a chat.

As the summer disappears and autumn draws in, we see conference season come to an end. But that doesn’t mean the AdvanceTrack team won’t be out and about around the country – in fact quite the opposite. 

But let’s tidy up what we’ve done first.

A busy Accountex

Accountex North was incredibly busy – with more than 2,500 attendees. While the spectre of MTD still looms over some conversations, what was more apparent was a big push to drive delegates onto the cloud – of which there is still a significant minority.

There was also discussion about some of the big accounting and tax platforms bringing their solutions wholly into the cloud – which you might think sounds strange in 2023. However, laggard practitioners will also influence the major tech players, and so it seems that a wish not to disenfranchise firms has led to this drawn-out cloud transformation… perhaps a topic for another blog.

Looking forward, as we like to do at AdvanceTrack, we are in attendance at two major sets of events through October and November.

ACCA

Firstly we have the ACCA Autumn Roadshow. Taking place between 10 and 19 October, ACCA practitioners including Jeri Williams and Francesca Tricario will discuss their stories of growing and scaling their firms. AdvanceTrack MD Vipul Sheth will also be around, as well as other team members.

Eriona Bajrakurtaj FCCA (Majors Accounts) and Peter Jarman FCCA (PJCO) will guide you through the complexities of scaling whilst sharing how to manage internal efficiency and team capacity as you grow.

The roadshow encompasses England and Scotland across six events. Details can be found by clicking here.

Xero

The Xero UK Roadshow kicks off on 31 October and runs through to 22 November across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The sessions during these events will cover getting the best out of Xero, through to building a high-performance practice and helping clients succeed. There will also be a range of exhibitors on hand, including AdvanceTrack. Details for the roadshow can be found by clicking here.

We’d love to see you at the roadshows; and feel free to discuss anything with us. If you’d prefer to start a conversation online, then drop us a line by clicking here.

Our first face-to-face Xerocon in several years was fun and joyous, but the tone – while optimistic – was serious.

Tobacco Dock, the venue for Xero’s big UK event, was far different venue to that of a hotel conference room. What were old storage rooms became pods for Xero’s app exhibitors (including AdvanceTrack); while the central courtyards provided much relief against the heat, creating a carnival-like atmosphere.

However, the context was a stagnating economy, high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis. And of course, MTD ITSA. Can accountancy firms act as ‘digital consultants’? asked Xero’s UK and EMEA managing director Alex von Schirmeister.

Sole traders and micro businesses are the seed for creativity and graspers of new models to serve markets. And they want accountants to support them in that journey of growth. So… can you, as an adviser, steer them through the compliance hurdles they face? And, then, develop that relationship to offer timely and strategic support?

It’s not easy. MTD is proving to be a moving feast. The practitioners we spoke to at Xerocon are looking at ways to make both themselves, and their clients, ready as soon as possible. They don’t want nasty surprises when MTD ITSA goes live. But, unfortunately, we’re still waiting on some of the fine detail.

Xero’s big launch was Xero Go – a ‘freemium’ app to create an entry point for the millions of sole traders to better manage and capture income and expenses data.

While it’s very early days, it’s clear that Xero Go is one of the steps needed to offer a quick and easy platform for the smallest businesses to begin the vital process of capturing that information.

Accountants have so much on their plate. Being a ‘digital consultant’ requires a very important first step – understanding your own tech and processes. Your clients need help to both understand how to capture information – but, where automation isn’t possible, to get in the habit of opening up Tax Go, or whatever other capture tool is used.

There is an argument that this flow of extra information to HMRC will be of little use to the taxman. However, as we’ve suggested previously: building more links, consistently, between client and adviser should be a good thing – at least something that the practice can leverage.

We’d love to help you manage the increase in scale of client touchpoints – it’s what we do for a living. If you’d like to speak to us about improving your practice’s processes and workflow, contact us here.

Supporting Howard & Co Accountants LLP – by supporting their client

The close relationship between us and our practice clients means that we have deep conversations about their direction of travel, and their clients. In this case study, Howard & Co managing partner Marc Howard explains how working with AdvanceTrack brought about an opportunity for us to help his client through an accounting tech migration.

Tell us about you and your practice

Marc: Howard & Co has been in existence for 40 years, founded by my father Tony Howard. He forged on his own for quite some time before I joined him 15 years ago. I’d come out of Deloitte’s grad scheme and wanted to support what is a local firm. We operate as a general practice; accounts, VAT, personal tax and bookkeeping. We look after family-run businesses, limited companies, sole traders and beyond – it’s a wide client base.

