In the latest episode of Inside Accountancy, we spoke to Anna Bradshaw, member of the Law Society’s EU Committee, and Amanda Boag, senior vice president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, alongside Wilkinson to reflect on 100 years of women in accountancy, law and veterinary science.

Women were permitted to practice in the three professions as part of the reforms made in the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. Just over 100 years on, how have the professions changed, what still needs to improve and how has progress differed between the professions?

In this podcast we discuss:

In this episode of Inside Accountancy, we spoke about this topic with Jamie Costello, the co-founder of HR, payroll and pensions software provider Paycircle.

With a background in corporation tax and experience from his time at Microsoft Research, Costello has seen the growth of the cloud both inside and outside of the accounting industry.

“What we’re really talking about when we’re talking about the cloud is, we’re talking about large data warehouses, hosted by people like Amazon or Microsoft or Google, who maintain vast server farms,” Costello explained.

“When people talk about going to the cloud, really that’s like saying, ‘I’m going to the shops,’ and you really want to know what you’re going to buy, so just ‘going to the shops’ isn’t going to get you a nice jacket.”

Costello also explained that the data security benefits of the cloud are plentiful, but accountants need to vet service providers on their specific security standards.

“What you really want to be doing is asking your supplier how they set up their security, because if they’re done it properly, there is almost no chance of the information being lost.

“Let’s imagine, worst case scenario, somebody does get a hold of one of the accountancy workers’ credentials. So this is an example of the way the cloud has extra features, which people—when they talk about the cloud—don’t really realise that what you’re doing is using not only their storage and computing power, but also leveraging their software.”

In this episode, we also discuss:

Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | RSS

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

In our latest podcast, Neil Walker, Principle Consultant at AJ Chambers speaks to Lee Holloway, Partner and head of the Tax Risk Management team at Grant Thornton, about his career progression that saw him leave and return to practice.

Lee spent 10 years at KPMG but left to get gain industry experience, working in-house for Halfords and Next in his time away from practice.

He explains how it has become more common for accountants to leave practice to work in industry to gain more experience, before returning to practice again, and how that experience in industry is incredibly valuable on return.

Lee compares his experiences in both practice and industry, explains the differences between the two, and shares some of the challenges he faced when returning to practice.

To listen to the full podcast, either use the player provided on this page, download the media file, or follow us on one of our podcast channels on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google and more.

Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | RSS

The proposed changes to IR35 have caused no shortage of headaches for accountants, freelancers and contractors alike. Fell lays the blame squarely at the door of HMRC.

“They have tried for years to go after the individual contractors and they have failed… So, they have now chosen the corporations and the payroll departments within the corporations to be responsible for the determination,” he said .

“The hundreds of people I’ve spoken to – particularly within the payroll departments – are scared. And what HMRC have done is instilled a fear culture in the corporations.”

Despite being the founder of a top 70 accountancy firm, Fell is not an accountant but an entrepreneur. Freelancing was often how he managed to stay afloat in the early days of making his first business.

In this podcast Fell highlights a number of the problems he has identified with the changes to IR35.

We also discuss:

It’s a much talked about fact that the role of accountants is evolving, with much more emphasis on client relationships and a rise in advisory and guidance work complementing the more ‘traditional’ compliance work.

But what does this really mean for accountancy professionals and how can this shifting focus actually be embraced?

Very well placed to discuss this evolution with us on our latest Inside Accountancy Podcast is Natasha Frangos, Partner at haysmacintyre and member of the firm’s Management Board.

Frangos trained and qualified with haysmacintyre and has been a partner since 2009, and now heads up its Creative, Media and Technology team. Her clients include design, fashion, retail, media agency, e-commerce and technology businesses, and she often acts for the individuals behind these businesses as well.

Natasha will often act for a company from its early stages, through to growth and expansion, during a transaction and remain involved in the company beyond that event. She prides herself on developing long lasting client relationships, often acting as a sounding board for her clients across a range of commercial and financial issues, delivering a personal and high value service in the process.

