Archives 2025

Often, advice around business AI doesn’t speak to the realities of running, for example, a café, plumbing business, or a one-person firm.

Start Strong With AI for Small Businesses is a free guide that shows you how to use AI with you as approver. AI spots overdue invoices, tidies your books in minutes, and turns meeting notes into clear task lists.

In this e-book, you’ll learn how to:

• Save hours each week
• Get paid faster
• Stay in control with approvals.

No jargon, no hype. Just practical return-on-investment (ROI) advice you can see that will help you start off strong.

What’s inside

Download the guide to get:

• Quick wins you can try today — like invoice reminders and expense logging.
• “Try this now” callouts with simple, fast actions.
• Safety checks to keep you in control of money, data, and approvals.
• Real quotes from small business owners who’ve seen the benefits.
• Step-by-step routines to help you build confidence with AI over time.

Who it’s for

This guide is designed for:

• Small business owners who want to spend less time on admin.
• Sole traders and entrepreneurs who need to move faster with limited resources.
• Professional firms (like accountants and bookkeepers) looking to cut costs while building client trust.

If you want AI that feels like a teammate – suggesting actions, drafting reminders, and asking for your sign-off – this guide is for you.

What small businesses say about AI

As AI use grows, it’s vital that businesses have clear policies on how information is handled. Confidential or sensitive information should never be stored in ways that make it identifiable.

Adam Williams, General manager, Tyne Chease

With approvals and logging in place, you stay firmly in charge. That balance between automation and control is what makes AI useful for small businesses.

Lean manufacturing is all about minimising waste while maximising productivity.

It is a practice first initiated by Toyota but has influenced manufacturing for decades, particularly the automobile industry.

Since then, many other industries have come to regard removing waste from their processes as beneficial to the bottom line.

As you streamline manufacturing processes to eliminate waste and shorten the time between receiving and orders, you can also streamline your accounting processes and use them to gather relevant operating information.

This provides valuable feedback on your manufacturing and inventory processes.

Without adapting accounting for manufacturing processes, especially as they increase in complexity as your business grows, it may be difficult to understand how changes in your operations are making a difference to your manufacturing bottom line.

To reduce the costs of doing business, you must understand first where your production costs lie.

It helps if you break down product costs from all the contributing factors that play a part in the cost of the manufacturing product – not only for each item but for all the activities that add cost to the end product.

If you want to refine your production process and automate aspects of your business, accurate costing information helps you identify wasteful costs passed on to the customer or absorbed within the company.

This is all in aid of increasing your revenue and your profit margins.

Ready? Let’s get started. Here’s what we cover in this article:

Manufacturing cost terms to understand

You need to think beyond profit and loss to manufacturing costs such as the costs of materials, plus the cost to convert these materials into products.

This is necessary, for example, to understand how you should be pricing your product and how to achieve or exceed your set profit margins.

In a manufacturing business, there are some important terms you need to understand when it comes to calculating the costs of manufacturing your product, as well as the amount of inventory you hold.

Direct materials

Direct material (or raw material) inventory is a calculation of all the materials your manufacturing business is using to make your product – all the materials consumed or identified with your product.

Very often, this is listed in a bill of materials, which itemises quantities and costs the materials used in your product.

In process manufacturing, such as food and beverage or chemicals, the bill of materials is known as a production recipe.

Direct labour costs

Direct labour is the value given to the labour that produces your goods, such as machine or assembly line operators.

Generally, this includes the cost of the regular hours, overtime, and relevant payroll taxes.

Manufacturing overheads

Along with direct materials and direct labour, you must include the cost of manufacturing overhead to ensure you get the right valuation when it comes to inventory and selling price.

Manufacturing overheads might include the costs for powering a factory’s equipment and personnel not directly involved in producing the product.

Work-in-process goods

As part of the manufacturing process, your business is likely to have items in production that have not yet been completed.

This will be an accumulation of the money you have spent on direct materials, direct labour costs, and manufacturing overheads on each work-in-process item in your inventory.

Finished goods

This is the cost associated with the goods you have completely ready to sell to your customers. You would also add the cost of storing these finished goods and other associated expenses.

On your typical manufacturing balance sheet, you should have raw materials, work in process, and finished goods as part of your inventory calculation.

You will also want a periodic or perpetual inventory system to track how many products you have in your production line at any one time.

Production costing methods

When it comes to accounting, you need the right costing method to help you achieve higher profitability. Accounting software for manufacturers may offer different costing methods.

Here are the ones that you should be aware of:

Standard costing

Standard costing is an accounting system where you establish standard rates for materials or labour used in production or inventory costing.

By doing this, you can work out the labour and material costs to produce a single unit of your product.

Having these standards allows you to detect variances that can be analysed, allowing trends to be spotted, and enabling you to make the right adjustments to pricing.

If you are spending more on manufacturing the product than necessary, you will not meet your income targets.

Look at where the inefficiencies are in the production process and where the waste is coming from, adjusting the pricing if required.

Standard costing is useful if you are making similar products or large quantities of a specific product.

Job costing

Job costing, also known as variable costing, is better if you manufacture to order or focus on a small amount of units.

For example, this could include a custom-built machine or a small batch of products.

This accounting system allows you to work out the individual cost of manufacturing for a product and apply the right mark-up to get the project margin you desire.

You might look at each project in detail – down to costs, materials, and overhead. It is particularly popular in construction.

Activity-based costing

This is a costing method that differs from job costing in that it incorporates more indirect costs, such as resource consumption.

It can help you hone which products are profitable and spot opportunities to drive better results for your existing products.

This might be good if you have a complex product mix.

Inventory valuation

Inventory management is crucial for a manufacturer.

At the end of an accounting period, at the end of the financial year, you will want to have a value associated with the number of goods in your inventory.

Valuing your inventory will help establish the costs of goods sold and how much profit you are making. Having a shortage or excess inventory directly affects the production and profitability of your manufacturing business.