How would you describe the world that your practice and its clients are facing?

Marc: The accountancy industry is facing large-scale change; most of it positive. There is an abundance of technology available, but it does require our end-clients to also be tech-savvy and using systems that we can link and interact with. And with MTD for Income Tax Self-Assessment around the corner, we need to push on with our own digitisation.

We want to get ahead of the curve, but that means clients have to be as well – it’s both a technology and a human challenge.

What problem did your client need solving?

Marc: Our client had been an early adopter of cloud accounting technology, but their existing tech wasn’t fit for future purpose. We’ve been focused on assessing and improving the client’s gross margin. They operate in web development so they’re effectively selling time, through various projects. The software they were using wasn’t able to sufficiently manage and track multiple ongoing sources of work.

They took the decision, on our advice, to improve their project management capability by bringing in Xero as a platform.

Why did you approach AdvanceTrack to help?

Marc: We were looking for someone to help as data migration is outside our skill set – and AdvanceTrack MD Vipul Sheth was endorsed by Xero; we’re doing everything we can to funnel our practice through Xero as much as possible.

Xero’s platform had the capability and would provide all the reporting that our client, and us as their advisers, would need. But how would we get from product A to product B? We all needed the pain to be very short. There would be some re-learning for the client, but the value and benefits would come through.

We brought in AdvanceTrack because we wouldn’t be able to simply end and begin everything again in the new system. We needed the data going backwards in Xero, not just the financials going forward – this was too technical and complex for us to deal with in-house.

How did AdvanceTrack help the client solve its problem?

Marc:  After our initial chat with Vipul, describing what the problem was and the challenge to overcome, he took the time to chat through how AdvanceTrack’s team could get over the hurdles, and he gave us timescales and processes.

Vipul then allowed me to query him – it seemed a workable solution. He then invited me to a second call, but this time with my client present – which was really good – and he helped put the client at ease. We agreed the process and timescales.

AdvanceTrack gave us advice on how to tidy up the migrating files, and on an agreed date we stepped away from the software for a couple of days. Vipul’s team began the migration.

The next critical point was the client using the software. We were given access to AdvanceTrack’s portal to gauge the job, and had a contact within AdvanceTrack’s customer service team. It was so smooth, there was minimum input from me, just some confirmations on a couple of bits of data. We were then notified we were ready to get going.

We were given a list of things to check and double-check, which we did. My team then went into the client info first to review it, before signing the job off as done. It was seamless.

AdvanceTrack also gave us a period of mediation if we found any issues – another nice safety net. We gave the thumbs-up and then we just had to orientate the client with some training. Of course, it can be a major headache for a client to change software: ‘will everything be there how I like it, and how do I use it?’  But, after an afternoon of training, the client was off and running.

My firm is now better placed to provide our client with more up-to-date financials, and we can provide better and more timely client advice.

Does your client need help moving data to the cloud? Get in touch with the AdvanceTrack cloud team.

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.

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

Many firms know that AdvanceTrack help drive efficiency into theirs and their client firms’ process. We also help clients move to the cloud. We are a migration partner for Xero as Xero Partner firms want to move their client to Xero at scale.

One of our long-standing clients, MHA Carpenter Box recently approached us as they had two large companies to move from Sage onto Xero. Whilst there are tools that help “standard” clients move to the cloud, these companies were international in their nature.

The biggest challenge that both the end client and MHA Carpenter Box faced, was the need to move a large volume of transactions across multiple years. The most complex part of the migration was dealing with foreign transactions. These were not just bank transactions, but purchases and sales with the exchange differences needing to be allocated correctly in line with the financial statements.

Across the 2 entities that needed moving across, there were 1000’s of transaction lines that needed migrating across and reconciled.

Our Xero trained teams were given access to the data before starting work. They agreed a plan to move the data using technology and their knowledge of using Xero effectively.

Once the data had been moved from Sage into Xero, our teams carefully reviewed the data and ensured that the client data had been transferred effectively and accurately. With trained accountants and bookkeepers overseeing the process, the migration was delivered cost-effectively and accurately.

Clean, quality data which the client and firm will benefit from in the future as the reports will be meaningful with cloud tools that can now be connected using Xero.

Client feedback

There are great tools like MoveMyBooks to move client data to the cloud. Where there are complexities such as Foreign Currency, we’d certainly use AdvanceTrack again to help us transfer the data.

Does your client need help moving data to the Cloud? Get in touch with the AdvanceTrack Cloud team.

