A guide to anti-money laundering and Boom!
You may be wondering why your latest personal practising certificate or firm registration application process has become more onerous... And why was there was a rush to get everything done by 26 June this year?
Well, hopefully, you’ve been asked to declare that you and, if applicable, others within your accountancy firm are not subject to a relevant criminal conviction.
The aim is to prevent criminals from owning and operating certain businesses that are regulated for anti-money laundering.
The 2017 Money Laundering Regulations (MLR17) introduced this area of law to the UK. MLR 2017 came into effect on 26 June 2017 and set a deadline of 26 June 2018. The June 2018 deadline required that approval had been granted or that it had at been applied for. Hence the rush.
What is the requirement?
No person should be a beneficial owner, officer or manager of a firm or sole practice within the Accountancy Service Providers (ASPs) sector unless they have been approved by their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervisor. ‘BOOM’ is the acronym adopted within our sector for a Beneficial Owner, Officer or Manager.
Such approval can only come following an application to their AML supervisor and after it's confirmed that a BOOM is not subject to any relevant criminal convictions.
Who does this apply to?
MLR17 details the following sectors as subject to this requirement (r.26):
- Auditors, insolvency practitioners, external accountants and tax advisers;
- Independent legal professionals;
- Estate agents;
- High value dealers.
What are relevant convictions?
There are 35 relevant offices listed in Schedule 3 of MLR17. I’ve stopped short of listing them out in full.
Two offences worth noting are what could be seen as compliance issues. A criminal offence under the Data Protection Act 1998 (assumedly now GDPR) and an offence under money laundering regulations could both prevent in individual from being a BOOM. This could feel like a soft offence, but it certainly helps to focus the mind on these areas of compliance.
What might have been?
Whether you follow AML avidly or just what you need to do, you should understand that the MLR 2017 regulations are based on a requirement to implement the 4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4MLD) into the UK by 26 June 2017.
4MLD was based in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) 2012 version of the FATF AML recommendations (FATF recommendations). It’s worth tracing this requirement through, but first we get up with the lingo. Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBP) are where our sector falls within the FAFT terminology.
FAFT recommendation 28 introduces this goal: “…to prevent criminals or their associates from being professionally accredited, or holding or being the beneficial owner of a significant or controlling interest or holding a management function.”
This is broader than MLR 2017 in that it refers to the prevention of criminals from being professionally accredited. Should this come in then it would, I would interpret, ensure that no one can be professionally qualified if that has a relevant criminal conviction. Certainly a broader interpretation, would this have been a good thing? This would have expanded the criminality checks to accountants in industry; regulation of accountants in industry for AML is already preferred by some senior figures.
FATF also talks about criminals and their associates, not just the criminals themselves.
4MLD doesn’t pick up on all of FAFT’s recommendations it includes the associates point but scraps the professionally accredited requirement.
MLR 2017 thins things down a little further by dropping the associates point. This point would bring its own challenges but would in my view feel more complete. The associate definition could have been borrowed from the Politically Exposed Person (PEP) guidance.
What if you get it wrong?
Any approval by an AML supervisor is not valid for an individual that is subject to a relevant criminal conviction even if granted by the supervisor and is not valid if an individual becomes subject to a relevant criminal conviction.
If an individual becomes subject to a relevant criminal conviction, then they and must inform their AML supervisor within 30 days of the conviction. They must also inform their firm within 30 days of when they became aware of the conviction.
If the beneficial owner of a firm (or sole trader) are convicted then the High Court, upon application of the beneficial owner’s AML supervisor, can make an order to sell the beneficial owner's interest in the firm.
The maximum prison sentence for acting as a BOOM when subject to a relevant criminal conviction is two years.
Though MLR 2017 is silent on the question of spent convictions, interpretation appears to be that spent convictions are not considered to be relevant criminal convictions. If you’re unsure I’d suggest checking with your AML supervisor.
Different interpretations
From talking to people who are AML supervised by a wide variety of supervisors it is clear that satisfaction of the criminal conviction confirmation has taken different shapes and sizes. There seems to be range from ticking a box to submitting ID documents for Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) checks to take place and be sent directly to the AML supervisor.
