Member Article

Warwickshire accountancy firm urges businesses to plan for next stage of Making Tax Digital

A Warwickshire accountancy firm which has moved more than 100 businesses onto cloud accounting software is urging businesses to plan ahead for the next stage of Making Tax Digital.

Burgis & Bullock is a platinum partner for cloud-accounting platform Xero and has delivered more than 200 hours of training for clients on the platform in the last two years. Making Tax Digital (MTD) has been a significant reason why businesses are making the move, but it has also been driven by trying to improve the quality and reliability of data available to business owners.

From April 2024, MTD for Income Tax comes in to force, and the firm is expecting training delivery to increase as a result.

Jack Herbert, digital transformation mentor at Burgis & Bullock, is an expert in the cloud consultancy space. He has been advising the firm’s clients on how to best digitise their accounts and take advantage of cloud-based software.

He said: “Over the last 24 months we have been working with all of our clients, of all shapes and sizes, on digital and cloud accounting solutions that will fit their business. “This has become all the more important with the MTD for Income Tax coming into effect from April 2024. It might be two years away, but we urging all of our clients to start getting systems in place and operational by April 2023.

“We’ve seen a great appetite amongst clients to find out how software in the market can make their lives easier. Whilst we are huge advocates of Xero at Burgis & Bullock, we do not limit ourselves to just Xero and have been considering a wide range of solutions for clients.

“Xero is fantastic, it’s flexible and works for a range of different sized businesses, however we are aware that other solutions will work better for other businesses. “There has been some initial resistance with some clients, especially smaller sole trader clients – who might be moving to their first software and away from handwritten cash books. However, as soon as we sit down and show them how it works their worries go away and they immediately see how the benefits can drive their business forwards.

“In preparation for MTD for Income Tax, we are looking at a number of other solutions for clients – where Xero might not fit the bill, for example, a simplified accounting solution that will work specifically for a landlord client with a small number of properties.

“There is definitely a case in wider business that people aren’t aware of the upcoming MTD change and businesses should certainly be looking to put the building blocks in place now.” Burgis & Bullock has offices in Leamington, Nuneaton, Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .