• We heard from Sara Houchen, who is Forensic Investigations Officer at SRA
• We were still awaiting the results of the LSB review into the Axiom Ince collapse and we have now all had time to read and digest that, and the SRA consultation that followed
• Sara talked us through the most common themes on qualified Accountants Reports. Residual balances top the list of course but the SRA is keen on understanding the controls in place to deal with them. That is, existence isn’t the end of the world, but a poor control environment is, and that applies to other potential breaches – not just residual balances.
• The SRA feels that Accountants Reports are ‘incredibly important’ and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon, but we all have a responsibility to make sure we as RAs don’t use vague language on our qualified reports. The SRA need to have specific facts and stats to work from.
• There is some concern with Sara and her team that the volume of qualified Accountants Reports is falling and, because we don’t really know how many aren’t being completed at all, there is a growing thought that we should go back to getting them all submitted again
• And finally, Sara gave us all a stark reminder that the SRA can disqualify RAs from submitting Accountants Reports if the SRA feels they have missed something significant – such as large amounts of money missing from the client account – so we’ll need to be on top of our game

• Then we heard from Andre Thomas from Thomas Telma where we gained some really useful takeaways:
• Failure to attract and retain the right talent affects profits
• Culture is critical for employees in the workplace
• Andre gave us an insight into the 4 types of workplace culture and the benefits of measuring culture as well as the important of reward & recognition in the workplace

• Shaun Jardine of Big Yellow Penguin was next up
• Shaun talked to us about value-based pricing and questioned whether the current law firm model is still fit for purpose
• He explored some of the themes emerging among current younger lawyers at law firms and how the traditional assumption that all lawyers want to be partners just doesn’t apply anymore – and that’s something that many of us accountants should be keeping a close eye on too
• A quote that stuck out for me was: ‘time isn’t a measure of value – relationships are built on the value we create’
• So, do law firms, and I guess also accountants, need to try to distance themselves from our addiction to the chargeable hour? Moving to fixed prices isn’t necessarily the answer as it can just be the hourly rate model in hiding, but do firms need to be mindful of outcomes and the value of those outcomes to the individual – i.e. the client?
• I found it interesting when Shaun spoke about firms charging more for getting an important piece of work done quickly. If somebody wants it urgently, they need to pay for that urgency, because a lot of the value is in that urgency – but I wonder how many of us actually practice that.
• Ultimately, engaging with clients, talking to them and understanding what they want from us can’t be a bad thing, so, whatever our view of the power of the billable hour, there was a lot here that should resonate with all of us

• James of MHA gave us a timely tax update
• He took out his crystal ball to try to give us some thoughts around the upcoming Autumn Budget and. of course. a reminder of the salaried member rules, which is very relevant to law firms and other professional practices

• Claire and Scott from Shieldpay were next up
• They walked us through some of the important aspects around how an account works in practice and how it helps firms remain compliant with the Accounts Rules
• They also reminded us how their service can take away a lot of the ‘source of funds’ checks headaches for firms and take on a lot of the KYC and client due diligence
• At the end of the event, I had to highlight the quote from Scott which was that they ‘remove that fat finger’ risk – that risk to law firms of miss-keying something and the money going to the wrong place and that error then sitting with the law firm

• We then heard from Leon Hutchinson from PWC, who gave us a short but sweet overview of some of some of the headlines from their annual law firm survey

• Finally, our co-Chair for day, Robert Blech from MHA, gave us our vitally important SRA Accounts Rules update
• Of course, things have moved on since with the release of the Axiom report and the SRA consultation, but this was still a timely refresher on all things compliance related

As we eagerly await the next conference, there is a lot of change on the horizon and a lot of new reading material to keep us amused.