I do find this frustrating as supervisors were working with HM Treasury on this question, that different interpretations of the requirements came out and many at the last minute doesn’t reflect well on the AML sector as a whole.
In reality, as we have seen above, the offence is that of the individual subject to the relevant criminal conviction and not the supervisor.
Perhaps forcing individuals to undertake DBS checks was necessary if people would have not have disclosed a relevant offence.
My concern is the outcome has not produced a level playing field; with some perhaps getting away with it where a lighter touch has been taken?
The expectation is that although declarations will remain, DBS checks will not be required annually, at least by the supervisors.
A last thought
Criminal conviction following a breach of data protection or AML law would mean that you would no longer be able to be BOOM in accountancy. Please don’t ignore your compliance requirements.
As ever, please don’t forget that if you hold a practising certificate from the ICPA you are entitled to use AMLCC included with your practising certificate.
This article has also appeared on the ICPA website. Check it out here.
TaxAssist breaks million-pound barrier
Debbie Corbett and Vince Dalaimo, two central London TaxAssist Accountants franchisees who have worked in partnership for many years, have now restructured - leading to a million-pound sale for exiting franchisee Debbie Corbett.
Vince has purchased Debbie’s share of the Southwark (London Bridge) practice and is now the sole franchisee for this location.
In addition, Jamie Hall, a new franchisee, has purchased the Holborn practice from Debbie and Vince, and Martin Thomas, who was in partnership with Debbie and Vince to develop the Victoria practice has now purchased the franchise outright, and is the sole franchisee in Victoria.
Landmark sale
Karl Sandall, Group Chief Executive Director of TaxAssist Accountants, said: “Clearly we are thrilled to have achieved this landmark sale. It is testament to the strength of our business model and the hard work of Debbie and Vince, who have built an extremely successful practice, opening 4 shops along the way.
“Both have been tremendous ambassadors for our business and the franchise model but naturally, the time came for change for both Debbie and Vince. While Vince stays as a franchisee and Debbie leaves us, we would like to thank them for being excellent franchisees over many years and we wish both of them and Martin and Jamie every continued success in the future.”
With more than 220 franchised areas in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Australia, operating from over 300 shops and offices, TaxAssist Accountants is one of the largest networks of franchised accountants specifically servicing the small business sector. In July 2018, the UK network had more than 69,000 clients and gross recurring annual fees in excess of £45million.
Tony Margaritelli on HMRC, MTD and VAT software
Here's ICPA Chairman Tony Margaritelli chatting about HMRC's email system, MTD for VAT errors and VAT software in the latest ICPA Practice video blog.
Nice work, Tony.
This blog is also on the ICPA website. Dedicated to supporting and promoting the needs of the general practitioner. You can find us at www.icpa.org.uk or email [email protected] or by phone on 0800-074-2896.
Should HMRC block VAT registrations?
In administering any tax system, it is important that everyone gets equal treatment. This is especially so with an EU-wide tax like VAT, where a key underlying principle is that the tax must not lead to distortion of competition. So far so good. What is not good is what HMRC are doing on some applications for new VAT registrations; refusing where they should actually accept. If you encounter any refusal to register you should act promptly to protect your client’s interests.
HMRC’s refusals are happening where trade has yet to start but costs are being incurred. These situations often involve property and the costs can be significant – yet HMRC still keep saying ‘no’. Wrongly so, but ‘no’ nevertheless. What they often also say is that the application has been made too early and it will have to be re-submitted when the project is further along. But this is wrong, not least because does not reflect case precedent as summarised below.
Costs incurred
The starting point is that anyone is entitled to register for VAT if they plan to carry out a VAT-able trade. It is irrelevant when the trade might actually happen. Equally irrelevant is the level of costs being incurred in the intervening period. As soon as there is an intention to trade there is an entitlement to be both VAT registered and able to reclaim VAT. Even if the plan is aborted and there never is any trade, the entitlement to register and reclaim VAT rests on the ‘intention to trade’, and for as long as that exists so does entitlement to reclaim VAT.