Inventory is continually being sold and restocked, so you may need to make a cost flow assumption. There are four accepted ways to value inventory.

First in, first-out (FIFO)

Many manufacturers use the ‘first-in, first-out (FIFO)’ method, where products are sold in the order they are added to inventory.

A popular way of costing inventory; this could work for businesses that have products with a shelf life.

Last in, last out (LIFO)

This inventory valuation method operates under the assumption that the final product added to a company’s inventory is the first one sold.

Fewer manufacturers use this method.

Average cost

This is a common accounting method that uses a weighted average of all products to determine and track inventory.

Average costing is useful in situations where it is difficult to assign costs to specific or individual products.

Specific identification

This accounting method tracks individual items of inventory, which is useful if you can identify each item with, for example, a serial number or radio-frequency identity (RFID) tag.

This can produce a higher degree of accuracy, but many manufacturers are unlikely to have items that have a unique identification.

This is better for high-value items that need differentiation, rather than interchangeable items.

What you should look for in your manufacturing accounting software

Without accurate, timely and quality information, it won’t be easy to understand what is happening in your business.

As a manufacturer, you must always be on top of materials and other associated costs to correctly price your finished items. At the same time, you need to consider external market factors affecting your business and industry.

It would help if you had a manufacturing software solution that allows you to deal with the extra complexity of calculating inventory and the cost of your manufacturing goods.

This software can be used to extract data and analyse trends, improve efficiency, and make the best business decisions.

Your manufacturing accounting software should also help you keep compliant with regulations and the tax laws of the countries you have a business in.

Often, manufacturers invest in an all-in-one solution, which handles other tasks away from finances, such as planning and production. This is known as enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Ideally, data should move freely between production lines and the back office, meaning you have accurate real-time data.

Final thoughts

Features found in accounting software such as inventory management can help you optimise the way you use inventory, such as providing alerts when your stock needs replenishing.

It is crucial when understanding raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods.

It will avoid a situation where you have too much inventory (which costs money) or, even worse, not enough inventory, where you can’t fulfil the requirements of your customers.

This article was first published in August 2022 and has since been updated for relevance.

The accountanting industry is being revolutionised by AI.

Accountancy training is no different. AI offers transformational changes for those ready to embrace it.

In this article we take a look at what accountancy training looks like in this new AI era, and what kind of career it will lead to.

In short, if you’re thinking of training as an accountant – or considering switching your career – this is a great place to start. Here’s what we discuss:

How AI is changing accounting

Over the last few years fears have been expressed about AI taking away jobs in professional services, especially at the entry level.

However, as many commentators have pointed out, this simply isn’t true. It never has been.

Whenever new technologies have been introduced, all the way back to the Industrial Revolution, rather than the total numbers of jobs being lost, new ones have emerged.

But these new jobs require new skills – and a new mindset.

According to a survey published earlier this year by Chartered Accountants Worldwide, 83% of 18- to 24-year-old chartered accountants surveyed are using AI at least once a week, for simple tasks such as data entry and general productivity.

“I think it’s safe to say there’s a mixture of excitement and anxiety, as you’d expect,” says Sarah Beale, CEO of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), the global professional body for accounting technicians and bookkeepers. “AI is a huge change. Not everybody understands it but there’s a huge level of positivity.”

To hear more of what Sarah has to say, watch our video below, which is part of Sage’s docuseries about the AI opportunity for businesses:

A survey published in June 2025 by AAT revealed that four in five accountants (78%) agree that automation will make their jobs easier, freeing them up from administrative burdens, while 64% believe that AI tools will enhance efficiency and accuracy in the accounting profession.

Despite fears about AI taking their jobs away, younger accountants are particularly enthusiastic with 84% of those aged between 18 and 35 saying that it’ll improve accuracy and efficiency.

AI means problem-solving and strategic advice

Even more (80%) of AAT’s respondents reported that AI would enable them to support businesses with strategic advice and problem-solving.

This figure is important because it demonstrates how anyone currently going through accountancy training and indeed, progressing through the profession as a whole, needs to think about how they can offer clients greater value.

Whereas the emphasis was once on numbers and maths, with even the most sophisticated calculations now being undertaken by AI, accountants can spend more time providing clients with holistic business advice.

It’s important for you to be able to tell a client how they’re doing financially but it’s even better if you can tell them what the figures mean and what the client needs to do next to secure and grow their business.

This means that the next generation of accountants will have to be more skilled at dealing with people – in other words, showing empathy and understanding their clients’ needs and motivations – than they are dealing with spreadsheets.

For instance, back in 2015, if you were in accountancy training, you’d be focussed on manual data entry and grinding your way through spreadsheets. You might have found yourself sampling invoices manually, using paper-based evidence for vouching during audit training, or verifying numbers with Excel tie-outs.

Today, as the use of technologies such as cloud computing, automation and generative AI becomes the norm, you’ll be reviewing exceptions and taking a more holistic, insightful approach to company accounts, rather than ploughing through whole reams of figures and data.

“The key to success with any AI tool lies in how it enhances the services we deliver to our clients,” says Sam Rumens of Streets Accountants. “We must use the right tools for the right tasks.

“One area we’re currently focusing on is around bookkeeping data capture. We’re introducing various AI-driven tools that are proving highly effective in this space.

“Early results show that automating this process can significantly reduce errors that can arise from manual entry. However, these tools still rely heavily on human oversight, due to the core data and settings, and this creates an added layer of security and accuracy that is essential whenever using AI.”

The more tailoring we do, the better the AI gets.

Sam Rumens, streeTs Accountants

AI and the career path for junior accountants

Even though AI fundamentally affects accountancy training and the work of junior accountants, they will still start in a junior role such as tax trainee, audit assistant, or accounts assistant.

