12pm to 1pm GMT – Ian Fletcher

Objectives

2022 saw us emerge from the pandemic, the start of the war in Ukraine, spiralling inflation, an energy crisis and general supply chain shortages. In addition, our industry is disrupted by technology and AI threatens the existence of some of our services. So, what should accountancy firms do to take advantage of this disruption? In this webinar we will outline strategies for success and illustrate them with examples of firms who are leading the way.

Key Topics

• Industry overview;
• Setting a strategy for success;
• Winning formulas to embrace technology:
• Educating clients on your range of services;
• Winning new and exciting clients.

Who Should Attend

Partners and managers who are looking to stay ahead of the competition by increasing revenue and improving efficiency.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm GMT – Gordon Gilchrist

Objectives

A number of firms have recognised the benefit of acquiring firms to reach a critical mass that facilitates an enhanced client proposition and also to become more attractive to team members. This webinar will discuss the benefits of organic growth versus acquisition growth.

Key Topics

• How to go about targeting potential firms to acquire
• The process of approaching potential targets
• How to gather information
• How firms are strategising the strengths of potential targets versus the weaknesses of your own firm
• Negotiating acquisition terms

Who Should Attend

Managing partners and partners who are looking to expand their businesses through acquisition.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm GMT – Ian Fletcher

Objectives

No one could have predicted how the last three years have panned out, and as we learn to live with a stormy economy now is the time to focus on positioning your firm in the high value sector. Specifically we will examine how successful firms have moved ahead of the curve and what they do differently to the rest.

Key Topics

• How should we adopt our services and systems to meet the new challenges we face?
• What should we be doing to help businesses become more resilient and able to prosper?
• Most importantly, how do we stay relevant to our clients and prospects?

Who Should Attend

Partners and managers who are looking to stay ahead of the competition by increasing revenue and improving efficiency.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm BST – Gordon Gilchrist

Objectives

Winning the Talent War and/or the post-Pandemic hiring race will give or our firm a significant competitive advantage. Times are changing and the way we deal with these changes will define our future – recruitment is a great example of this. Issues such as flexibility, remote working, diversity, inclusion, & embracing tech to make people’s life easier, all affect the outcome of our hiring success.

Key Topics

• 7 Factors that influence your future team members decision & what to do to address them
• 7 ideas to implement helping people with their well being
• 7 practical ways to work better with the team
• 7 tried and tested things to do to “free up people’s time”

Who Should Attend

Managing partners and partners.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm BST – Ian Stanlake

Objectives

Understand the opportunities offered by the green agenda for accountants.

Key Topics

• What is the “green agenda”
• Benefits of strong environmental credentials:
  • Climate concerns
  • Cost savings
  • Staff retention and motivation
  • Competitive advantage
  • Revenue opportunities – new service lines
• The E in ESG
• Driving a powerful network effect
• Regulation a key driver

Who Should Attend

Managing partner, partners, practice manager, finance partner and aspirational fee earners.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm BST – Gordon Gilchrist

Objectives

The timesheet is no longer the ONLY way to determine the price of accountancy services. There is no doubt, however, that timesheets can be very helpful when a cost sensitive service needs to be priced and the use of a cost plus system such as a timesheet is perfectly acceptable. That said, for benefit driven services such as tax planning, corporate finance, business advisory, wealth management, legacy planning, retirement planning, exit routes, etc., the expertise and specialisation required, contradicts the idea of a cost plus system but more as a benefit driven value pricing model. Value pricing is the concept of agreeing a price which is determined by the value to the customer.

