Accountingweb

This week AccountingWEB is joined by Bradley Channer, CFO at UBIO and CIMA council member. Channer talks about how the managing director of Mineral Resources wanted to hold his staff captive all day, not wanting them to leave even for a coffee. The team shares their opinion, emphasising why workplaces need to be attractive for employees and what accounting can learn from this. Tom Herbert speaks about carbon accounting software, explaining what it is, why accountants should care and what kind of software is available. And finally, with the government proposing to hike windfall taxes from 75% to 78% and the industry raising their concerns, Matthew Ord questions whether the government will listen.

James Brackley, lecturer in accounting at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the Audit Reform Lab report on Birmingham City Council’s bankruptcy joins this week’s episode. Brackley chats about how behind the audits are for local governments, how it was allowed to get to this point and whether they can catch up. He takes a look at Birmingham City Council’s financial crisis, sharing what happened and the next steps. Richard Hattersley speaks about HMRC’s generic nudge letter campaigns. However, due to the generic nature of these letters, it is becoming increasingly hard to tell them apart from scams. The team talk about what HMRC should do to prevent taxpayers getting scammed. Finally, with GCSE and A-Level results day, Matthew Ord looks at the importance of apprenticeships and how they can be a vital piece of the puzzle to help firms with the recruitment crisis and skills gap.

Gary Turner, the former UK CEO and co-founder of software giant Xero, has been appointed to the board of directors at Mazuma. The company’s co-founder and CEO Lucy Cohen joined us – alongside Gary – for a chat on how the appointment came to be, what accounting and tech firms can learn from each other, and whether there’s life left in the traditional partner-led model. Alongside the Budget being confirmed for 30 October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves also announced a £22bn black hole in the public finances, as well as promising that tax rises are coming. Richard Hattersley looks at where the money might come from, and revisits VAT on private school fees and the abolition of non-doms. Finally, Matthew Ord looks at the worrying report into local authority audits from The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors. Concerns have been raised that a high proportion of functions might be unable to complete their internal audit plans for 2023/24, with the under-resourcing of such a critical area also causing some nervousn

Sage’s AI research has revealed that the widespread adoption of AI in accounting and bookkeeping could add £2bn to the UK economy alongside 20,000 jobs in the long term. Tom Herbert looks at AI’s impact on accounting and the concerns accountants and bookkeepers have. With a new ICAEW president, Malcolm Bacchus, Matthew Ord shares their discussion on plans and expected changes, emphasising a need to continue building trust within the profession. As the summer Olympics begin tomorrow, Richard Hattersley brings up Eugene Amo-Dadzie, the world’s fastest accountant. The team discusses the transferable skills between being an athlete and an accountant and wonders if there should be an accounting Olympics?

The AccountingWEB team dive right into Labour’s landslide victory last week, talking about Keir Starmer and the first female Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. They question whether Reeves will pause and take consultation from those involved in the industry. Tom Herbert discusses a popular topic, choosing the right software and apps. He explores the term ‘best’, why that’s not always the case for software and other factors that need to be considered. Turning back to the election, Richard Hattersley shared that accountancy candidates were obliterated. Has the electorate fallen out of love with accountants and why? Finally, Matthew Ord sheds light onto HMRC who was criticised for being unable to fix a problem of its own making after the department wrongly refunded voluntary class 2 national insurance contributions.

This week on the podcast, the AWEB team joined by Nimesh Shah, CEO of Blick Rothenberg does a deep dive into the election manifestos. With just a week until the election, Nimesh Shah reveals the reality of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos. The panel also gives mention to some notable initiatives from the Green Party and the Reform Party as well as questioning what will happen post-election.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO of Xero, tells AccountingWEB technology editor Tom Herbert why the cloud accounting platform has shifted to a more focused approach, how accounting firms can take more risks, and what doing the books for her family’s business taught her about the profession. For full shownotes visit: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/xero-ceo-sukhinder-singh-cassidy-talks-strategy-risk-and-pricing