But increasingly, rather than carrying out calculations and pulling together figures for a balance sheet or P&L as AI carries out manual, repetitive tasks such as data extraction and reconciliation, they’ll have the opportunity to focus, instead, on more interesting, rewarding activities – activities that AI cannot yet perform.

“This shift allows trainees to build real client skills earlier in their careers, which makes the work more engaging,” says David Kindness, a Certified Public Accountant CPA and tax expert. “Instead of spending all day keying in numbers, they get to learn how to analyse data, spot patterns, and talk with clients about what the numbers actually mean.

“Most of the young accountants I speak to see this as a welcome change because it opens up growth opportunities that used to take years to reach.

“Overall, AI is creating a better balance. It automates what machines do best, and it empowers accountants, even at the entry level, to do more of the thoughtful and client-focused work that drew them into the profession in the first place.”

However, regulators such as the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) are scrutinising AI’s impact on audit quality.

A US law firm was embarrassed, for instance, when it turned out that a submission to a court created by AI had simply invented evidence and case judgments.

This means that when you’re training to be an accountant these days you’ll need to learn about how AI affects controls, documentation, and ethics.

AI can take on manual work, but what it can’t take on is accountability and responsibility.

Similarly, as part of your accountancy training course, you’ll increasingly find yourself documenting your professional scepticism and curiosity and ensuring that what you’re doing complies with audit firm policies as well as industry regulations.

AI and accountability in accounting

“It’s all about maintaining accountability,” says Sarah Beale. “Putting the guardrails around what we use and making sure that people understand the limitations. Having really clear policies and being transparent about where they’re using it so that their clients and businesses are aware of it is essential.

“I think the big thing for our profession is that we need to maintain trust and confidence in what we do. So we don’t want to leap into using something that we don’t understand or that we can’t verify ourselves.

“We want to give people confidence about when they should and should not feel comfortable to use it.”

We’re starting to embed digital literacy, digital tools and ethics around the use of AI in our qualifications.

Sarah Beale, CEO, AAT

Over the coming decade, in chartered accountancy training there will be more focus on assurance of AI-produced evidence as well as an emphasis on systems thinking, controls testing, data literacy, and client-facing advisory.

AI brings with it a range of ethical and privacy issues. Accountants will have to ensure that they’ve got the right policies and procedures in place here. The good news is that there’s plenty of advice and guidance available to help you to handle these important issues.

The benefits of AI to trainee accountants

AI technologies such as Sage Copilot can provide accountants with dynamic, real-time insights so that the next generation of accountants will respond in a more agile, timely manner to changes in their clients’ businesses.

The new MTD agent AI tool has arrived just in time to reduce the workload of MTD for Income Tax.

Tools like this can easily give detailed insights revealing relevant information so that people can make decisions faster, and based on better evidence.

AI can also ensure that trainee accountants never miss a deadline for VAT returns and other important filings.

Another interesting development ushered in by technologies is that they can open up the profession to more people from different backgrounds who might be interested in training to be an accountant.

Now, AI is helping to reposition training as an accountant as a modern, tech-forward profession. As AI reduces the emphasis on arithmetic and spreadsheets, accountancy is widening its appeal as a profession.

The AAT survey revealed that automating mundane, manual tasks involved in accountancy could broaden the appeal of the profession, with two in five people saying that they’d consider a change of career to move into accountancy if they could use AI to replace these routine tasks.

More young people – and career switchers – with a wider range of skills and academic qualifications are being drawn to training as an accountant.

Not only that but the pathways into accountancy are also more varied and easily accessible now. You don’t need a degree, for a start. The apprenticeship schemes offered by professional organisations and industry bodies such as the AAT, ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, and CIPFA, are open to almost anyone aged over 16 and they’re a great way to earn while you learn.

Careers in accounting: how AI is broadening the field

The AAT-ACA Fast Track route has been developed by the ICAEW and AAT, and it allows anyone with an AAT qualification to get onto a fast track to become a Chartered Accountant (ACA) using the learning and work experience that they’ve gained with AAT.

With most accountancy apprenticeships you’ll spend one day a week at college and the rest of the week working in an office, supporting and shadowing more experienced colleagues and putting in practice what you’ve learned in your lectures and tutorials. Apprentices are usually entitled to at least 20 days of paid holiday per year, plus bank holidays.

Because AI will never be able to replace the human element in accounting, ensuring that you stand out from the competition, improving your CV, and extending your experience is something that you’ll still need to do yourself.

This means looking out for little bookkeeping jobs or taking on a voluntary role as treasurer for a charity.

Internships and placements will be as important as ever, as will rotations in specialist areas such as tax and audit. This is where you’ll develop those increasingly essential people skills and develop the kind of industry knowledge and business experience that AI can never replace and that will be more vital than ever for the successful accountant of tomorrow.

Final thoughts

With AI advancements the field of accountancy has never been so accessible. It’s likely that career progression in future is going to be similarly wide-open, with varied skills coming to the fore.

So, you want to be an accountant? Well, there has never been a better time to start.

The accountant’s guide to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Download this free interactive guide to developing your practice approach to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Download here

In days gone by, it was clear what your manufacturing business needed to do. You needed to make things. And that was it – you created tangible products that customers could see and touch, which they could hold as inventory.

With “servitisation”, today is very different. Read this article to find out what it means for your manufacturing firm, how data can play a role in offering customer service and tips to offer services to your customers.

Here’s what we discuss:

What is servitisation?

If you want to grow your business and thrive in today’s challenging economy, you need to offer more than products to your customers in the form of added-value services – to servitise your offerings.

This means that as a manufacturer, you need to integrate your products with services, adapting your business models to offer additional value on top of what you make.

Factors such as commoditised products and shrinking margins mean you need to build in resilience if you are going to continue to thrive and make your business strong enough to deal with external uncertainties. You need to build in new value in what you offer and differentiate your business from the competition.

In research of 60 industrial engineering companies in Europe by PA Consulting, 75% expected that delivering services will become a significant part of their business in the next three to five years. They will be able to take advantage of higher margins and a closer relationship with customers.