Key Topics

There are many ways to determine value other than the timesheet, including:

• Cost of replacement (bookkeeping and various levels of the Virtual Financial Officer)
• Amounts of money involved
• Amounts of emotion involved, both fear and greed
• The risks involved
• Competition
• The level of indispensability (e.g., tax investigation)

This webinar will set out some methodologies and ways of addressing value pricing other than through the use of the timesheet especially understanding the “Value Curve”

Who Should Attend

Marketing partners, partners, Marketing managers and co-ordinators, practice managers and aspirational fee earners.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm BST – Billie Mcloughlin

Objectives

Based on experiences with more than 1000 2020 member firms across the country, Billie will present dozens of high-impact practices and techniques employed by the nation’s most successful firms to maximize profitability. Some are preferable to others depending on your firm’s situation, but properly employed, they work.

Key Topics

• The elements that make accountancy firms profitable
• Accountancy firm benchmarking
• Growth straight to the bottom line
• Other ways to improve profitability
• Best practices that move firms from good to great
• What doesn’t seem to be important to firm profitability
• Partner relations: Happy partners are productive partners

Who Should Attend

Managing partner, partners, practice manager, and aspirational fee earners.

Recording Slides

Objectives

To allow delegates to understand that diversity and inclusion isn’t just a “nice to have” but an essential part of driving the future success of the practice.

Key Topics

• What do we mean by Diversity and Inclusion.
• What evidence can you draw on.
• How might it impact your practice – for better or worse.
• How can you leverage Diversity and Inclusion policies and practices to drive sustainable and therefore profitable practices.

Who Should Attend

Managing partner, partners, practice manager, finance partner and aspirational fee earners. Those with responsibilities for D and I within the practice or network/association.

Recording Slides

Objectives

It may seem daunting offering additional services to your clients and sometimes hard to make it profitable. During this session we will be discussing what software you should consider to ensure you can give your clients what they need and how to price it in a scalable way.

Key Topics

• Define the role of a VFO.
• What technology should be considered and how to identify it?
• How to get buy in from the team

Who Should Attend

Managing partner, partners, practice manager, finance partner and aspirational fee earners.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm BST – Gordon Gilchrist

Objectives

Taking on new clients, the sort of clients you are looking for, brings a number of benefits.

• You and your colleagues enjoy working for better clients
• Team retention is higher
• You can afford to let some clients go that are “holding you and your colleagues back”
• Its much more rewarding for everybody
• It’s a more profitable path
• The firm becomes more attractive to potential
  1. team members
  2. clients
  3. investors

Key Topics

• What is your ideal client
• Building a list of ideal clients – understanding their “persona”
• How to leverage your client base for client referrals
• Making your firm attractive to your target audience
• Converting leads into clients

Who Should Attend

Managing partners, partners and marketeers, who are looking for better clients.

Recording Slides

Objectives

Succession planning is the key to accountancy firms practice management. The simultaneous impact of aging baby boomer partners, a never-ending shortage of talent with partner potential, and a tendency for accountancy firms’ management to perpetually relegate succession planning to the back burner culminates into a potential nightmare! Gordon fears succession planning as the #1 endemic issue facing accountancy firms today. This webinar will provide a roadmap for creating and implementing a succession plan.

Key Topics

• Challenges for older and younger partners
• Doing the maths
• Assessment of existing staff
• Leadership development
• MP transition
• Governance structure
• Client transition best practices
• Partner buyout/buy-in plans
• Deciding on the preferred exit strategy
• Preparing for a sale/merger

Who Should Attend

Managing partner, partners, practice manager, and aspirational fee earners.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm GMT – Sharon Critchlow

Objectives

To understand the impact of stress on our ability to perform well at work and to enjoy our lives. To recognise the different ways that stress manifests in ourselves and those around us To be able to create a balanced wellbeing plan using the four elements of wellbeing.

Key Topics

• The impact of stress on performance
• Recognition and understanding of anxiety
• Creating a balanced wellbeing plan for yourself and your team

Who Should Attend

Anyone who wants the tools to counter the effects of stress and pressure. Particularly useful to those who manage others and want to take a rounded approach to the team’s wellbeing.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm GMT – Gordon Gilchrist

Objectives

Marketing has defined as “Satisfying an unsatisfied customer uniquely well” – whilst possibly a bit harsh, the point is well made – do we know:

• What our clients REALLY want from their accountant? and
• Do we deliver in such a way that they find most satisfactory?