Richard Hattersley follows on from the previous episode of election talk by going through each party's manifestos and the tax promises they are pledging. The AccountingWEB team look at what’s missing and how the political parties expect to pay for these promises. We are joined by Tom Herbert live at Xerocon, giving us the inside scoop on the latest announcements that are being made and some updates on AI. Our special guest Mike Goldsmith, head of events at Sift, chats about the Accounting Excellence Awards. He shares what’s new, popular categories and the trends he is seeing. He offers some advice on what the judges are looking for in this year’s entries. Goldsmith also reveals an increased deadline to 28 June so get applying! Matthew Ord rounds off the podcast with some M&A chat, looking at the uncertainties that life can bring and why having an exit strategy is so important. This episode of No Accounting for Taste is sponsored by Comarch, a global IT business and solutions provider that optimises oper

Richard Hattersley kicks off the podcast with the big news of the election. He explores what this means for accountants and tax agents and what we can expect to see over the next month as well as questioning how the political parties are going to fund their plans. After a busy conference season for Tom Herbert, he talks about the biggest trends he has seen. These trends include AI, outsourcing and a shoutout to some new players on the scene. Matthew Ord wraps up the episode by sharing a new report published by The Audit Reform Lab which looked into the audit performance of the Big Four. The report revealed that the Big Four auditors are failing to perform their core functions.

On another episode of No Accounting for Taste, Tom Herbert kicks off the podcast by sharing a few recent GovTech developments. These include the launching of an online voluntary NI payments tool, MTD Income Tax private beta testing going live and stories of agent accounts being frozen. Both Richard Hattersley and Matthew Ord this week look into workplace culture and lifestyle. Richard delves into Mental Health Awareness Week (13-19 May), its importance and what needs to be done and Matthew questions whether the 9-5 life is the way to go.

With entries to the 2024 Accounting Excellence being open, Karen Kennedy, director at Kennedy Accountancy and Andrew Griggs, senior partner at Kreston Reeves join Richard Hattersley and Matthew Ord to talk all things accounting excellence. Kennedy Accountancy won last year’s New Firm of the Year Award and Kreston Reeves picked up the award for both the Audit Team of the Year and the AccountingWEB Pride Award for ESG. They discuss the three pillars of accounting excellence: Client care Kennedy and Griggs speak about how big of a focus client care is, how important it is to their firm, how things have changed and the initiatives they have both undertaken. Processes They continue to discuss how their firms are improving efficiency, staff development and the quality of services they provide. Growth Lastly, both Kennedy and Griggs explore what growth looks like for them and how they successfully keep up and achieve balance when growing.

Richard Murphy is a professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University Management School, a chartered accountant and an economic justice campaigner. He joins AccountingWEB for a new episode of No Accounting for Taste. Discussion begins on Labour’s plans to raise an extra £5bn a year by tackling tax avoidance. Murphy offers his take on whether shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is looking in the right places and whether she is speaking to the right people. Murphy’s taxing wealth report is shared as he discusses that with certain measures, £90bn could be raised. Talk then turns to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s (ICAEW) annual accounts being recently published. The team alongside Murphy looks at the funds paid to the ICAEW as a result of fines and penalties given to chartered accountants, whether things have changed in the accounts and what’s next for the reserves.

After the Easter weekend, the AccountingWEB team joined for another episode of No Accounting for Taste. Tom zeroes in on HMRC matters, exploring their new One Login service, questioning why now and what impact this will have. He also delves into recent complaints lodged against HMRC after their letter to Devonports LAS accountants contained multiple errors. The team asks how a letter like that gets posted and how are they written. With the recent news that the Accounting Excellence Awards are now open, Richard looks back at the entries from last year and discusses the most common trends and challenges. Interested in starting your entry for Accounting Excellence? Click here. Matt closes off the podcast by recounting an interview with AJ Chambers’ James Gosling, speaking about M&A trends. They talk about issues with succession, consolidators and firms struggling to retain talent.