What HMRC are doing is preventing businesses, charities and people from reclaiming VAT as soon as they are entitled to claim. This is wrong. In effect they are creating distortion in competition contrary to how the whole system is supposed to work. To see this distortion all you need to do is compare the situation of a new business being sent away by HMRC with that of an existing business.
The new applicant, which might well be a property SPV but could be lots of other things, is blocked from making VAT claims until it actually owns development property or is close to making VAT-able supplies. Contrast with an existing business, which can make ongoing claims months before HMRC would allow a new registration, insisting people have to wait until the project is further along before it passes their interpretation of when someone is entitled to be VAT registered. This situation is unreasonable and should be resisted.
Precedent cases
Imagine if a property purchase never went ahead. Or if another kind of plan to trade had to be aborted. The effect of HMRC’s refusal to register the business would go further than delaying their claim – it would prevent them having any right to claim VAT and that is wrong on so many levels. So when should HMRC be allowing new registrations?
There are three precedent cases that HMRC are ignoring, but which are important in the intending trader argument. You will notice that two of these are over 30 years old but still being cited - and there is a very good reason for that. They all represent decided and settled interpretations, so HMRC simply cannot ignore them and invent a new set of rules. They are:
- Rompelman was a 1985 European case involving the intended future let of a part-built Dutch building where the Dutch authorities refused to register and repay VAT on the building construction costs, arguing that the taxpayers had not yet begun to ‘exploit’ the property. You might think this echoes HMRC’s current stance; however, the court ruled in favour of the taxpayers. Essentially, a person is entitled to register and reclaim VAT as soon as he begins a project and can supply evidence of his intention without having to repay any VAT claim if the intended supplies do not go ahead.
- Merseyside Cablevision 1987 case adopted the Rompelman decision with the tribunal deciding that a person can still register and reclaim VAT even if his VATable turnover is below the registration threshold. This then led to UK law being amended albeit with HMRC still being reluctant to allow registrations in case this led to false Phoenix VAT claims.
- Ace Telecom was a 2006 case where HMRC refused a registration from 2004 as the company was not making supplies but intending to do so. HMRC’s rejection was because they were not satisfied with evidence of an intention to trade but the tribunal decided a taxpayer has a statutory right to be registered. Essentially, registration has to be allowed if there are reasonable grounds for believing either taxable supplies will exceed the registration limit or intended to be made.
Plain wrong
So what this all means is that HMRC’s policy has to be resisted. There is no argument – HMRC are just plain wrong to refuse intending trader registrations. That said, it is difficult to challenge their interpretation and you may well find yourself being told, as I was, that you’re not being very co-operative. Press home that prior cases show time and again that VAT can be claimed on lead costs while a project is developed and you may well be told that is not HMRC’s policy.
Nevertheless, there can be more than timing at stake. Frequently real money can be withheld, which is why you should not simply accept HMRC’s view on who is entitled to be VAT registered.
This blog is from the ICPA website. The group is dedicated to supporting and promoting the needs of the general accounting practitioner. You can find us at www.icpa.org.uk or email [email protected] or by phone on 0800-074-2896.
Future accounting — what you need to know about blockchain
If accounting professionals picked a word of the year, there’s no question that 2018’s would be “blockchain.”
The disruptive technology at the heart of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin promises to shake up our world in the coming years, but no one knows just yet what the blockchain revolution might look like for accounting firms.
Whenever the subject of blockchain comes up in conversation, it seems like a race to make the boldest proclamations about how it will change accounting for ever.
It’s fun to make these speculations, but it’s much more important that you understand exactly what the technology does — and some of the ways big firms are already innovating with it. That way, no matter what shape the future takes, you’ll be prepared.
What is blockchain?
Some people, even those who should know better, tend to use blockchain and cryptocurrency interchangeably. While the two concepts are related, they are not one and the same. Blockchain is the base technology that allows cryptocurrencies to function without a centralised authority.
Harvard Business Review defines blockchain as “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.”
Essentially, it’s a way of storing information across a vast, decentralised network in such a way that the information cannot be corrupted by any one party. Cryptocurrency may have been blockchain’s first wide application, but there will be many more forms to follow.
The biggest game-changer when it comes to accounting is the possibility that blockchain will make the traditional double-entry method, in place since the Renaissance period, obsolete.
