Accountex 2018: What you missed

What are the main talking points in the finance industry?

Accountex is the UK’s no.1 exhibition and conference dedicated to the Accountancy and Finance Profession.

This year’s event gave 7,000+ accountancy professionals the unique opportunity to discover new products from over 200 exhibitors, hear keynotes from leading industry names and network with a who’s who of the industry.

In the article, we reflect on the key talking points from this year’s event.

Making Tax Digital

New legislation is coming to effect next year, designed to make tax easier and more efficient to manage, namely Making Tax Digital.

The new legislation will move tax reporting from a once-a-year, paper-based process (where mistakes are easy to make) to an ongoing, digital one. This will change the role of accountants and bookkeepers. Those we spoke to had mixed feelings about whether it will make life easier or more difficult for them.

It therefore remains to be seen whether the changes will help in “Making Tax Delightful”, as one sponsor of Accountex put it.

GDPR

Predictably, the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was also a hot topic.

Despite the 25th of May compliance deadline falling the day after Accountex concluded, it was clear that many accountants, bookkeepers and SMEs were still uncertain of their strategy, meaning you might expect some more “opt in” emails in the coming days and weeks!

However, many at the event also felt that there was unnecessary panic around GDPR in the industry, as many of the regulation changes are “common sense” and ultimately encourage good practice. Many visitors and exhibitors we spoke to saw it as an opportunity to get closer to their clients.

We recently published a blog post on how GDPR affects finance teams. You can read this here.

Ever-improving technology

Every year, it seems that technology offers more opportunities for accountants, bookkeepers and SMEs to make their practices more effective and efficient. This year’s show was no different.

The cloud, especially, is a catalyst of “Digital Transformation” across the industry. It doesn’t just offer the ability to work away from the office and across a variety of devices. It reduces the need to rely on paper for finance processes, be more transparent and allows transactions to happen much quicker than ever before.

Accountex brought together a range of impressive cloud-based providers, from expense management to payroll and HR to tax.

Why was Equisys there?

In addition to meeting with current customers, prospective clients and partners, Equisys exhibited at Accountex to demonstrate Zetadocs Expenses: our cloud-based expense management solution.

If you have employees who submit expenses and currently rely on a receipts-and-spreadsheet process, why not book a demo of Zetadocs Expenses now?

Summary

Accountex 2018 was a highly successful event, offering companies such as ourselves the opportunity to receive direct feedback on the industry’s hottest topics from a range of professionals.

What is clear, is that the industry is moving forward in the digital age and that the pace of change is fast currently. This has been brought about by a combination of legislation, technology and desire for better working practices.

We are already looking forward seeing what Accountex 2019 brings!