Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending The AAT annual conference at the NEC complex in Birmingham. As well as a chance to have some concentrated study time on various topical updates from a technical point of view it does give you the opportunity to share with your fellow professionals your experiences of what it is like to be running an accounting practice in 2016. I attended the event together with one of my senior accounts managers.
There are two distinct parts to these conferences both the study and the social and I would say equally as valuable. It is not often we take ourselves out of our everyday working environment to try to either enhance our knowledge on our chosen profession or to spend time checking what others find as best practice or what pitfalls to avoid.
I am a big fan of not recreating the wheel. If someone has accomplished something before and I can emulate this rather than making it up myself I will absolutely save that time.
The last two budgets from this government have certainly kept myself and my fellow accountants on our toes and it is our Job to support our clients who need to ensure they comply and know what the implications are of their tweeks to the UK tax system.
A great many of the conversations between us accountants were about the impending avalanche of clients who will soon be required to have their employees catered for in the auto enrolment pensions. Many practitioners even deciding to not offer this service due to the hard stance the Pensions Regulator is taking on errors and non compliance. We all agreed however the clients need to get things in place at the earliest point. If you have not discussed this with your accountant or bookkeeper yet, when would NOW be a good time for you?
The tax landscape has changed but with a little bit of care and planning, you can avoid overpaying taxes, not reviewing your strategy can be a costly mistake.
Why not take a step out of your business for an hour and have a chat about the business with your accountant or perhaps someone new and see if there are any opportunities or advantages you could be making use of to improve your business and reach your goals.