Theoretically, because all blockchain transactions are publicly recorded and unalterable, there would be no need to have each party verify information independently. In this context, you can think of the blockchain as a notary. The implications for audits and other financial due diligence procedures are equally monumental.
How the Big Four are using blockchain
Due to their immense amount of resources, it’s no surprise that the Big Four accounting firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC) are leading the way when it comes to blockchain research.
Each of them is experimenting with the technology in some capacity. EY and PwC both already accept bitcoin as a form of payment for certain services.
Just last month, all of the Big Four announced that they’d be running a trial in Taiwan using blockchain as part of the audit process. The goal of the trial is to cut down on the time-intensive process of external confirmation during the audit.
The trial will include up to 1,400 public companies, making it the largest-scale test of its kind. If it succeeds, you can expect widespread adoption very soon.
As established players and upstarts alike continue to conceive of applications for blockchain technology, you can expect to see it pop up in many aspects of our lives.
Our careers are no exception, especially in accounting, so it’s better to learn now than have to catch up later.
Accountant lies over client's pension duties
Hashmukh Shah has admitted giving the Pensions Regulator (TPR) false information on behalf of a client.
The accountant was providing payroll services for a company running Grancaffe Londra in Knightsbridge.
Shah told TPR that Primadell Ltd had put its staff into a workplace pension.
He was charged with knowingly or recklessly providing false information to TPR, and now faces a big fine.
Shah had been aware that his client had not enrolled their employees into a workplace pension scheme.
Workplace pension scheme
He lied to avoid TPR carrying out an inspection of his client’s premises that would have identified that they had failed to comply with automatic enrolment duties.
TPR is conducting spot checks on businesses that are being flagged for not complying with auto enrolment.
Deliberately providing false payroll and pension information about you or your clients is an offence under section 80 of the Pensions Act 2004.
This case, heard at Brighton magistrates' court, is the first example of TPR charging a third party working on behalf of a client. Primadell has since complied with pension regulations.
A US take on Intuit's Amazon journey
Carrie Kahn will be presenting at Accountex USA 2018 in Boston, August 22-23. Click on this link for a complete list of conference speakers.
Hosting is a hot topic. As more and more companies move to the cloud, improvements are being made continuously to improve the reliability of their services. As you may see posts on social media, your feed may become loaded with reports from customers and QuickBooks ProAdvisors when their QuickBooks Online is down.
These outages happen unexpectedly and can cause a business to lose money. ProAdvisors are unable to do their bookkeeping and cannot charge their client for their downtime. Intuit has been listening to the complaints and has recently been making significant changes to address them — including moving QuickBooks Online to Amazon Web Services.
Intuit recently announced its plan to move hosting for QuickBooks Online to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to “accelerate developer productivity and innovation.” Intuit sold its largest data centre located in Quincy, Washington. Many major corporations are finding it is better to move to AWS than to run their own data centres. A few years ago there was some concern about the security of Intuit data centres, as well as some concerns about reliability. This move to AWS will address both concerns.
Slower performance
Intuit’s data centre was dedicated to TurboTax and QuickBooks Online. As you can imagine, TurboTax caused the data centre to spike during tax season, which resulted in slower performance for QuickBooks Online users, or even outages. This transition should bring more stability to QuickBooks Online users — which is GREAT news!
During tax season, Intuit started the migration of TurboTax to AWS and was finished by the end of tax season. Intuit is currently in the process of transitioning QuickBooks Online over to AWS, and expects to be done by later this year. The goal is that AWS will be able to accommodate spikes from customers during tax season for TurboTax and QuickBooks Online customers, making the service more reliable.
Xero made this transition in 2016 to improve their infrastructure and deliver enhanced customer experience. The switch to AWS provided an opportunity to continue to improve the technologies that help Xero function. It is exciting to see that Intuit is going down this path now too.
This announcement may be great news for QuickBooks Online users. We have spoken and it appears that Intuit has taken our feedback and is making changes that will improve QuickBooks Online service. We hope to see improvements in reliability and scalability for customers, developers, and ProAdvisors using QuickBooks Online.
Making Tax Digital VAT: is it time to educate clients?