Do we KNOW the answer to these 2 questions? Many firms will have partners who think they know on the basis that they are close to their clients. 2020’s research through 000’s of client interviews over nearly 30 years confirm most partners and fee earners cannot answer these 4 simple questions;

• What do most of clients care about when dealing with their accountant most of the time?
• How do we (as their accountants) stack up on those important issues?
• Have they SERIOUSLY considered changing their accountant in the last 12 months?
• What other services would they be interested in buying from their accountant?

If we KNEW the answers to these questions and our marketing plan reflected these answers, then our marketing plan would be a very powerful document to action.

Key Topics

• Marketing Focus​
• Your “Target Market” Client proposition for 2019/20, niches​
• Team involvement & Client satisfaction​
• Networking for referrals & recommendations​
• Marketing materials that work​
• Websites​
• Manual materials (still matter to some people)​
• Marketing activities to generate quality leads​
• Structure, Resources and Measuring marketing success​

Who Should Attend

Managing partner, partners, practice manager, aspirational fee earners & marketeers.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm GMT – Jeremy Mindell

Objectives

Whilst it is impossible to be an expert in the tax provisions applying to all jurisdictions, this webinar will give a reminder of some of the areas of relevance to those with clients who have international tax aspects to their affairs. The webinar will consider current points of interest and the practical effect of any recent international changes and initiatives. In particular we will consider the impact of BEPS 2.0.

Key Topics

• The key issues when dealing with international aspects of tax
• International agreements, initiatives and coordination between tax authorities
• Recent tax cases and the impact of relevant decisions
• Transfer pricing, permanent establishments and corporate tax update
• Post Covid developments
• Useful sources of information

Who Should Attend

Managing partner, partners, practice manager, finance partner and aspirational fee earners.

Recording Slides

12pm to 1pm BST – David Potts

Objectives

This one hour webinar is designed to cover all recent developments in IFRS including key developments and commentary from the interpretations committee (IFRIC) . The session will summarise key new developments, the implementations dates for all planned changes not yet in force and also an overview of the current project plan and timetable.

Key Topics

The session will typically cover:

• All new issued IFRSs and amendments to existing IFRS• New IFRIC Interpretations• An update on the current IFRS work programme including timetable

Who Should Attend

This session should be of benefit to all accountants and auditors involved in the preparation of IFRS financial statements.

Recording Slides

Objectives 

Root cause analysis is a very useful tool when addressing deficiencies in audit quality and in 2023 its use will become mandatory under the new auditing standard, International Standard on Quality Management (UK) 1 (ISQM 1).

Key Topics

The session will look at:

• The remediation requirements of ISQM 1
• How to do a root cause analysis
• How to determine when a root cause analysis is necessary
• Documentation
• Practical examples
• The latest ICAEW guidance

Who Should Attend

All auditors who expect to be required to perform root cause analysis, as part of the firm’s system of quality monitoring and remediation.

Recording Slides

Objectives

Audit firms had a target date of 15 December 2022 to implement their ISQM-compliant System of Quality Management (SOQM). While some firms managed the transition smoothly, for others it’s been a painful process.

This webinar will share experiences of ISQM implementation and the early findings of firms, reviewers and consultants of how effectively firms’ system of quality management (SOQM) has been working. It will also consider regulators’ attitudes and likely responses to firms during 2023.

Key Topics

The session will cover:

• A refresher on the SOQM model
• Reflections on the implementation journey
• Emerging best practice for recording your SOQM
• Feedback from regulators and reviewers on ISQM compliance
• Getting ready for ISQM 2 and ISA 220

Who Should Attend

The webinar is aimed at audit partners and other staff responsible for implementing their firm’s SOQM.

Recording Slides