In this podcast we discuss:

Listen and subscribe to our podcasts on Blubrry, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Blubrry  |  Spotify  |  Apple podcasts  |  Google Podcasts

In the latest episode of our Inside Accountancy podcast, Accountancy Age’s Austin Clark talks to Chris Clay, co-founder and managing director of award-winning dispute resolution firm Escalate Disputes, about corporate debts, dispute resolution and the potential for accountancy firms to add another service offering to their portfolios.

The debate around bad debt versus disputed debt is a big one. In excess of £40 billion of unpaid debt is currently written off because businesses don’t have access to a cost-effective solution to resolve their commercial disputes, or don’t know where to turn for help.

In response to this, Clay, who is also a partner at PKF Littlejohn and has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector, set up Escalate to provide a smarter way to resolve SME disputes by focusing on a quick settlement, removing upfront costs and minimising risk.

Importantly, this also enables accountants to build fee income in this area by challenging historic ways of raising disputes and collecting cash.

In addition to the topics listed above, this podcast discusses:

Listen and subscribe to our podcasts on Blubrry, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Blubrry  |  Spotify  |  Apple podcasts  |  Google Podcasts

In the latest episode of our Inside Accountancy podcast, Accountancy Age’s Editor Austin Clark talks to Caroline Plumb OBE, founder and CEO of Fluidly, about the rise and rise of automation and digitisation across the sector.

Plumb is well placed to talk about this topic having developed the AI-powered cash flow management solution after experiencing first-hand the pain of managing cashflow in a scaling business. A serial entrepreneur, Plumb was also one of the Prime Minister’s Business Ambassadors, representing the Professional Services sector.

In this podcast, we discuss what’s driving tech-led change and how the sector can embrace digital solutions, covering off why solutions are like cheesecake and how we need to think about superpowers!

Other points discussed include:

Listen and subscribe to our podcasts on Blubrry, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Blubrry  |  Spotify  |  Apple podcasts  |  Google Podcasts

Download link

Despite the financial crash of 2008 now being more than a decade ago, a lack of willingness among big banks to finance SMEs remains. This has compounded recently in the face of Brexit, the threat of recession and further economic uncertainty. In that time, however, the number of alternative funding options available to SMEs have increased

Would-be entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to fill this market gap that has been left open by this reluctance to lend from big banks.

Ollie Maitland, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Capitalise, is one such entrepreneur. Founded in 2016, Capitalise is a platform that matches accountants and their clients to sources of alternative finance.

Identifying the opportunity, and enabled in no small part by technology, hundreds of businesses offering various forms of finance grew out of the ashes of the financial crash. As a result, the alternative finance market has flourished into a thriving industry.

But there is still a lack of awareness among accountants, business owners and financial decision-makers around the finance options that are available, and staying on top of the market is a time-consuming job. Capitalise is looking to address this problem by assisting these groups, and connecting them to these sources.

As many accountants see their roles shift from compliance to advisory, the ability to assist SMEs with finding and securing finance is an opportunity to add value to a practice.

Speaking in the latest episode of Inside Accountancy, Ollie discusses Alternative Finance, what accountants need to know about it, the biggest challenges faced by accountants when sourcing finance, and what advise he would give to accountants who have been given the task of finding finance for their clients.

Accountancy Age also spoke to Ollie in November, where he discussed how accountants can add value to their practice by offering an alternative finance service. Read the full story here to learn more about the topic.

Listen and subscribe to our podcasts on Blubrry, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Blubrry  |  Spotify  |  Apple podcasts  |  Google Podcasts

In the latest episode of Inside Accountancy, Andy Dancer, CTO of Tax Systems, talks to Accountancy Age reporter, Tom Lemmon about what to expect as Making Tax Digital (MTD) moves into its next phase.

MTD for VAT is surely just the first step in the digitalisation of the UK tax regime as demands for increased tax transparency increase. From next year digital links will be mandatory, requiring data collection to be automated and following the successful implementation of MTD for VAT, MTD for income tax and MTD for corporation tax are set to follow.

In the podcast we discuss:

Listen and subscribe to our podcasts on Blubrry, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Blubrry  |  Spotify  |  Apple podcasts  |  Google Podcasts