Acting for Small
Businesses
•• Commercial Awareness
•• Employment Law Update
•• Delivering Strategy and Planning
Services
•• Cyber Security
•• Company Registration
•• Cloud Accounting
•• Making Tax Digital
London
7 June 2017
£315 per person (including lunch)
£50 for MembershipPLUS | 25% Discount for Members
All prices subject to VAT
Acting for Small Businesses
This conference is specifically designed for partners and those at management level who advise owner
managed businesses. It covers a range of relevant business and compliance matters, above and
beyond the routine accountancy, audit and tax services, to help you add value to those clients.
9.30am Welcome and Introduction by
Conference Chairperson
9.35am Commercial Awareness –
Understanding Your Clients
•Minimum wage - recent cases
•Dress code and discrimination
•Reasonable adjustments for disability – what can the
worker expect?
•Return to work following childbirth – new developments
•Social media dismissals
Eugene O’Connell
In this session Eugene will cover:
•Steering a path through market uncertainty including
upcoming Brexit
•The Organisation in 2021 – structures, strengths and
outsourcing
•Benchmarking – who are your clients’ competitors and how
can your clients stay relevant
10.25am Successfully Delivering Strategy
and Planning Services to Clients
Gill Burn, MindShop
Building a business advisory service brings many benefits to a
firm from attracting and retaining quality clients, to adding a
new revenue stream. Gill will reveal some key steps to ensure
your success in this area:
•Transitioning from a compliance service provider to trusted
business advisor
•Identifying and capitalising on your biggest client
opportunities
•A step by step ‘how to’ for building an effective strategic
plan for any client size
•The importance of implementation
11.15am Refreshment break
11.30am The Changing Landscape of
Company Registration
Neil Butler, Companies House
Over the past couple of years much has changed with regard
to Company Registration. Neil Butler will highlight many of
these changes, the rationale behind them and what is planned
for the future, to include improvements in the Companies
House service.
12.20pm Employment Law Update
Louise Dunford
An informative and entertaining gallop through those issues
most likely to be useful for accountants dealing with small and
medium sized businesses. Louise will cover:
•Employment status - 'self-employed' v ‘worker’ – the Uber/
courier cases
•Working time - in particular holiday pay and commission/
bonuses, rights to rest breaks
1.15pm Lunch
2.15pm Cyber security: Protecting yourself
and your clients
Jay Abbott, Falanx Cyber Defence
This session will provide an overview of common cyber
threats, and give practical advice to ensure you can protect
yourselves and your clients.
•Spotting phishing and email based scams
•Securing your office and protecting information
•Protecting social media and cloud based services
•Government guidance and standards
2.55pm Accountants Working With Cloud
Software
Simon Woodhams, Wilkins Kennedy LLP
In this session Simon will cover:
•What software is out there and advice about add-ons
•How accountants can help their clients with conversion,
integration and transition
•Training internally within the accounting firm and for clients,
along with ongoing support
3.40pm Refreshment break
3.55pm What Making Tax Digital Means for
You and Your Clients
Sharon Cooke, SWAT UK Ltd
In this session Sharon will review the current position, the
proposed law in Finance Bill 2017 and the steps that need to
be taken before the April 2018 start date. She will emphasise
practical implications and lay out some key steps that
practitioners should now take.
4.45pm Close of conference
CPD hours: 6
Book online at www.mercia-group.co.uk/conferences
Speakers
Jay Abbott
Jay is the Managing Director of Falanx Cyber
Defence, and a celebrated key-note speaker who
is regularly quoted in the media on the subject of
Cyber Security. Jay’s background and experience is in the “design
it, build it & break it” space, where he has spent most of his career
engineering technical solutions to business problems, and the rest
reverse engineering technology solutions to ensure that they are
secure. Jay has held senior positions with several organisations
including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Gill Burn
Gill started out at PWC before specialising in HR
for a regional accounting practice. She moved on
to become a business and personal development
coach in the professional and non accounting SME industry for 16
years. Gill is now the Mindshop Regional UK manager, coaching,
advising, and working within an extensive national network of
business advisors and accountancy organisations.
Neil Butler
Neil has worked for Companies House for over
28 years after previously working in the private
sector. He has worked in many sections around
the organisation and has developed a wealth of knowledge of
the varied areas of company registration. He is the Business
Liaison Manager and his role primarily is that of communicating
and working with, amongst others, the accountancy and legal
professions, to inform and guide on the many aspects of company
start-up, officers responsibilities, compliance and products and
services. He travels widely around the UK giving presentations and
attending conferences as a guest speaker.
