Steve Cox: You don’t have to look far to see into the future

As the shift to digital tax reporting increases pace, do you worry about how your practice is going to adapt in the coming years? Do you feel pressurised by increasing requirements to do things differently?

At IRIS World 2018, I’ll be explaining what kind of changes you need to prepare for and how IRIS can support you as you develop your practice.

The looming April deadline for Making Tax Digital is only the beginning. Are you ready for further change?

It’s daunting at times to think of such a revolution in the way you will have to work and how digital technology places rising demands on you to transform your client experience.

But it doesn’t have to be. During my presentation, I’ll be detailing how IRIS is bringing the future to you today. We already have solutions to fit the evolving needs of accountants.

I’ll explore the likely trends that are going to affect you and your accountancy business – and how you can not only adapt but thrive.

I’ve been doing a lot of work in this area with a variety of IRIS partners, government and faculties, as I expand upon the research carried out last year. It’s given me a great insight into where the UK is likely heading – and what can be achieved.

I’ve been delivering a consistent message to accountants in recent talks: technology negligence is a fast track to becoming irrelevant, you must keep ahead of the technology changes, so you can lead the way with your clients.

I’ll be explaining this in more depth at IRIS World.

Furthermore, I’ll be continuing the conversation I began at last year’s event when I talked about how accountancy is evolving faster than ever. I’ll explore how the role of the accountant has continued in the last year to move towards a more customer focused service, with more emphasis on business advice and less on traditional compliance. I’ll be looking at how some of the other trends, such as blockchain, self-service and clients’ growing preference to interact with their accountant via their smartphone, have continued to develop. IRIS already has solutions and is developing even more, which I’ll explain more about.

One of the really important subjects I want to tell you more about is AI – and in particular the exciting plans IRIS has in this field. This is an example of some of the tech that we think of as being the future is already here. By attending IRIS World, you’ll understand how it will transform your lives as accountants but not, as some fear, by replacing you. In fact, it will serve to augment what you do.

We’ll have special guests on stage and other great expert speakers, such as Lee Hawksworth – HMRC’s top man for software engagement.

I’d love to see you all there. So, please do sign up for your free ticket and don’t forget, you’ll earn 8 hours of CPD for coming.