The summer has arrived (it's started raining!). Government members have retreated to Tuscan villas. School children are enjoying the longest holiday of the year. Parents battle to juggle work and keep their little ones entertained.
Amid the extraordinary political, social and economic events of the past few months, accountancy professionals are debating the next step in the Making Tax Digital (MTD) debate. And it seems there is still much to do.
Research from the Chambers of Commerce claimed 24 per cent of firms had never heard of MTD, which comes into effect next April for VAT. Extrapolate this percentage against the 2.6 million businesses MTD will affect, it’s akin to the population of Bristol having never heard of MTD.
Absolutely confident of hitting deadline
HMRC's Oliver Fisher, deputy director of Making Tax Digital (Business) strategic design and policy, is “absolutely confident of hitting the April 2019 deadline” for VAT, despite the delay announced last year.
Brexit continues to add economic uncertainty as businesses are less optimistic and ‘running out of patience’ according to the BBC. With Westminster having ‘just’ made it to summer recess, it’s no wonder the accountancy industry is sitting tight before making any decisions.
At the coal-face
The world is much different at the industry coal-face. As with other service industries, accountancy practices are looking at ways of automating practices and developing added-value consultancy services in preparation for the digital economy, while spending time trying to engage clients before the looming MTD VAT date in just eight months’ time.
The balance of business development, and servicing clients is a task for any leader but combined with additional submissions and a lack of enthusiasm from many clients, it’s no wonder progress seems like walking through treacle.
So where does this melee of controversy leave the accountancy firm and its customers? Is it worth starting the MTD VAT journey now?
Time to plan
Regardless of the political or economic outlook, businesses are, and will, continue to trade whatever the outcome. Much as there is a propensity to wait, delaying client education and helping them implement the right tools will only cause widespread client upheaval in the coming months.
Think about the typical practice calendar for a moment. In July, there was the P11D and Tax Credit deadlines to work on. The schools broke up and holidays got under way, so staff levels started to fall. This pattern will continue throughout August. September will bring corporation tax submissions, which consumes time. Suddenly, it’s October and there is only six months to the MTD VAT go-live date.
However, with a little strategic thinking, it is possible to manage day-to-day business and client journeys as we move to a digital economy. There are four steps to ensuring clients are ready for MTD VAT; analysing the client base, educating clients, consulting on bookkeeping tools and training.
The MTD VAT journey
Let’s look at a fictional example: a practice has 500 clients and VAT returns are needed for half of this client base. The next step is to look at the quarterly VAT end dates and the way the practice (or client) submits VAT returns. This data mining process is completed by those not on holiday in the next few months. By the end of the summer, the practice has identified 250 clients to be educated and trained.
Back from the holiday season and the practice now has the intelligence to educate clients on the changes to MTD VAT. If these conversations are split between two people, there are just over three client calls to make each working day over two months. Of course, these calls are not a two-minute job, but there is another opportunity when calling clients: relationships are built, and practices may find there is an opportunity for additional advice or services.
IRIS and making tax digital
December is traditionally the busy season for tax returns, so it’s worth considering different forms of communication to offer bookkeeping solutions. Email campaigns, hosting webinars, or organising a seminar will raise the awareness of the deadline and convey options for consideration.
By the end of the calendar year, the client base has been educated, advised and decided which software it will use.
From February 2019, the practice embarks on training clients, guiding them through the bookkeeping process and ironing out any errors before the April deadline.
The choice is how we do it
Of course, the theory is easy to read, and practices should expect challenges along the way. But as the industry progresses through this once-in-a-generation change, the opportunity to provide traditional assurance and core compliance services though integrated, efficient automated processes and workflows shouldn’t be a burden. It’s an opportunity to transform services, improve client engagement and help everyone thrive in the digital economy.
Starting the MTD VAT journey with clients now isn’t a choice. The choice is how we do it.
Can robots boost the accounting client experience?
One of the hottest topics of summer 2018, apart from the heat of course, is artificial intelligence. Wherever you look there are new takes on how AI is going to affect business and it can be hard to take on board some of the predictions. For instance, Gartner, the research and advisory group, reckons that by 2020, businesses will manage 85 per cent of their relationships without any human interaction!
