This week is National Payroll Week! Now’s the time we tip our hats to the unsung heroes buried in spreadsheets and tax codes and rightly so! The payroll professionals work incredibly hard to ensure we all get our pay slips on time and with accurate figures. However, this isn’t just about handing out a few pats on the back – this is a wake-up call. A chance for senior management to stop, take a hard look at the factors that keep the payroll machine running, and ask themselves one crucial question: “Are we doing this right, or are we just holding the line?” It’s easy to get lost in the daily gri ..read more

In the accounting profession, staying current in terms of training your team is, of course, essential. As regulations change and client expectations rise, you need your team to be skilled and efficient. Upskilling (teaching your staff to learn and use new skills) seems like the logical step to ensure your staff is equipped to handle these challenges but it takes up a lot of time. That’s where the problem lies. If you need a quick solution to an immanent problem, upskilling doesn’t really provide that. The time required to find suitable courses, schedule training sessions, and allow team member ..read more

As you know, the looming 5 October deadline for self-employed individuals to register for Self-Assessment is a critical point in the calendar for accountants. However, while this date might bring in more revenue for you and your team, it also represents a significant stressor for those in the profession. We’ve seen time and again that the influx of clients rushing to meet this deadline often pushes accountants to their limits, exacerbating an already strenuous workload. The strain on resources, time, and mental health during this period is a stark reflection of the deeper issues plaguing the a ..read more

Let's be honest: while artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool, it does have some limitations, especially in the accountancy profession. One of these is that AI just doesn't understand maths the way humans do. Certainly, it can crunch numbers and give results pretty well, but it doesn't truly understand the concepts behind the calculations. It's a really fast calculator but it doesn't quite know why it's doing what it's doing. AI also struggles to understand complex tax regulations and financial laws because it's essentially a very high-powered probability engine. It generates outputs ..read more

If you currently run an established accountancy firm, providing essential services like bookkeeping and tax preparation, but you want to expand into more technical areas, you might think this is unavailable to you. With the current recruitment crisis and ever-increasing regulatory demands on things like Research & Development (R&D) tax credits, it’s seemingly getting harder to actually break out into another service. Finding and retaining qualified staff has become exceptionally difficult, limiting your firm's ability to offer more than the basic services. Meanwhile, requirements like ..read more

It’s a problem we’re all trying to get our heads around – how do we fix the skills shortage and recruitment crisis in the accounting profession? Firms are constantly reporting lower numbers of applicants, year on year. Our clients frequently bemoan an increasing number of job vacancies, facing challenges in attracting younger professionals and often receiving only a few qualified applicants for each job posting. Accountancy practices are now offering growing salaries, bonuses and incentives in an attempt to retain staff, cutting into their shrinking margins further. Many experts blame Brexit a ..read more

We’ve noticed many accountants are currently struggling to submit P11D and P11D(b) forms due to a lack of efficiency and cooperation on the part of their clients. As the 6 July deadline looms, the pressure must be getting harder and harder to carry, not least for your wider team too. If you don’t start receiving the necessary documents quickly, you’re risking late submissions, potential fines, and upset clients. The crux of the issue often lies in the inefficiency of traditional methods. Chasing clients for information through emails and phone calls is time-consuming and, as you well know, pro ..read more

Picture the scene… An accountant, armed with a cup of coffee, sits down to tackle the morning’s emails. This has become part of her routine by now, but little does she know that the perfect storm is brewing. On average, replying to emails may take up to an hour in the morning, a task that sets the tone for the rest of the day, but today there’s a few problems going on with her clients. Several of them need urgent documents, management accounts, audit reports, and so on, but finding them within her outdated filing system is proving problematic. The emails continue to flood in, a never-ending ti ..read more

As far back as 2014, a chilling prediction was made: 47 per cent of job categories could face automation within the next two decades. For accountants and auditors, this forecast was particularly dire, as they ranked second on the list of professions most at risk. Fast forward to today, and these projections are becoming a stark reality for many – especially now that AI systems like ChatGPT have been developed to a high standard. So, if you are an accountant, you might – understandably – be feeling the pressure. But before you despair, it is crucial to understand that this transformation presen ..read more

Picture this: You've invested in a cutting-edge client portal, hoping to streamline your processes and provide top-notch service to your clients. Yet, despite your best efforts, engagement is dismally low, with only around 5 to 15 per cent of clients actually using your portal. Frustrating, isn't it? And you’re not alone – we’ve noticed that many firms face the same challenge. They’re usually using systems like CCH, IRIS, and BrightManager which, while not awful, fail to really deliver on their promise of high client take-up. So, why do clients dislike client portals so much? The problem: Clie ..read more