A lot of our recent discussions have been about practices’ strategic approach to clients, staff and management. It seems a good time to put the key UK tech providers under the spotlight. What are they focusing on, and where do they see their relationship with accountants impacting on tech development in the future?

 

Wolters Kluwer/CCH

Wendy Rowe, commercial director TAA, Wolters Kluwer UK&I

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: We were proud to launch CCH OneClick in April. CCH OneClick delivers complementary cloud tools to the CCH Central on-premise suite supporting accountants around GDPR, digital data collection, accounting efficiencies and new cloud tools to support new filing regulations being driven through HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme. One of these tools is VAT filing, supporting the mandatory VAT filing for businesses from April 2019.

 

Q:What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Our focus for the next 24 months will be around how we support practices becoming digital and in helping accounting practices to embrace and navigate the new digital world.

Areas of interest are:

  • Providing tools that help with digital data collection and aggregation of digital data– helping practices to reduce the volume of manual data entry but also collating useful data that can be leveraged across multiple activities. For example, how transactional bookkeeping data can be used to support quarterly reporting compliance needs but can also be leveraged to create a set of accounts and then for forecasting cashflow projections for business advice.
  • Delivering compliance more effectively– with HMRC bringing in new regulations around MTD, practices will need to review their current processes. It is highly likely that these will change to ensure compliance work remains efficient.
  • Advisory– Wolters Kluwer is exploring solutions and services that help accountants to be more proactive and responsive in their client interactions.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: I see the following as key themes over the next two years:

  • Efficiency/automation– how technology can make compliance more efficient.
  • Advisory and data– the use of technology to help advisers to become more proactive.
  • Client collaboration– how the advisor changes their traditional collaboration approach in light of the millennial generation and a digital world (mobility and so on).
  • New technologies (eg. machine learning, BI and so on)– how these technologies can assist the practitioner of the future while simultaneously protecting the profession.

QuickBooks

Alex Davis, business development manager, Intuit QuickBooks

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: Making Tax Digital is part of the UK tax authority’s plans to become one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world, and a topic on everyone’s mind as we look to make the process as easy and straightforward as possible for our accountant customers.

QuickBooks Online is already MTD-ready, which means the product is fully compliant with the requirements set by HMRC. Companies will be able to submit VAT filings directly from our software through to the UK tax authority. We’ve already completed successful filings from a number of our accountancy customers through our beta programme.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Our teams are focused on helping our customers earn more money, make better decisions and develop greater confidence about their finances. Bringing together siloed data is one important way we help save customers and their advisors time, and reduce the risk of manual errors. For example, we have direct bank feeds with three major retail banks in the UK, covering 60% of the UK market. Direct bank feeds automate much of the time-consuming data entry associated with bookkeeping. Tax prep is an area in which we continue to add value for accountants who spend an excessive amount of time gathering data for a single client on an annual or quarterly basis. A recent example is our release of the option to import bills and invoices to QuickBooks.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period?

A:There is little doubt that over the coming months practitioners will be focused on first identifying which of their clients need to be migrated to MTD-compliant software. Then, they will put the plans in place to manage those migrations efficiently. This will involve the transfer of critical financial data, along with educating staff and clients on how to use the software efficiently. Once these building blocks are in place, we expect the conversation to move towards how these insights can be put to use.


IRIS

Nick Gregory, chief product & marketing officer, IRIS Accountancy Solutions

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: IRIS continually develops products to help practices evolve beyond compliance services to deliver more lucrative advisory-based services. This includes Accountant Go, a practice-branded app that enables accountants to engage and communicate with their clients.

We’ve also launched IRIS Analytics, an analytics tool for large accountancy practices to obtain comprehensive insights into business performance. We are due to launch IRIS AI, a new AI tool that enables accountants to address skill shortages and deliver new risk and fraud assurance services.

We are also adding more GDPR enhancements across our product range, and launching IRIS GDPR Advisor, a new service designed to help accountancy practices maintain GDPR compliance.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: IRIS is 40 years old this year and our heritage allows us to see the industry in a unique way. IRIS continues to heavily invest in developing its product portfolio to help accountants’ grow their businesses and deliver new services, enabling them to thrive in the new digital economy.

The next strategic announcement will be at IRIS World in October with the launch of ‘Darwin’ which will help liberate desktop IRIS compliance suite data and offer new apps, all available via a cloud platform. We also want to make MTD (VAT and personal tax) as easy and as seamless as possible for customers so will continue to enhance new digital ways of reporting into the existing products and workflows.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: Without a doubt, MTD – and especially MTD for VAT and personal tax – will continue to be at the forefront of discussions. Traditional assurance and core compliance services are evolving, so our job in the next few years is to ensure practitioners get it right, first time and succeed every time through integrated, efficient and automated processes and workflows.

