The Digital Accountancy Show – What Went Down That You Need To Know

The 2021 Digital Accountancy Show was a fantastic event that allowed companies, such as Arex, Pleo, Revolut, Tennick Accountants and several others, to showcase their latest new and exciting developments that are unfolding in the accountancy space. Hosted at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, England’s first entirely cashless sports venue with super high-tech infrastructure, made the ideal venue for the show as society gradually phases back into ‘normal’. So, let’s take a look at who were involved in some of the biggest moments at the showcase that you need to know about.

Arex Markets – Arex are a data-driven Fintech company that drives financing costs down for SMEs and enables them to get access to cash quicker. Often financing can be complicated and saturated with hidden costs, leaving SMEs feeling trapped and vulnerable, however Arex is committed to reclaiming control for SMEs by giving them access to a competitive marketplace, bridging the gap between capital market liquidity and cash flow. CEO of Arex, Airto Vienola, commented that this problem normally occurs because ‘there is a clear informational and cultural gap between the SMEs and the investors’ who are not in touch with one another.

However, Arex uses technology to provide more visibility, and are extremely unique since they are a marketplace; this is a neutral position, where Arex takes no margin of the financing cost and only gains revenue from facilitating the transaction, resulting in an advisory business with no vested interest.

Perttu Jalkanen, Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer at Arex, also gave interesting insights into Arex’s mission. He voiced that Arex is set apart from its competitors because ‘nobody has taken automisation to the level that we have done.’ By fully automating the process and cutting out the middleman, SMEs are able to get their financing directly from the capital market.

After being ‘extremely effective in the Nordics’, according to Julia Hawkins, General Partner at LocalGlobe, where they have close to 100,000 invoices running through the Arex system, Arex’s focus is now directed towards the UK market. It is with no doubt bound to be an extremely exciting venture; Arex have already been named Landing Platform of the Year in the prestigious Future Digital Awards for Fintech & Payments by Juniper Research and were recognised as having made an outstanding contribution to the industry.

Also notable for their wonderful presentation at the show were Tennick Accountants, led by the 2020 Digital Accountant of the Year, Graeme Tennic. Graeme insightfully highlighted the 4 key pillars for all digital accountancy firms to be aware of in this new electronic era of bookkeeping:

People – having the right team, with a shared vision, is essential to the success of any digital accountancy firm. At Tennick, the company had originally struggled as they merely replicated their old training and recruitment policies. All this achieved was making people feel vulnerable and resistant to change. Instead, employing people with similar goals and personalities made Tennick more profitable, sometimes with even less staff!

Processes – Tennick highlighted how you have to be prepared to start from the bottom again if you want to create a certain foundation of truth to build upon. Tennick themselves restarted their bookkeeping procedures with a simple excel spreadsheet when understanding the transition to the digital. The result was a tremendous boost in time saved and efficiency

Technology and data – the crucial comment here was that ‘data without context has no meaning.’ In a transitioning world, swamping clients and partners without data for the sake of it is inefficient, unnecessary and simply misleading; less is more.

Pleo, and their UK&I partnerships lead, Liz Sheldon, also provided great insights into the accountancy industry. Pleo partnerships provide a simplified bookkeeping service that enhances an individual’s work flows instead of complicating them. Despite key blockers in the industry, such as a lack of self belief and simply digitising paper rather than truly transitioning to technology, Pleo successfully raised £150 million in its Series C funding, and have helped accountants reestablish their role as strategic business advisors, acting on real time without any lagging indicators.

Soldo also highlighted why their services were so valuable. Similarly to Pleo, Soldo prided itself on making sure their employees came first, entrusting people at all levels to spend without introducing risks with real-time tracking and fund reallocations for admins. Not only does this allow companies to get a grip on their cash flow, but it also connects the dots in their finance softwares, seamlessly integrating with leading account platforms to sync all data in a couple of clicks. This keeps all data fresh and wins back precious time for finance teams.

iwoca’s Lara Gilman, colead of iwocaPay and Mat White, iwoca Account Relationship Manager, also led interesting discussions regarding embedded finance and open banking, and how offering ‘click here to pay now’ services will provide clients with more options to pay and get paid in a seamless experience. Chaser also prided themselves for their new functionality that allows users in the UK to access real-time insights on a company’s credit history, such as their credit score, limits and company financials. It seems clear then that real time solutions were a key focus for many.

Overall, the Digital Accountancy Show hosted a wide array of talent and unveiled exciting projects that are ready to unfold in the space. It is clear that for many companies, making a true transition to a technologically grounded space in accountancy is the focus for the future. With Money20/20 only around the corner, events like these really highlight how evolving and exciting the Fintech world becomes each day, not just because of the groundbreaking digital improvements that are occuring, but because of how relationships between individuals, clients and businesses are being transformed.