AccountingWEB’s technology editor Tom Herbert is joined by experts Natasha Everard from Bewitching Bookkeeping and Bhimal Hira from Prysm Financial to share their insights into what's hot and what's not on the accounting technology runway in 2024. For full shownotes visit: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/whats-on-accountings-spring-software-shopping-list

The team discuss what they got up to at the Festival of Accounting & Bookkeeping (FAB), coming back together for another packed episode of No Accounting for Taste. Just before we hit record, HMRC made a sudden U-turn on the decision to make permanent cuts to the helpline. Matthew, Richard, and Tom delve into the ensuing chaos and the swift turnaround in their decision. A popular topic at FAB, Richard speaks about the government consultation to regulate the tax advice market. He looks at what this means and what accountants have to say. Tom moves on to a fraud case where cybercriminals stole £53,000 from an accountant’s Revolut business account. He details Revolut’s response and explores the rules of reimbursement. Lastly, we hear from a special guest, Kate Bell, farms and estates partner at Albert Goodman on the trials and tribulations of farming, its need for stability and how they are navigating tax measures. Kate talks about the impact that basis period reform, double cab pick-ups and the furnished h

On this week’s No Accounting for Taste, it’s all things Spring Budget. Chatting with Allica Bank’s Conrad Ford, Richard and Tom look at Jeremy Hunt’s “Budget for long-term growth”, questioning whether this was the pre-election Budget they were expecting. This session is sponsored by Allica Bank, who provides full-service banking for established businesses in the UK.

Alongside Richard and Tom we welcome our new deputy editor, Matt who will be joining the No Accounting for Taste podcast. A big story this week was the U-turn made by the government regarding double-cab pickups. Richard looks at what happened and what this says about the government. With self assessment been and gone, HMRC provided Tom with some more interesting statistics. Tom shares the percentages of how many tax returns were filed by agents, how many were filed digitally and what this all means for making tax digital. In other HMRC news, Matt speaks about the name and shame made by HMRC for employers who failed to pay minimum wage. Matt talks about the big names involved, reasons why this might have happened and whether naming and shaming was the correct approach. And finally, the sad news of the death of actor and comedian Ewen MacIntosh, who played big Keith in The Office, prompted the team to remember MacIntosh’s impact on the fictional accounting world. With only three weeks away, we also get

Join the AccountingWEB team as they talk about the deepfake CFO scam alongside all things post-self-assessment. An excerpt from this week’s Any Answers Live, discusses the highs and lows of busy season with Rebecca Williams and Claire Bartlett. With this year’s self assessment been and gone, and 1.1m taxpayers missing the deadline, Richard Hattersley and Tom Herbert talk about deadline day statistics, the late and last minute filers, and the HMRC helplines. Now that tax returns are no longer a concern, attention shifts to the beginning of practice software shopping for practitioners. Predictions are being made regarding what practitioners might prioritise this year, with a noticeable interest in data tools emerging as a key focus. We also hear from Rebecca Williams, founder of Eccounting Made Easy and Claire Bartlett, founder of Arden Bookkeeping who are both speaking at the Festival of Accounting and Bookkeeping. In a snippet from this week's Any Answers Live, they reflect on the highs and lows of thei

Lucy Cohen joins the AccountingWEB team on the podcast this week to discuss the challenges of this year’s self assessment season, receiving a multimillion-pound investment in her firm and MTD ITSA testing. With just under a week to go before the self assessment deadline, and 3.8m taxpayers still needing to file, the AccountingWEB editorial team talk about the late filers, the missing information, the client chasers, the late nights, the long HMRC helpline wait times and much more, as we chart the highs and lows of this year’s busy season. Lucy Cohen, the co-founder of Mazuma Accountants and speaker at the Festival of Accounting & Bookkeeping, pulls back the curtains on her firm’s self assessment season. We also catch up with Lucy on the day that Mazuma announced a multimillion-pound investment from Innovation Investment Capital Limited Partnership (IIC), the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) backed fund. Lucy gives the inside scoop on how the investment came about and their plans to scale the firm in 2024.

What does 2024 have in store for the accounting profession? Dan Heelan joins the AccountingWEB team to predict the big topics that will shape the year ahead. In this episode of No Accounting for Taste, the AccountingWEB team and Dan Heelan, a director at the accounting firm Heelan Associates, cast their eyes over the ongoing developments in the Post Office scandal. The Post Office scandal is one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history, where postmasters were wrongly accused of theft and false accounting, and was the subject of a recent ITV dramatisation of the scandal. While the postmasters have received some justice in the court of public opinion, many are still grappling with the compensation payment and the financial consequences of being pushed into a higher tax bracket. The team also looks at IRIS’s recent private equity investment and what the ongoing trend of consolidation in the accounting technology space means for accountants and their choice of tools. Finally, Heelan and t