Last week Nicholsons Managing Partner, Richard Hallsworth attended two National Conferences focused on the future of the accountancy profession.
After he returned Richard sat down and shared his thoughts which you can read below.
Autumn Conference Roundup
I’ve learnt that it’s really important to take time out to attend national conferences and events with key industry organisations.
In addition to taking in great content and news and views on big issues in the accounting sector it’s also an opportunity to meet suppliers and get new ideas. More important is the opportunity to spend time outside of the office with the team in a more social and relaxed atmosphere.
My takeaways from the 2020 Innovation conference were all the S’s!
Systems, the importance of building and documenting robust systems and processes to create efficiencies and more capacity for work.
Succession, how it’s important to have a written succession plan that addresses; fee earning, management and ownership.
Smarter working, how a change of mindset around working practices, a different mindset and joined up thinking around wellbeing and employee engagement and productivity can help achieve a more flexible and productive workplace.
There was also a session on AI but I remain nervous and unsure of the benefits. I’m happy with where we are now using generative AI for non client work and will be ready to adopt quickly when new tools come to market.
Missing from the conversation was Sustainability maybe a sign of that issue slipping down the agenda. Whilst this isn’t a priority it is important and something we need to be constantly working on.
Looking forward to the 2025 edition.
My takeaways from the Xero refresh event
There are some really exciting new features in Xero. Ignore the hype about the new AI companion JAX, two new features stood out.
Xero Tap, This is the ability to take card payments using a mobile device directly through Xero. It’s matched to an invoice and ready to reconcile meaning it’s not only a convenient method of accepting payments but time saving too.
Xero Payments, This feature uses open banking to make payments or instruct your bank to make payments from within Xero. Multi Factor Authentication is required through a banking app but once made the payments are matched ready for reconciliation and remittances sent.
Returning to JAX (or Just Ask Xero) this will become a really great addition to core functionality when it’s fully built out but I don’t think it’s really there yet. Again, I was left a little underwhelmed regarding AI. Clearly Xero are well on with AI development but they are still behind my expectations. I want real time saving, intelligent, seriously impressive solutions!
On talent there was an interesting segment on how trainees will expect firms to be technologically savvy and will be unforgiving if they are not favouring advisory work from sorting paper receipts. Interesting in that I thought the days of paper receipts were well and truly over.
The Xero team demonstrated the new Partnership Tax functionality which looked good but I was less than blown away by the development of XPM, Xeros’ Practice Management app. The “insights” functionality was really quite basic and a bit disappointing. I think Xero are being left behind in this area and hope to see some big developments over the next 12 months.