Manufacturers are already offering services

Although you might not recognise servitisation as a term, it’s likely that you have already incorporated it in your business. Many manufacturers have already adapted and changed their business models by offering benefits such as repair guarantees, maintenance and help desks.

For example, ACO Manufacturing offers important services on top of its manufacturing of surface water management systems. The complexity of designing these systems means it offers customers added services such as whole system design, hydraulic calculations, AutoCAD detailing and parts schedules.

Technology is an enabler because it offers new ways to connect.

To take advantage, your manufacturing business must be data-driven to define and create new services, while working with your customers to understand their needs.

You must look at business management solutions that deliver a view of all actions that are happening within the organisation. With information across the entire lifecycle, from manufacture to delivery and aftercare, you’re armed with the data on your customers’ purchases, which allows you to identify where new service opportunities exist.

The value of the Internet of Things

Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) can play a key role when looking to provide proactive value-added services to customers. It’s an exciting opportunity for manufacturers to monitor the products they create directly without having to wait for them to go through an intermediate such as a consumer or distributor.

Interconnected smart devices can collect valuable data that you can use to offer services in addition to products, therefore delivering additional value to the customer. Fundamentally, IoT allows you to extend the base services that you already offer, increasing overall effectiveness and productivity.

IoT is already accessible to businesses and it’s a matter of when, not if, manufacturers should use it. It’s a way that your manufacturing business can move from simple product-based services to more advanced services that offer significantly more revenue potential.

You can start with more simple projects involving tracking or visibility, to more sophisticated advanced services requiring automation, artificial intelligence or predictive analytics. It also makes sense to start with simpler projects than ones that need more resource and outcome optimisation.

Manufacturers that own their facilities may already be adopting IoT, and it makes sense for those with long product cycles to adopt it to change their products and services.

Servitisation in discrete manufacturing

Discrete manufacturers are challenged with increasing customer expectations and more competition. To meet the needs of well-informed digital customers, better connect supply chains, assets and products leads to servitisation.

Leaders in this industry will be able to create significant business value through connecting products and people, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.

For example, hi-tech, automotive or industrial equipment businesses can focus on improving customer experience, whereas before they may have concentrated on the production and engineering side.

A lot of innovation come from combining analytics with robotics, where deep customer insight and the ability to offer services at scale can change the game.

Another example where IoT could work well is in construction, where a business can offer a full maintenance and repair service, where they can carry out preventative maintenance on the machines they offer.

Using telemetric data from the machines, a manufacturer could proactively schedule a maintenance call to service the equipment and make sure it does not fail, reducing potential downtime for the customer and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Five tips for servitising manufacturers

Here are five ways for your manufacturing firm to find success with servitisation:

1. Connect and engage with your customers. They are the group that will benefit most from value-added services, while providing the data that will assist with innovation.
2. Prepare case studies of successful servitisation examples and explain to your customers the value they will get with them.
3. Ensure new services do not compete or conflict with what you already offer.
4. Make sure the service offers fit or differentiate the brand or image of your manufacturing firm.
5. Hit momentum by tapping into current market trends and the changing needs of your customers.

Final thoughts on servitisation

With digital transformation and connected customers changing manufacturing, Industry 4.0 creates a new paradigm where the cloud, analytics, AI, robotics and IoT can support your business in being more productive and efficient in a multitude of new ways.

Cloud-based technology, business management systems and actionable data creates the platform for servitisation, turning your business from one that just builds products to one that offers customer-focused services with products.

Industry 4.0 will help you build better long-term relationships, get better visibility and open the door to new products and services to unlock more revenue streams. Servitisation could be the key to remaining competitive in an evolving marketplace.

This article was first published in June 2019 and has since been updated for relevance.

Behind every tax deadline is an ocean of detail.

Your clients see deadlines met, tax bills sorted, books that are tidy, and payroll that runs smoothly.

But the reality is different. You’re managing ever-changing tax laws, keeping up with evolving HMRC guidance, reconciling errors, juggling multiple systems, and handling endless back-and-forth communication. And that’s only scratching the surface.

In this article, we explore how AI is helping to shape and enhance these challenges.

Here’s what we discuss:

The impact of agentic AI on compliance

The way accountants handle compliance is undergoing a fundamental shift.

As new technologies like agentic AI emerge, the manual and repetitive tasks that once defined compliance are being stripped away.

One of the clearest examples of this transformation is Making Tax Digital (MTD). It’s no secret that MTD is reshaping the UK tax landscape, and the next wave is around the corner in April 2026.

While this brings new challenges, this time you’ll have something extra on your side: agentic AI.

Here’s how Georgina Timothy, Director of Product Management for Sage for Accountants, summarises agentic AI for accountants:

MTD is going to be more than a digital filing requirement, it’s a fundamental shift in how tax is reported and how data flows between HMRC, accountants, bookkeepers, and their clients.

By April 2026 sole traders and landlords with a gross qualifying income over £50k must comply and, by 2028, that threshold lowers to £20k, which will bring thousands more into scope.

With this expansion comes quarterly submissions and more frequent data touchpoints, which could leave room for more errors.

Even though this shift may seem like a compliance headache for both you and your clients, it’s also a strategic opportunity for your practice.

As compliance becomes more about reviewing rather than inputting information, agentic AI can step in to transform the process.

MTD will become a reality, but it brings with it an opportunity to simplify and automate.

Georgina Timothy, Director of Product Management, Sage for Accountants

Why agentic AI matters for MTD

Unlike generic AI, agentic AI won’t just automate tasks. It will adapt, anticipate and support you in real time.

These tools help you to stay compliant, reduce admin, and deliver more value. Here’s how:

• Real-time categorisation: Transactions are tagged correctly at the point of entry, reducing the need for end-of-year clean-up.
• Error detection and correction: AI reviews the submitted data, flags anomalies, and can even suggest or apply corrections.
• Workflow automation: From receipt capture to quarterly submissions, AI can streamline the entire MTD process.
• Client insights: AI provides actionable feedback, helping clients understand their financial position and tax obligations.