Sharon Cooke
Sharon is a Director of SWAT UK Ltd, sister company
to Mercia. As well as being an ICAEW and Tax
Faculty member, Sharon is a Chartered Institute of
Taxation prize-winner and sits on the London Society of Chartered
Accountants tax committee. She authors and presents a number
of tax CPD courses. Sharon’s role at SWAT UK means keeping in
touch with the issues faced by the accountancy profession and, at
present, this of course includes Making Tax Digital.
Louise Dunford
Louise has been continuously involved in training
and consultancy since 1987, both for professional
firms and for commercial organisations. Until
recently she also worked as an associate senior lecturer at the
University of Portsmouth. Louise specialises mainly in aspects
of practical employment law, company law and on professional
negligence, and has published widely in leading academic and
professional journals. She is an associate of CompleteHR Ltd,
providing practical and pro-active assistance with employment and
HR issues for SMEs.
Eugene O’Connell
Eugene has over 25 years’ experience in a variety
of businesses across a wide range of international
locations. He has spent a considerable amount
of time training and coaching leaders. His work has spanned
from direct leadership situations as a Captain in the British Army
to mentoring multinational teams of bankers. His coaching
philosophy is centred on a desire to help his delegates believe they
can become more than they already are.
Simon Woodhams
Simon’s career has developed out of a number
of business software and cloud accounting roles,
spanning well over a decade. Simon now heads up
the Cloud and Accounting Software division at Wilkins Kennedy
and has built up a large portfolio of clients in the SME category,
covering a variety of sectors. He cares most about saving clients’
time and money, freeing up their resources to re-invest into their
businesses, and cloud-based software is fast becoming the service
of choice to cater for that need.
Date and Venue
Cost
London
£315 per person (including lunch)
7 June 2017
9.30am – 4.45pm
Grand Connaught Rooms
61–65 Great Queen Street
London
WC2B 5DA
Tel: 0207 4057811
www.phcompany.com
25% discount for Members
A 25% discount on the total price will be given to all firms
who pay an annual subscription (based upon the size of their
practice) to belong to a Mercia training group. This does not
include firms who buy season tickets.
For further information please contact Sarah Perry.
£50 for MembershipPLUS
If you are a MembershipPLUS firm the cost of attending this
conference is £50 plus VAT per place.
Book online at www.mercia-group.co.uk/conferences
Booking Form
I would like to book places on the Acting for Small
Businesses Conference on 7 June as follows:
How to book
Online
Book online at
www.mercia-group.co.uk/conferences
A total of ______ places @ £315
£
Less 25% discount for Members
£
A total of ______ places @ £50 for
MembershipPLUS
£
Send your requests to
[email protected]
Sub total
£
Phone
Plus VAT at 20%
£
Call a member of our enrolments team
on 0116 258 1200
Total
£
Email
Post
Complete the booking form and return
by post to Mercia Group Limited
Contact name
Name of firm
Address
Postcode
Telephone
Email
Delegate Name(s)
Please invoice my firm. I understand the usual 30 day
credit terms apply
I enclose a cheque for £ _________ made payable to
Mercia Group Limited
Making
Tax Digital
The government has recently
published its responses to the six
consultations issued in August 2016
and has decided many issues as to
how Making Tax Digital for Business
will operate.
I would like to receive more information about
Membership/MembershipPLUS
Confirmation: An email confirming your booking will be sent to your enrolment
or main contact. Joining instructions will be sent by email 10 days before the
date of the event you are booked on to. Cancellations: No refund will be made
where cancellation is received less than 14 days before the date of the course.
All other cancellations will be subject to a £25 administration charge.
All cancellations must be in writing.
Please return to:
Mercia Group Limited
Best House Grange Business Park Enderby Road
Whetstone Leicester LE8 6EP
[email protected]
Client Letter
Help your clients understand
what it means to them
We have produced three letters
– one for self-employed, one for
partners and partnerships and one
for property businesses.
£90 plus VAT.
Mercia members receive a 10% discount.
www.mercia-group.co.uk/
GetProduct/MakingTaxDigitalForBusiness
Mercia Group Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company
number 1464141.
Registered Office: 6-14 Underwood Street London N1 7JQ