AccountingWEB

No Accounting for Taste ep216: P&L filing from proposal to final form by AccountingWEBUK

Matthew Ord opens the podcast with good news for anyone still working on their Accounting Excellence entry: the deadline has been extended to 3 June. So if you haven’t quite finished your entry or wished you’d have started one, now is the time to get it done. Tom Herbert shares news that Bokio, a cloud accounting system, is pulling the plug on its UK operations on 30 June 2026. He explains what has happened, what it means for users and whether it could be a warning sign for the latest wave of artificial intelligence (AI) products entering the accounting software market. To close, Ord asks whether finance leaders can still be effective if they are not tech-savvy. He and Herbert discuss how technology has become part of the finance leader’s day-to-day role, and whether finance professionals now need to think more like tech leaders rather than accountants.

Speaking to AccountingWEB technology editor Tom Herbert at Sage Future, Sage’s annual user conference in San Francisco, chief executive Steve Hare argued that artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in accounting will depend less on flashy generative features and more on whether finance teams can inspect, verify and trust the outputs. Hare also addressed the wider market anxiety caused by large AI platforms such as Anthropic and Perplexity moving further into professional services software, how AI could affect software pricing in the future, and Sage’s move to take its popular desktop tool Sage 50 to the cloud. For full show notes visit: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/sage-ceo-accountants-wont-trust-black-box-ai

In this special episode, Sam Gooding, Nikki Adams and James Bennett - all of whom are speaking at the Finance, Accounting and Bookkeeping Show (FAB) - discuss some of the lessons learned on their growth journeys.

Tom Herbert opens the podcast by looking at accounting firm consolidators and the difficulty of integrating acquired practices. Following news that the sale of Xeinadin has collapsed after its private equity owners failed to land a £1bn-plus price tag, he explores Xeinadin’s background and the challenges of knitting together different tech stacks, workflows and data. Drawing on his conversation with M&A specialist David Boyd, he asks whether AI can genuinely speed up this change or whether old mistakes are being repeated. In other news, it was announced that the timeline for small companies and micro entities to file their profit and loss (P&L) accounts with Companies House has been paused following stakeholder concerns. Richard Hattersley outlines what happened and whether this was expected. He reveals that many have welcomed the delay with 2027 already shaping up to be a busy year. And lastly, Matthew Ord shares his chat with Bob Horgan, FD at Central Technology who believes there’s a push towards AI and automation to cut costs and free finance for more strategic work. The team questions whether these organisations have the culture, data quality and system fit to turn that promise into real value.

At the end of last year, Matthew Ord may or may not have made a glowing prediction about the positive direction audit reform will take in 2026… Anyway, this week he discusses the Audit Reform Bill being scrapped, almost eight years since Carillion entered compulsory liquidation. The team unpacks the reasons behind the decision, what it means for firms and whether there’s still a will for change. Found on Any Answers, Tom Herbert shares an issue with payroll software underpaying pension contributions for women on maternity leave. He covers what’s happening, the attention it’s getting, the scale of the problem, who’s responsible and how it can be fixed. Richard Hattersley also shares conversations he’s had with firms accepting consolidation offers because they’re unsure the opportunity will still be there in five years. He questions, have we hit the peak in the M&A market? The team reflects on valuations, market activity, regulatory changes and whether large private equity firms may shift their focus from small practices to larger targets.

January means one thing for accountants: self assessment season. Richard Hattersley opens the podcast with the latest filing statistics. He compares these to the figures from previous years and reveals the statistics from the festive period. Every year, AccountingWEB checks in with the community and Hattersley highlights a few member responses. The team then explores what’s changed with the rise of artificial intelligence to how Making Tax Digital might change future Januarys. ACCA has revealed that it can no longer police online exams due to AI-fuelled cheating and, as a result, is going back to in-person exams from March this year. Tom Herbert walks us through what happened, how students were cheating, the reaction that followed and whether it was the right move. The Carillion saga continues with the FCA imposing fines on two former FDs. The team provides a refresh of the Carillion story and Matthew Ord explains the latest development of the penalties that have officially been given to Richard Adam and Zafar Khan.

As the dust settles on the accounting tech landscape for another year, guests Billie Mcloughlin and John Toon join AccountingWEB technology editor Tom Herbert to discuss the impact of AI, run the rule over the major players in the profession, and analyse the upcoming introduction of Making Tax Digital and e-invoicing. For show notes and full details of all the stories discussed, visit: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/content/accounting-technology-year-in-review-2025-ai-apis-and-mtd