Beyond merely digitising tax returns, MTD can also be seen as an opportunity to reshape your relationship with your clients.

MTD isn’t a one-size-fits-all, so you’ll have some clients that simply rely on you to file their final return and others who want you to handle everything end-to-end.

Agentic AI adapts to each of these scenarios, helping you to manage your workload no matter how your clients prefer to work.

Traditionally, most of your admin time is spent chasing clients for missing information and reviewing records. Agentic AI should unite advisors and small businesses closer together with deeper, more regular collaboration.

It will help you:

• Capture information correctly at the source
• Automate client follow-ups and document collection
• Free up more of your time for deeper, more frequent collaboration.

The result? Stronger relationships, richer conversations, and greater client trust.

Selecting the right AI tool is one of the most important decisions your practice will make as MTD for Income Tax approaches.

The right tool won’t just help you comply. It will transform how you work and how efficiently you operate.

That’s where the Sage MTD Agent comes in.

The Sage MTD Agent combines trusted Sage functionality with brand-new capabilities to streamline every stage of MTD, from the first client record, right through to the final submission.

Rather than relying on click-through menus to complete each step, the MTD Agent handles multiple, interlinking tasks at once, anticipating what needs to be done, organising information, and flagging anomalies.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• Less admin: There’s up to 80% less admin for you through intelligent task automation.
• Automated client segmentation: Instantly identify which clients are MTD ready, then add preparation tasks to a shared list that can be assigned to team members and set to recur.
• Quarterly submission reports: Automatically pull data from digital accounting records to draft quarterly reports for review and HMRC filing.
• Proactive document chasing: If information is missing, the agent can contact clients via email, WhatsApp or in-app notifications.
• Streamlined efficiency: Benefit from 40% less manual invoice handling and an average of 5 hours saved per week.

Even with all these advanced capabilities, you have the ultimate control. You can decide:

• Which clients to work on and when
• The level of automation for each workflow
• Whether the agent simply prepares tasks or fully completes them.

Tax is swiftly become digital-first, and compliance is no longer a tick box exercise – it’s about accuracy, efficiency, and insight. With MTD deadlines looming, the practices that embrace AI now will be best placed to thrive.

Final thoughts

Agentic AI isn’t here to replace accountants. It’s designed to support you, anticipate what needs to be done, and keep you firmly in control.

If you’re ready to future-proof your practice and help your clients navigate MTD with confidence, now is the time to explore how Agentic AI can support every step of the journey.

The accountant’s guide to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Download this free interactive guide to developing your practice approach to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Download here

Driving consistent revenue is the cornerstone of every successful SaaS business.

But when sales, marketing, and customer success teams operate in silos, growth can stall, processes break down, and valuable insights get lost. That’s where revenue operations (RevOps) comes in.

This guide explains what RevOps is, why it’s critical for your SaaS business, and how to successfully implement it to drive efficiency, alignment, and predictable growth.

Here’s what we talk about:

What is RevOps?

Revenue operations (RevOps) is the strategic alignment of your sales, marketing, and customer success teams under one unified framework. The goal is to create predictable revenue and improve every stage of your customer lifecycle.

Instead of running separate systems with conflicting goals and metrics, RevOps brings your teams together. It connects your data, processes, and strategy so everyone is working toward the same outcomes: consistent growth, higher efficiency, and stronger customer retention.

Why do businesses need RevOps?

As your business grows, so do the challenges of keeping teams aligned and working toward the same goals. SaaS revenue operations help you remove growth barriers and eliminate friction across the customer journey. It addresses issues like:

• Disconnected systems that create messy data and unreliable reporting
• Misaligned key performance indicators (KPIs) and limited visibility across teams
• Clunky handoffs between sales, marketing, and customer success
• Friction points in the customer journey that go unnoticed.

Imagine your B2B SaaS company is generating plenty of leads but conversions remain flat. After rolling out a RevOps strategy, you identify a key bottleneck in the onboarding process.

Marketing updates the messaging to better set expectations, sales adjust the timing of follow-ups, and customer success automates onboarding steps to speed up activation.

As a result, you see a noticeable improvement in new customer retention over the following months.

How does RevOps compare to sales ops and marketing ops?

Sales ops and marketing ops each focus on optimising their specific functions. Sales ops supports sales processes and CRM management, while marketing ops manages campaign execution and attribution tracking.

RevOps vs sales ops is a common comparison, but they serve different purposes.

While sales ops focus solely on the sales team, RevOps takes a broader, cross-functional approach. It brings sales, marketing, and customer success together under one unified strategy to drive consistent revenue growth.

Function	Focus area	Scope
Sales ops	Sales processes, CRM	Departmental
Marketing ops	Campaigns, attribution	Departmental
RevOps	Full revenue lifecycle	Cross-functional

By aligning data, processes, and strategy, RevOps makes sure your entire go-to-market team is working toward the same revenue goals.

Key Benefits of RevOps for SaaS

If you’re running a subscription-based SaaS business, adopting a RevOps model can unlock significant growth opportunities.

Here’s what you can expect:

• More accurate forecasting with real-time dashboards and centralised, trustworthy data. SaaS companies that adopt RevOps platforms have improved forecast accuracy to 97%, leading to more informed planning and stronger decision-making.
• Faster decision-making thanks to shared visibility and consistent reporting across teams.
• Stronger customer retention by aligning touchpoints and setting clearer expectations throughout the customer journey.
• Greater efficiency through automation, fewer manual tasks, and smoother handoffs. With 30% to 50% of sales budgets lost to inefficiencies, RevOps helps recover that value by streamlining processes and aligning tools across teams.
• Shorter sales cycles by improving collaboration and removing blockers in your revenue process.
• A unified tech stack that eliminates tool overlap, cuts costs, and supports integrated workflows.
• More predictable growth by bringing strategy, execution, and insights under one coordinated framework.

