Ami Copeland's October Blog

We have less than six weeks until the Bookkeepers Summit! How can it be this time of year already? My 9-year old, who turns ten this month (!), is already craving Christmas music. I've had to remind her that Christmas doesn't start until after the Bookkeepers Summit and LUCAs - to me this is the moment in the year when our collective professional endeavours are made manifest. When bookkeepers come together to celebrate their work and get excited about what's next, and we get to enjoy in-person the friendships we've nurtured throughout the year. It’s the culmination of our shared journey, and I love to see our community come together. Nothing helps me shift into the festive season like a good Summit!

 

If you attended this year's Inspire Tour you will have heard me speak about our exciting and ambitious digital transformation that includes developing and launching a new website, MyICB portal, content management system (CMS) customer relationship management (CRM) system, and associated email and telephony systems. It's truly a transformation from the inside out, as we update all of our technology over two years from the start of the project in July last year, up until July next year. One of our aims is to improve your experience of interacting with us and make using our website frictionless and intuitive. We want our online presence to support our key strategic objective of raising the profile of our members, ICB and the profession as a whole.

 

While at the Inspire Tour I spoke about launching our new website and MyICB portal as early as this year's Bookkeepers Summit, we have now extended our development timeline and will be launching in the first half of next year. I know you may groan at the news, and it's not a decision we have taken lightly. But if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right.

 

This project marks a pivotal evolution in both our back office and front of house infrastructure and when we're supporting 3200 UK bookkeeping firms, 15,000 UK students and members, and delivering on-demand online exams in 130+ countries around the world, we can't afford to rush. We are taking a responsible and safeguarded approach to our digital transformation. Our priority is to ensure that every step we take is in the best interest of our members, with a focus on security, functionality, and long-term success. I would like to restate the commitment to upscaling our digital capability that I made when I became CEO in January last year, and I look forward more than ever to getting our shiny new tech into your hands, and into the hands of the team at ICB who can't wait to use it to continue to improve the services we offer you so that we can make your day, every day.

 

On the subject of huge digital transformation projects that herald great opportunity but don't always launch on time, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is hopefully on your horizon and, if you're in practice, you're starting to make plans for it. A huge ICB supporter, HMRC's Lenny Barry hosted a fantastically informative webinar with our very own member and VP, Steve Worrall C.FICB PM.Dip, last month. If you missed it you can watch it on catchup here. I'm pleased to confirm that several senior members of HMRC's MTD team will be attending the in-person Bookkeepers Summit on 11 November and, in a follow-up webinar, Steve will be taking us through the practical steps you can take to get ready for MTD for Income Tax which kicks-in for 1.75m sole traders and landlords from 2026 and 2027. We will be supporting you to make the most of this opportunity with a raft of content and guides coming out next year.

 

Our other favourite three-letter initialism is of course AML. In response to the flurry of activity and queries after our most recent AML webinar, we're doubling-down on AML content too. With a combination of live webinars and short training videos, in combination with existing online guidance and practice onboarding interviews, you'll have lots of options for how to get the knowledge you need and feel confident in what you're doing. And please don't forget to reach out by phone or email to our approachable AML team.

 

Next week I'll be at an event which is always one of the highlights of my year - the Accounting Excellence Awards. Not only did I have the honour of judging alongside all the big names in bookkeeping - Zoe Whitman, Jo Wood and Emma Fox, but I also get to cheer-on our nominated member firms, We Are Safe Hands, Wild Bookkeeping and LJM Bookkeeping. Congratulations each of you, you are all winners to us.