Beyond Numbers by Xero

Jo Wood knows how to be a brilliant bookkeeper and a successful business owner and has a podcast, book and runs courses to teach others to do the same.  

Jo also runs an award-winning six figure bookkeeping practice around her family and has rapidly grown her business to a team of 12 in less than two years. During this episode she explains how you can start and scale a practice, find great clients, design services that transform businesses and charge more than you think bookkeeping is worth.

For more information on Jo’s book, The Bookkeeper Rises, click here.

Beyond Numbers, hosted by Ash Gibson, is a platform for pacesetters within Xero's community to chat candidly about the issues and topics that crop up at work. It's about exploring the challenges and talking through the tips, tricks and insights together. It's not about educating accountants on how to do their job, but more on how to win at work. 

A special episode of Beyond Numbers, recorded live on stage in London during our recent Xero Talks event.

It brought together keynote speakers and industry leaders to explore the future of work in the accountancy sector and focused on one of the biggest issues facing the industry today - recruitment and retention of staff. 

Max Whiteley, Alicia Williams, Jyoti Patel and George Bruce joined Ash Gibson for the future leaders panel which covered topics including culture, the value of diversity and flexible working, learning and development through formal training on the job along with the benefits of having a side hustle. They also share their views on the role artificial intelligence will play in the accounting industry.

For more information and to rewatch the sessions from Xero Talks click here.

You can find out more about our panelists below:

Beyond Numbers, hosted by Ash Gibson, is a platform for pacesetters within Xero's community to chat candidly about the issues and topics that crop up at work. It's about exploring the challenges and talking through the tips, tricks and insights together. It's not about educating accountants on how to do their job, but more on how to win at work. 

It’s more important than ever for the business community to play a part in protecting our planet. At COP27, there was an increased call for stronger action on net zero – but it can be difficult for smaller businesses to know where to start. 

In this episode, we’re talking about sustainability in business with James Lizars, who is founder of accountancy firm Thrive, and Elliot Coad, CEO and co-founder of Ecologi whose carbon footprinting tool, Ecologi Zero, connects to Xero’s accounting software to give businesses the ability to calculate their carbon footprint and gain insights into their emissions, at no extra cost. 

Take inspiration on how the accounting industry can not only measure and improve upon their own footprint and impact, but also how they can support millions of the UK’s small businesses to do their part too. 

This podcast is hosted by Ash Gibson, brought to you by Xero and produced by Bird Lime Media.

How will artificial intelligence impact the future of accounting? And how can the tech sector be more inclusive? These are just two of the big topics explored by Xero Talks’ keynote speaker, Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon. 

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon is a prodigy in every sense of the word. At age 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level Computing, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. 

She’s had some impressive roles throughout her career in finance and tech. And is now the founder and CEO of Stemettes, an organisation dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women into STEM sectors as well as a trustee at the Institute for the Future of Work.

You can find out more about Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon here.

This podcast is hosted by Ash Gibson, brought to you by Xero and produced by Bird Lime Media.

How can you use social media more effectively to build your brand, acquire new clients and nurture existing ones? In this episode you’ll hear from one of the accounting industry’s most renowned social media stars Stuart Hurst from Accounts and Legal, along with Xero’s senior social media manager Jes Lee. They reveal the trick to getting started on TikTok and share the secrets to staying relevant.

You can find out more about Accounts and Legal here.

This podcast is hosted by Ash Gibson, brought to you by Xero and produced by Bird Lime Media.

What can you and your businesses do to better support your teams when it comes to their wellbeing? 

In this episode, Xero’s Wellbeing Lead and People Experience Business Partner, Liz Crump, along with Emily Deakin and Liz Micklem from Moore Growth Accountants share their experiences and advice when it comes to focusing on mental health and wellbeing in your business. 

Looking after and investing in wellbeing can help your people, your teams and your organisation. According to a recent study commissioned by Xero, businesses that invest more than £1000 in employee wellbeing achieved an average revenue growth of 50.3% and employee growth of 47% during the same period. 

Pamela Phillips, founder and managing director of de Jong Phillips talks about what it takes to build an award-winning firm and shares her brilliant advice on how to pull together a winning industry award application. 

De Jong Phillips won Small Firm of the Year at the 2022 Xero Awards, and Pam herself was awarded Xero’s Most Valued Professional on the same night. Pam has also won and been a judge for the Accounting Excellence awards.

De Jong Phillips are a tech-focused accountancy firm with a commercial mindset, specialising in helping agencies thrive and scale.

Andy Mackey, Transformation Director at Azets, and Kat Bond, Head of Partner Consulting and Success at Xero, share their experiences with change management and digital transformation.

From business digitalisation and government legislation, to new ways of working, the accounting industry continues to change at pace and there’s no sign of it letting up. Whether firms are faced with a small change or a major transformation, considering the fundamentals of change management and putting empathy and good communication at the heart of your strategy is key to the success of any initiative. 

Andy Mackey is Transformation Director at the UK’s largest regional accounting firm, Azets. He’s been a specialist in tech-enabled business change for over 25 years, and is currently responsible for Azets’ transformation projects, covering internal and external client facing initiatives across all areas of the business. He has a particular focus on Azets’ partnership with Xero, and the migration of clients to digital platforms.

Kat Bond is Head of Partner Consulting and Success at Xero. She has more than 10 years of experience inspiring teams to deliver exceptional results, as well as helping accountants and bookkeepers through digital transformation journeys of their own, providing her expertise in both cloud-based technology and leading successful teams.