What an amazing two days at Accountex 2023; an event London ExCel describes as “Europe’s largest annual business event for the accountancy and financial profession”! It left me exhausted, rejuvenated and lit!
I could barely sleep after Day 1; every time I felt I was drifting off to sleep, I remembered something else I needed to note down from a session I had attended!
From a marketing perspective, Xero and Sage demonstrated the possibilities, when you have a large marketing budget! I loved the creativity displayed all over the conference ground! The promotion items and give aways at all the stands, were also fantastic!
From a software perspective, there was lots to see and lots of newcomers offering unimagined solutions! It is clearly the digital-age, and attempts are being made to digitalise every step of the bookkeeping and accounting process! I expect that in the not-too-distant future, artificial intelligence (AI) will be built into these digital solutions which begs the question – are bookkeepers and accountants about to be made redundant?
Accountex Programme: There were lots of presentations to attend and it was always a tough decision as to which to attend – there was always at least three sessions of interest running at the same time! Some of the ones I wish I could have attended were Lucy Cohen’s (of Mazuma) “Get out of your own way & Grow your practice” Henrik Micski’s (of Sage) session “Introduction to Carbon Accounting”, Paul Flynn’s (of ProActivTax) “30 tax tips in 45 minutes” and Karin Fuentesova’s (of Digitoo) “In the real world, will AI replace human resources in finance?
Some of the sessions I enjoyed were Amanda Watt’s (of Oompf Global) “Communicating as an introvert in an extrovert’s world”, Alexandra Bond Burnett’s (of Ambitions to Impact) “Speaking numbers with impact”, Phil Hobden and Des O’Neil’s (CPD Store) Pricing Session and of course the panel session hosted by Zoe Whitman (of The 6 Figure Bookkeeper) on “The secret diaries of bookkeepers.” I have to say Ashley Leeds’ (the 15-minute guy) took the crown for me; he was full of energy, engaging and the session was an interactive one about “Using LinkedIn to grow your business”- he shared lots of gems to implement over the coming weeks! I was also blown away by Yemi Wedderun’s (of Wolters Kluwer) session on “Power BI: converting big data into clear graphics.” Ami Copeland’s (ICB’s CEO) was very well attended, with people standing outside of the theatre trying to hear her session on “Bookkeeping up with the times.”
There was a lot going on in all the stands and theatres but at the end of the two days, I realised that the stand I visited most was Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK Theatre – Stand 1460; they had a lot of sessions that resonated with me. Does that mean anything? I don’t know, but I will definitely be looking some more at what they do.
I was able to get demos of Dext, Wolters Kluwer/Finsit’s new forecasting module, LimeBooks bank statement analysing software & Lightyear’s account payable automation solution. Of course I had to stop by to speak to the crew of our very own software provider, the newly rebranded Nomi (formerly Nomisma) and enjoyed some of their creativeness on display; from stilt walking to juggling and some free ice-cream! It was also great to catch up with the team and meet the Chief Technical Officer as well.
One of my objectives for the conference, was to find/get a demo of a not too expensive software that caters to charity accounting right through to reporting and I think I might have found one! Capium – I was told are about to release a new tailored to the needs of charities and will be able to statement of financial activities (SOFA) and R&P accounts; I did not see a demo but have one booked in. I had hoped to speak to someone in NetSuite about the free software license for charities, but they did not have a charity partner on the stand.
One message that was loud and clear over the two days, was that advisory services are of paramount importance and with bookkeepers being very close to the figures of businesses, we are very well placed to provide advisory services and the age of being treated as data inputters, is over!
I came away with a free professional headshot, a few branded bags, a picture of me as an accounting angel, signed copies of various books useful for a practice like ours; and so many fantastic, branded items.
Most of all though, I came away rejuvenated and lit! My knees hurt and so do my feet, but it was all worth it; looking forward to implementation of learnings and introducing/supporting clients with the new developments that will benefit them!
BAnC Services is all about efficiencies for our clients so we will be exploring ways to bring some of utilising these new developments to bring efficiencies to our clients!
To find out more about what we do, book a no-obligation discovery call via our website www.bancservices.co.uk