In our conversations with accountants, AI can be too easily dismissed as not being relevant to their practices but when we explain how chatbots will work, it’s as if the lightbulb comes on and they can start to visualise the benefits.
Imagine having a new staff member who never takes a day off for illness, never needs a holiday and will never hand in their notice. Immediately, faces light up. Communicating with chatbots works exactly as if you were messaging a friend and the technology is there for chatbots to evolve and become intelligent virtual assistants that can perform a useful role within today’s accountancy practices.
Deep learning technologies
Over the past year, we have been working with Amazon Lex, which offers developers the same deep learning technologies that power Amazon Alexa. It is allowing us to build sophisticated, natural language, conversational bots to work with our apps. This is an exciting opportunity, we believe, for practices to generate big cost savings by automating some tasks that have, until now, required a member of staff.
The appeal of AI is not restricted to cost reduction. There are other real benefits including improving the client experience and eliminating the Google threat. We have long talked about the Google effect and how this poses a real threat to accountants as clients can find it quicker and easier to Google a question that they could ask their accountant if they were available 24 hours a day.
AI has the potential to change this and for accountants to offer a 24-hour, 365-days-a-year service that is manned by virtual assistants that can run help desks and help with scheduling appointments and other administrative tasks.
This frees up the time of administrative staff, so they can focus on higher value-add services and may help employees warm to their chatbot colleague.
Natural synergy for AI
While we do not agree that Chatbots are the new apps, as Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella said earlier this year, we do see them working closely with apps and providing interaction with tasks performed within the app and such as with calculators.
We see a natural synergy for AI within the practice environment following a careful analysis of its needs, the potential uses for AI technologies and their business value.
And, in the alpha launch of our own Virtual Assistant, basic voice and text conversations will help to deliver a heightened client experience.
Over time, this will be enhanced to become even more intelligent and to deliver better interaction with clients.
Conversational commerce
As we enter an age of conversational commerce, AI techniques will be used to improve client interactions, eliminate wait times and provide greater in-depth expertise. All of which will help boost client retention and differentiate the practice.
It may well be, that further in the future, there will be a dedicated chatbot tailored for each client, making them far more personalised as the intelligent systems driving them know all about the person they are helping.
They know their language, the services they require and their preferences and used in the right way, can help to make clients relationships truly ‘sticky’.
Investment priority
The move to AI technologies has been brisk, as demonstrated by the fact that in 2016, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ did not even appear in the top 100 search terms on gartner.com. By May 2017, the term ranked at No. 7 and Gartner predicts that by 2020, AI will be a top five investment priority for more than 30 per cent of CIOs.
The level of automation that AI can bring to a practice will undoubtedly drive great efficiencies and present accountants with opportunities to add value to clients.
The pace of technological change can be daunting, but the key is to remain open to new introductions that have been carefully developed by those working with the profession and to evaluate their ability to strengthen firms while at the same time helping to make cost reductions and improve efficiency.
MyFirmsApp provides a compliant solution for accountants, to help overcome these challenges whilst putting them at the heart of their clients’ mobile lives.
What do Accountex visitors think about the show?
Welcome to the last Daily Insight for this week. I'm off on a long weekend break. But fear not, I'll be back on Monday. Today I'm devoting Accounting Insight News's regular update to some of the 7,000-plus visitors at Accountex 2018 at ExCeL in London last week.
Accountant Nicola Donnelly, a first-time visitor to Accountex and Accountex Summit North, kindly agreed to write a short blog for us about her experiences of both shows. So, first up, here's Nicola:
I’m Nicola from MEND Accounting, based in Liverpool. My practice was created to help small sole traders and limited companies have an out sourced bookkeeper, and accountant. I love the bookkeeping side of accountancy, and creating financial statements for year end. However, for my larger clients, I do the bookkeeping and work closely with their chartered accountant to help them prepare for audit.
In my free time, I take part in running a Facebook group to support new bookkeepers and accountants in starting their own business called Accounting & Bookkeeping support (AAT, ICB students and qualified).