As the industry transforms, discussions advance beyond compliance services to business advice.


Sage

Michael Office, VP Accountants, Sage

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: We’ve just launched exciting new services for accountants and bookkeepers in practice:

  • Sage Accountant Cloud– the platform to run your practice – brings together all your client information, important dates, documents and interactions to help you keep on top of tasks and jobs. It also gives one-click access to client bookkeeping in Sage Business Cloud Accounting, and an automated workflow to Accounts Production and Compliance/Personal Tax.
  • Sage 50cloud Payroll Online Bureau– we’ve given the 6,000 practices running payroll on behalf of clients the very best benefits of the cloud: automation. With secure online employee details and hours entry, payslips, payroll documents and reports – all with an automated workflow to and from payroll.
  • Accountants and Bookkeepers Hub– this has brought together all the expert advice and support we offer (from help with MTD to growing your practices, from toolkits to webinars) into one place, dedicated for accountants and bookkeepers.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Our mission is to make admin invisible by 2020 for accountants, bookkeepers and their clients. Our roadmap for the next 12 months across both Sage Business Cloud (featuring accounting, payroll and payments) and Sage Accountant Cloud (featuring client/practice management and compliance) is focused around automation, efficiency and AI/machine learning driven proactive capabilities. A great example of this is automatic bank reconciliation and bank rules launching this autumn across Sage Business Cloud Accounting and Sage 50cloud.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: We talk to more than 1,000 accountants and bookkeepers (face to face) every month through our expert field team and at events. We know that MTD is something that is on the minds of accountants and that together we can unlock the potential that digitisation presents.

Taking 60 days out for tax year-end and Christmas, there are just 90 working days to go until the MTD deadline next April. The average practice has 112 clients, so already that’s more than one client per day that practices need to get ready for MTD now. Our focus is therefore helping, supporting, enabling and driving practices to be ready for MTD.


Xero

Damon Anderson, director, partner & product, Xero UK

Q: What is your latest/impending product launch?

A: Most recently, we launched the all-new Xero Expenses. This has been one of our oldest features in Xero but it was overdue some love, so we’ve worked closely with our accounting partners to reimagine it from the ground up. It now offers businesses a more efficient way to manage expense claims and is smarter, easier to use and designed to benefit both the small business and their employees.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Artificial intelligence has a fundamental part to play in all our product developments over the next two years.

Further proof of our commitment to improving productivity for small businesses is through our recent acquisition of data capture solution Hubdoc, offering our customers another powerful solution for better workflow efficiency.

Machine learning is paving the way to high-integrity accounting. Our Find and Recode software has already saved small businesses and their advisers in excess of 307 hours of time in the first year alone, and the next two years could see the elimination of data entry and coding entirely – a really exciting prospect for business productivity.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: Making Tax Digital is having a major impact on the accounting profession, and supporting accountants through this change is our priority. And a modernised VAT returns experience will mean a better understanding of business financials as well as enable improved levels of efficiency and productivity.

There are the pacesetter firms that will have no problems in the coming 12/24 months. But many others might be faced with the daunting prospect of getting their clients’ finances online in a short amount of time, and we will be helping them navigate these waters.

It doesn’t stop there. Once MTD has been fully implemented, we then want to support practitioners as they build new service offerings or fuel their growth. We don’t see the conversations dying down any time soon.

The changing practice landscape, the impact of MTD, investment into the cloud by the major software companies, and how AdvanceTrack® is helping support practices be fit for the future. The company’s founder Vipul Sheth talks to former Accountancy Age editor Kevin Reed about these key topics, and more

Vipul, what are the pressing issues for practices in the next 24 months?

Technology is the number one issue. Knowing which tech companies will be the winners – that’s a very big unknown. They have made a lot of investment, but we don’t know which will stand the test of time. I do think Xero and QuickBooks will be the two global cloud platforms… I can’t see Sage being there. Unless Sage come up with something amazing, they’re not in the game – as a Brit, I feel disappointed about that.

The profession is losing skilled staff through retirement and mergers, leaving a gap in experience and advisory skills. Younger staff like to use tech but are not always so proficient or experienced in client engagement – that’s not true of everybody, but many naturally communicate through devices. The next generation don’t always want to take the risk of running a firm, with the responsibility and financial exposure. Firms must consider how to provide work/life balance.