Common challenges to implementing RevOps

Adopting a RevOps model requires alignment, strategy, and buy-in across your organisation. Here are some common challenges you might face—and how to overcome them:

• Resistance to change: start with a pilot team to show quick, measurable wins and build momentum.
• Data silos: invest in tools that integrate easily and establish clear data governance to ensure consistency.
• Unclear roles and ownership: define responsibilities early and communicate them across teams to avoid confusion.
• Too many tools: audit your tech stack to remove redundancies and focus on platforms that support cross-functional workflows.
• Insufficient resources: prioritise key hires and make sure your team has the technology and training necessary for effective RevOps execution.
• Inconsistent processes across teams: standardise workflows to enhance alignment and smooth transitions throughout the customer lifecycle.

The 4 core pillars of a strong RevOps framework

1. Process

Standardised workflows keep your revenue engine running smoothly. Start by mapping your entire revenue cycle—from lead to renewal—and pinpointing where gaps, delays, or handoff issues occur.

Focus on:

• Lead routing workflows
• Clear handoff playbooks between teams
• Approval, contracting, and onboarding steps

2. People

A strong RevOps function depends on a team that understands systems, data, and strategy. Key roles often include RevOps manager or director, systems analyst, revenue analyst, and data architect.

Make sure to build a collaborative, adaptable, and comfortable team working across departments.

3. Platform

Your tools matter—but how they connect matters even more. To build an effective RevOps function, choose a tech stack that enables seamless workflows, supports real-time insights, and offers strong accounting integration. This ensures your financial data flows automatically between systems, reducing manual work and improving accuracy.

Essential tools might include:

• CRM platforms
• Marketing automation tools
• Revenue analytics platforms
• Subscription billing and accounting software with built-in accounting integration.

4. Insights and data

Reliable data is key for building a strong RevOps strategy. Your teams need quick access to insights they can trust.

Make sure you have:

• Unified dashboards visible across functions.
• Consistent definitions for key metrics.
• Automated reporting to save time and reduce manual errors.

How to set up a RevOps team

Building a successful RevOps function starts with the right people, systems, and alignment. If you’re a SaaS founder, CEO, or growth leader, here’s how to structure your RevOps team for long-term impact:

1. Define key roles and responsibilities

Start small, then scale as your needs grow. Your first hire should have experience across systems, data analysis, and go-to-market strategy. Over time, expand your team based on business complexity and growth goals.

Early roles to prioritise:

• RevOps lead or manager: owns the end-to-end revenue process, manages cross-functional alignment, and leads strategy execution.
• Systems administrator: manages tools such as your CRM, marketing automation, and support platforms; ensures integrations and data accuracy.
• Data & reporting specialist: builds dashboards, tracks KPIs, and ensures teams have the insights needed to make informed decisions.

As your business scales, consider adding:

• Revenue analyst: focuses on performance metrics, forecasting, and growth trends.
• Salesforce/CRM specialist: handles custom CRM configurations and automation.
• Customer lifecycle manager: oversees coordination between sales, marketing, and CS to optimise handoffs and retention.

2. Centralise your data infrastructure

A unified view of customer and revenue data is essential for RevOps success. Your team needs access to reliable, real-time insights from every part of the business to make informed decisions.

Steps to centralise your data:

• Audit current systems: identify where data lives across your CRM, marketing platforms, billing systems, support tools, and finance software.
• Select integration-friendly tools: use platforms that connect easily to eliminate data silos and ensure consistency across teams.
• Create a single source of truth: centralise your data in an integrated dashboard or data warehouse. A strong financial management platform brings together financial, operational, and customer data into one system for complete visibility.

3. Align cross-functional teams

RevOps involves a mindset shift across your entire go-to-market function. Creating alignment requires structure, consistency, and accountability.

How to drive alignment:

• Set shared KPIs: define revenue-focused metrics that sales, marketing, and customer success contribute to—such as pipeline velocity, customer acquisition costs (CAC), net revenue retention (NRR), and churn.
• Host regular revenue meetings: meet monthly with department heads to review performance, surface bottlenecks, and adjust strategy.
• Use shared dashboards: make sure every team can access the same real-time data and understand how their efforts impact the full revenue cycle.
• Establish communication protocols: Define how handoffs happen (such as from MQL to SQL to onboarding), and document processes in a shared RevOps playbook.

Steps to launch RevOps in a SaaS environment

Implementing RevOps involves taking a phased, strategic approach to make sure your systems, people, and data are aligned for sustainable growth.

Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Audit your existing workflows

Begin by mapping every step of your current revenue process—from lead generation to renewal. Look for:

• Redundant or manual tasks
• Data handoffs that slow teams down
• Visibility gaps between departments.

Step 2: Gather revenue data

Collect all relevant revenue-related data from your sales, marketing, customer success, and finance teams. This includes:

• Product data
• Account data
• Quotes
• Orders
• Contracts
• Invoices
• Payments.

Make sure the data is clean, accurate, and centralised to provide a solid foundation for decision-making and reporting.

Step 3: Simplify and integrate your tools

Review your tech stack and identify where tools overlap or cause friction. Prioritise platforms that:

• Support automation
• Integrate easily with your core systems
• Provide centralised reporting and analytics.

Step 4: Automate recurring processes

Automation reduces manual errors and frees up your team’s time for higher-value work. Look for opportunities to automate:

• Lead scoring and routing
• Follow-up sequences and nurturing emails
• Renewal and upsell notifications.

Step 5: Measure and optimise continuously

Define the KPIs that matter most to your revenue engine. Build shared dashboards, monitor performance, and revisit workflows quarterly to fine-tune your strategy.

