Contributors

How can we reduce theheadaches?

Angela Partington Editor, IA

I hope you have all been enjoying the summer so far. Though it must be said that what we all hope will be a time for some rest and relaxation has been interrupted by an unprecedented heat wave, a hugely disturbing cost of living crisis, an imminent drought and yet another battle to see who will become our next prime minister.

Perhaps one frustrating thing that all of these issues have in common, though, is that we can do precisely nothing about any of them (unless you are one of the 200,000 Conservative party members being wooed by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak). It may therefore be more useful to spend some time considering the things which are within our control and take stock of some of the issues affecting our businesses.

There has been a good deal of change recently, including the introduction of Making Tax Digital, and Jim Scott believes that this is the time to ‘embrace, conquer and manage change’ (see page 18). As legislation is being rolled out and new tax reporting methods and requirements are introduced, accountants need to prepare for the inevitable. Yet at the end of 2021, 80% of accounting practices admitted to not having regular conversations with their clients about how best to implement these changes. Jim shares some valuable tips on the best way to deal with changes, and how to take a realistic approach.

We are now four years into the evolution of Open Banking, and this is a good time to look into how it is impacting accountancy firms and their clients. Rich Sutton and Nick Levine write about a survey of over 200 accounting firms undertaken by iwoca (see page 16). Nearly half of accountancy firms (46%) are now regularly using one or many Open Banking solutions, but around a third are not. There is, unsurprisingly, a very strong correlation between whether or not accountancy practices are adopting this technology, and whether or not their clients do too. Trust issues and a lack of understanding play a much bigger role in any hesitancy than concerns about security, so accountants may need to play a bigger role in raising awareness.

Theo Theodoulou takes a look at how to conduct group audits across multi-jurisdictions, which require detailed planning with structured risk assessment across the group (see page 20). And Thomas Taylor makes some suggestions for how to reduce the administrative burdens of arranging and carrying out meetings of shareholders or directors (see page 24).

There are many ways in which we can reduce some of the potential headaches we all face. They all start by taking some time from our daily activities to review and reflect. And somehow these things always seem easier in the summer!

Contributors to this issue

STEVE COLLINGS

Steve Collings, FMAAT FCCA is the audit and technical partner at Leavitt Walmsley Associates Ltd, where he trained and qualified. In 2010, he became an ACCA Fellow.

NICK LEVINE

Nick Levine is a chartered accountant and journalist, with a particular interest in fintech. He was formerly the Head of Enterprise for ICAEW.

JIM SCOTT

Jim Scott is Managing Director for Accountancy at IRIS Software Group. He leads the accountancy offering, and focuses on accountancy, education and human capital management.

RICH SUTTON

Rich Sutton is Head of Accountant Relationships at small business lender iwoca, using technology to tackle the cost and complexity of traditional business finance.

THOMAS TAYLOR

Thomas advises Net Lawman on issues from accounting to business strategy. He started work at BDO Stoy Hayward before moving into private equity fund management.

THEO C THEODOULOU

Theo Theodoulou is the Chairman of the Kreston Global Audit Group, and Director of Audit and Assurance, Kreston ITH. He is based in Cyprus.