Back to tech-based communication: this will be ne for 90% of scenarios, but there will be an element of the client base that wants to engage, to meet up face-to-face. The next generation of practitioner needs to be able to ‘press the flesh’, and gain the confidence of the client in a one-to-one situation. As such, succession planning is an issue that’s never far away.

Is Making Tax Digital (MTD) the game-changer, and if so, why?

MTD is absolutely front and centre for everyone, but my view is ‘never let the government write your business plan’. Build a business that goes beyond dealing with numbers; build a business that clients feel they can’t do without.

MTD is concertinaing the time window to migrate people to the cloud to do things effectively. It’s important that MTD is making firms visit this – but they should look beyond it. The law will make us help clients be compliant, but what do you do with that information? MTD will ‘help’ you keep clients out of jail – but it won’t help you make more money. What will enable that is how you use that information to make clients run their business better.

What about longer-term for practices?

Everything comes down to client service. Moving to the cloud is an essential part of providing advisory services – keeping them compliant but using other tools to give better insight to what will be increasingly operational data. By offering clients insight, you can use data to justify where you are and what decisions you’re making.

There will continue to be a market for compliance business but, over time, technology and self-service will replace those firms – if that’s all you’re delivering to clients.

Automation and AI – what should practices consider with regards their strategy, and staff levels?

Our top clients have already started moving staff to client-facing roles. When they recruit people today, the type they recruit are those they think could be partners in 10-15 years’ time. If you have enough coming through with that skillset, you’ll automatically have in-built succession… practices forget they’re running businesses.

Tech is used in young people’s everyday lives. So practices must look at the range of skills they will need. You will rarely find someone that can be an accounting technician, fully IT-literate, can run a practice and serve clients. Teams will need to be built to cover the bases.

Is it tough for firms to serve clients while everything is changing so quickly around them?

Forward-thinking firms have a small group of people running change programmes. They’re the ones most successful at implementation, and some with non-accountants going into the technological change roles.

We all need to re-skill and keep developing. I’ve had several professional roles in my career, and am doing something very different to what I did 15 years ago. We must recognise that in ourselves, and also give people the time and framework to adapt.

What types of practice are impressing you, and why?

Some cloud-only firms are very impressive. They have no shackles, and are not wedded to a particular technology. Staff can work anywhere (which comes back to staff wanting work/life balance).

There are a handful of ‘traditional’ firms that have impressed me by having a big client and team base, looking after SMEs and using AdvanceTrack® and other technologies to service a much wider cross- section of clients than they would have in the past – regional practices operating on a national or international level.

Where does AdvanceTrack® fit into all this change?

We have been a tech-first supplier/provider to the profession. We will adopt tech that’s developed by third-parties, or develop our own. Where we have really continued to progress is our need to be efficient, particularly in collecting and processing data efficiently – to help our practice clients deliver an amazing service.

Off the back of MTD and the need to keep clients compliant, we’re able to give scalable bookkeeping solutions to practices and enable them to work with real-time data. This solution feeds into practices’ other advisory- led and insight services.

What do potential clients ask you about AdvanceTrack’s services, and what is your response?

The questions have hardly changed over the years! First, quality – how do you maintain it? How do you keep clients’ data secure?

Our biggest challenge is those in the industry that have offered bad service, which makes it much harder for practices to revisit the option of outsourcing.

Some clients have come to our offices. They want to ensure that if working with a provider, we’d also look after our staff when working on their projects – part of their due diligence is to visit our offices and ask our team members any questions they want.

“We have used AdvanceTrack since 2014, and we have been pleased with the outcome.”

Like so many new relationships, it takes a little while for both sides to understand clearly what each other wants and is able to give; in the early months, we found that we had not explained clearly enough what our expectations were, which led to some misunderstandings.

However, in my opinion, the mark of a good business is not necessarily what goes awry, but how they deal with it once it has. In this respect, I cannot fault Vipul – he came promptly to our offices to listen to and understand our challenges, and since then, the process and outcomes have improved dramatically, and we now get good quality work in the format that we want from them.

They are also very attuned to using IT to help make the process easier – we are avid users of Xero and Xero work papers, and they are quite happy to work with us using this technology. Looking forward, I think Vipul has some great ideas on using Xero to help support us accountants, and I am keen to explore how we can do this better – once we are through our busy season!

In a sentence: they are a good bunch of guys, dedicated team, flexible, competent, and a good cost; a worthy additional resource for us which we use month in, month out. Try them.