Essential RevOps metrics for subscription businesses

Tracking the right metrics helps you understand performance and identify areas for improvement across the revenue lifecycle. Key metrics include:

• Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)/Annual recurring revenue (ARR): Track predictable revenue from active subscriptions.
• Churn rate: Measure how many customers cancel over a given period.
• Net revenue retention (NRR): Understand how well you grow existing customer accounts through upsells and cross-sells.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Calculate your total spend to acquire each new customer, including sales and marketing efforts.
• Pipeline velocity: Evaluate how quickly qualified leads move through your sales funnel.
• Customer lifetime value (LTV): Estimate the total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their relationship with your business.
• LTV:CAC ratio: Compare lifetime value to acquisition cost to gauge long-term profitability and return on investment (ROI).

Driving growth with SaaS accounting and subscription management software

RevOps delivers the most value when supported by technology built for SaaS. By aligning your sales, marketing, customer success, and finance teams under one operational framework—and powering that framework with the right tools—you set your business up for scalable, predictable growth.

Modern accounting and subscription management software enhances your RevOps strategy by helping you:

• Accurately track recurring revenue
• Automate billing and revenue recognition
• Access real-time, investor-ready dashboards
• Stay compliant with ASC 606 and other regulations.

With tools like Sage Intacct integrated seamlessly with Salesforce, you can streamline the entire workflow. The pre-built integration makes sure once a deal is closed in Salesforce, the data flows automatically into Sage to generate contracts, invoices, and revenue schedules. No manual re-entry is required, and sales, finance, and revenue operations teams all access the same up-to-date data.

Final thoughts

Ready to elevate your revenue engine? Discover how our AI-powered subscription management software helps you eliminate manual processes, gain deeper insights, and make smarter decisions at every stage of growth, from startup to initial public offering (IPO).

Digital transformation is no longer a future ambition for UK construction firms. It’s a present-day necessity.

It delivers the competitive edge that provides a modicum of certainty in a challenging business environment. Even better, it can truly move the needle on growth, efficiency, and real-time responsiveness.

Done correctly, digital transformation puts the finance team at the heart of the business, where it belongs, providing previously unheard-of cost and procurement visibility that benefits every project lifetime.

In this article, we look at not just the approach but also the finance-first mindset leaders like you should be adopting for successful digital transformation within construction. We also list some practical advice to move forward.

Here’s what we cover:

Digital transformation challenges for construction firms

Digital transformation remains a huge challenge within construction businesses.

RICS’ Digitalisation in Construction Report states that the use of digital technologies within construction projects is not increasing, as we might expect.

Those respondents not using any digital tech in their projects was 40% in 2021. And rose to 43% in 2023.

Just 25% said they use digital tools across some of their construction projects, while 20% reported using them for most projects.

This is certainly surprising considering mandatory implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level 2 for government construction, which surely shows an official desire for best practices, and even a legislative direction of travel.

Nonetheless, there is a realisation that digitalising projects brings benefits to key business functions, according to 53% of respondents in RICS’ report.

Without digital transformation, these common failure patterns are familiar whenever a construction project is reviewed:

• No single version of cost and commitment between estimating, procurement, site operations and finance.
• Late and manual reporting for work in progress, committed vs actuals, or cost-to-complete.
• Procure-to-pay lacks purchase order (PO) discipline, and features weak 3-way match, plus late accruals.

Decisions are reactive, rather than proactive. Forecasts are stale moments after they’re shared. Costs are hidden until accounts payable (AP) post invoices. Roll-ups and benchmarking are unreliable.

There can be an overreliance on spreadsheets, which further decouple core ledger management and procurement.

Ultimately, digital transformation must be about ensuring that financial data is accessible in real time. And that means the finance team must be at the heart of it.

Who should take responsibility for digital transformation?

When it comes to technology, surely it’s the IT department that should lead the transformation? After all, they have the technical know-how.

Unfortunately, such an approach is anachronistic.

While any IT dept is certainly central to the project, such an approach ultimately creates an IT project and not what’s required: a strategy to drive the business forward.

For example, the IT dept is likely to choose individual departmental systems based a feature matrix aligned largely if not exclusively with individual department needs.

This seems reasonable, until real-life experience reveals how it leads to silos. Departments might be digitally transformed to their satisfaction, but the business as whole is not.

A construction business is among one of the most complex, with many moving parts that need to interoperate. Digital transformation must unite these.

Furthermore, a mix of vendors across department digitalisation efforts can mean the siloed departments and systems can’t communicate easily, if at all. Humans are forced to take up the slack, via manual periodic reporting.

If nothing else, any hope of responsive decision-making is obliterated if, each time, a request has to be made for the vital data, and then days or weeks are spent waiting for the report to be generated and signed off.

Financials and creating a single source of truth

All roads lead to Rome and, in a modern thriving business, all business operations and decisions lead to the finance department.

Because of this, it’s the CFOs, finance directors, and operational leaders in UK construction firms that are best placed to drive true, strategic digital transformation.

Only finance leaders can ever provide a responsive single source of truth across the entire organisation detailing costs, commitments, and cash flow. Only finance teams can provide the real-time visibility, alongside fully rounded knowledge of issues such as compliance, such as the Construction Industry Scheme.

This provides incredible agility for not just ongoing projects but also planning.

Furthermore, the finance department has the oversight to ensure digital transformation is driven by strategy, because that’s a world they align to. Thus, this brings with it the ability to scale confidently and manage risk proactively.

Even better, it ensures the finance team is at the heart of the organisation.

What digital transformation looks like

Here’s what you should expect from any digital transformation:

• Single source of financial truth: Project‑level profit and loss (P&L), work in progress (WIP), and cash visibility by cost code.
• Live committed cost tracking: POs, subcontracts, and variations captured before spend happens.
• Closed-loop procure-to-pay: Requisition, to PO/commitment, to goods/services receipt/valuation, to 3way match, to pay run—all visible to finance.
• Operationally native job costing: Forecasts, Estimate at Completion (EAC), and cost‑to‑complete are updated from the field and surfaced instantly to finance.
• Controls and auditability: Approval tiers, segregation of duties, vendor and subcontractor compliance (CIS, insurance, safety), and retention handling.
• Construction-specific compliance: Applications for payment, retentions, CIS deductions, and domestic reverse charge VAT handled as standard.