Such a buzz in the room
I’d never attended Accountex before, but when I heard about the North Summit, I thought this was an opportunity for me to go along and see what it was all about. There was such a buzz in the room, I got to meet some of my accountancy heroes like Elaine Clark from cheapaccounting Ltd who ran a Women in Accounting roundtable, and Amanda C. Watts who focused on marketing for accountancy practices. I was also introduced to Zoe Lacey-Cooper he director of Accountex. I love the way she has projected the image of a strong independent women in a male dominated industry.
I decided then there that I had to attend the London event. I'd been told it was double the size and over two days... so I booked it.
I have to say, it was an amazing experience, 260 speakers over two days, including Mark Lee, Mark Wickersham, Amanda C. Watts, Elaine Clark, John Whelan, Brad Burton, not to mention the software providers' stands.
A brilliant addition to an amazing day
Being a sole practitioner, I learn mostly by reading articles online. So how impressed was I by being able to speak to multiple software providers and their customers at Accountex, Seriously, if you didn’t visit this year you really are missing out! I couldn’t wait to sign up for some of the software when I got home. I have dates in my diary all week for calls with different suppliers.
The Accountex #myfirmsapp was amazing, I was able to plan my seminars in advance getting a text alert to remind me where I needed to be next. This was a brilliant addition to an amazing day. It's so easy to get side-tracked when chatting to the exhibitors (and eating the sweets/ goodies).
I still can’t believe I got all this CPD, access to speak to all these software providers, and the opportunity network with hundreds of accountants and bookkeepers at many different stages in their journey. Not to mention the huge motivation and inspiration ... and the books…. so many free books. All for free!
Ill definitely be at the next Accountex,... my only issue will be how I can split my self in 10 so I see all the speakers!
Here's what a few more of Accountex visitors had to say:
"I thought the show was excellent and full of resourceful information for business both for accountants and those who have to do accounting themselves."
Bharti Parmar Ms, tutor, Cubic Zirconium Foundation.
"In an age of bloated inboxes and an overwhelming information stream through social media channels, Accountex is a truly efficient way to collect information and chat to relevant people in the business of accounting."
Markus Mantere, business developer and sales guy, Arkimera Robotics AB.
"I visited Accountex 2017 for one day and ran out of time. I spent two days at Accountex 2018 and still ran out of time, but made some excellent connections and look forward to doing the same in 2019 as well as visiting the Accountex Summit North to see what that has for visitors."
Steve Darnell, director, Enquir3.
"As a small sole practitioner I found it useful to have discussions with software providers. Also, the seminars provided many useful viewpoints in these rapidly changing times.
John Hollow, director, Leddra Perry & Co.
"Essential for all Accountants in practice... not to be missed!"
Andy Downs, accountant, Independent Taxation and Web Services.
"Anyone who is somebody or wished to remain relevant in tax and accounting always attends Accountex!"
Olusegun Kazim, managing director, Certax Accounting, Basingstoke and Newbury.
"Thank you to Accountex organisers. Job well done."
Bhupen Mehta, director, R B ACCOUNTANCY SERVICES
"Accountex is an unmissable opportunity to see so much innovation and creativity in the accountancy profession."
Aleem Islan, technical consultation manager, Association of Accounting Technicians
"Accountex is a must for every accountant who is forward-looking and willing to make a genuine improvement to his/her practice operations."
Godwin Falade, managing consultant, Godwin Falade & Co.
"The round tables were interactive, insightful and incredibly relevant to everyone. It utilised accountants soft skills in a way no other seminar did. I found these sessions invaluable."
Ceyrilia Francis-Kirton, financial controller, Pentagram Design.
"It was my first time at this event, I was looking for new accounting software and this was an ideal place to talk with various software providers to see what was on offer. I was able to tell the providers what i was looking for in the software as an end user and some of the providers said it was something they hadn't thought about and would include it in the development! It’s an excellent event not only to get the latest information and insight, but also to provide feedback to suppliers."
Abbas Shah, partner, Hallam Jones
"Great day out at Accountex. This was our first visit and it was a great way to meet lots of suppliers under one roof. We found several pieces of software we will be purchasing and also using some of the exhibitors as service suppliers."
Karen Healy, Managing Director, Just Payroll Services.
Well, there you have it.... see you next week.