5 steps to kickstart your transformation

Here’s how you can begin.

1. Choose construction-specific finance platforms

Generic accounting tools can’t handle complexities like CIS, retentions, or applications for payment.

Choose cloud accounting software built for construction that supports job costing, WIP, and procurement workflows. Look for real-time dashboards, API integrations, and compliance automation to ensure finance becomes the control tower for your projects.

Ensure there’s expandability to add-in vital functionality from third parties.

2. Audit current processes and start with finance

Map your existing workflows—procurement, job costing, WIP reporting—and identify gaps in visibility or control. Prioritise finance as the foundation: standardise cost codes, enforce PO-before-pay, and automate revenue recognition.

This ensures transformation delivers measurable financial outcomes rather than becoming a disconnected IT exercise.

3. Set goals around accurate EAC and WIP reporting

Define clear key performance indicators (KPIs) such as weekly Estimate at Completion (EAC) accuracy, WIP variance tolerance, and margin-at-completion visibility.

Align these goals with board reporting requirements and project-level dashboards.

Automate calculations where possible to reduce manual errors and ensure decisions are based on live, reliable data rather than several month-end spreadsheets.

4. Ensure integration with site tools and document management

Disconnected systems create blind spots. Ensure your finance platform can be extended for estimating, field progress, and document control tools.

This ensures that purchase orders, valuations, and progress updates flow seamlessly into job costing and WIP reports, giving finance and operations a single version of the truth.

5. Train teams and enforce policies in-system, not just on paper

Policies such as PO-before-pay or approval thresholds only work if embedded in workflows.

Configure system-based approvals, alerts, and compliance checks.

Deliver role-specific training for finance, commercial, and site teams, supported by quick-reference guides.

Reinforce adoption with dashboards that make compliance visible and measurable.

Final thoughts

Finance-first transformation creates sustainable success and means any digitalisation project within construction is more likely to complete.

No business has ever suffered after putting the finance department at the heart of the operations, and construction inherently demands such an approach if costs are to be controlled, insights to be gained, and the whole organisation made responsive.

What is predictive maintenance? All industrial machines are subject to wear and tear. Whether it’s abrasion, corrosion or fatigue, the health of your machinery will be affected and you will inevitably lose money due to downtime.

What can you do to mitigate an issue that naturally occurs?

You could already be pursuing a strategy of preventative maintenance – periodic inspection of machinery could identify problems before they happen, reducing the time spent on stoppages. However, this still won’t tell you exactly when issues occur.

However, as we’ve entered the fourth industrial revolution, predictive maintenance is a way to prevent you from losing money that downtime causes.

Through the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), you can connect sensors to machinery that will collect data, and use advanced analytics to take this data and create meaningful insights.

Here’s what we discuss:

How manufacturers can benefit from predictive maintenance

Analysts believe predictive maintenance will be big business – according to Big Market Research (BMR), the global predictive maintenance market size will be worth $24,015.7m by 2026.

As a manufacturer, why should you be interested? The answer is value-added services and servitisation.

Certainly, predictive maintenance has the capability of powering new as-a-service models, in which the manufacturers of capital equipment can bundle in maintenance and repair as part of the overall cost of a system.

There is excellent value in the data you can collect from predictive maintenance, but you need to look closely at the back-office expertise you need to make the best use of it. You need to have the right data available, frame your problems appropriately and evaluate the predictions properly.

1. Algorithms

Best practice dictates that every sensor on your machinery must have an algorithm aligned with the monitored piece of equipment. If not, you won’t be able to report individual red/amber/green situations effectively.

The algorithm is usually defined by the equipment’s manufacturer.

2. Insights

The next step is to collate multiple instances of fail scenarios to understand why they occur and anticipate them. Many manufacturers successfully collect data to understand why numerous instances of their products fail.

However, it would be more effective if users worked together to collect similar data across all of their estates, so they can understand why chains of equipment from different manufacturers might fail.

3. Machine learning

The next step in maintenance optimisation is to apply machine learning and predictive analytics to these cases, but machine learning is exponentially dependent on data quality.

Optimising a complex operational chain requires increasing numbers of variables and parameters to be analysed in real time for incremental degrees of benefit.

Using predictive maintenance for the circular economy

The circular economy is a system that looks to eliminate waste and the continual use of resources.

As opposed to a traditional linear economy in which we make, consume and throw away, moving circular is all about creating a circle where we reduce waste and pollution by keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible and finding ways to create new resources from what we discard.

Being part of the circular economy is a good thing from a moral standpoint. But, more to the point, you may be getting pressure from customers and regulatory bodies to do more sustainable business that is better for the environment.

Customers are increasingly appreciating and looking for links with companies that show they care, and the long-lasting relationships you can build like this are like gold dust.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the manufacturing industry could save between 10% to 15% on direct materials required for production.

Managing the economics of the circular economy demands that your business understands and remodels your supply chain. You must become experts in predicting failure rates, both individual units and at scale.

And you must create new reverse supply chains, from the consumer back to base or to redistribution centres. Both of these are new disciplines that benefit from predictive maintenance.

How to start using predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance could help you unlock the ability to reuse product profitably in an environmentally friendly way while maintaining a positive customer experience.

For predictive maintenance, you will need the systems and equipment in place to collect data from connected devices to report back to base. You then have the option to proactively service a unit and extend its lifetime, or to recommend replacement and then bring a unit into its secondary market economy.

Through predictive logistics, you can put this foresight to work, optimising reverse supply chains, and turning them from reactive to proactive. And according to analysts Bain & Co, shippers with optimised distribution networks could expect to increase margins by up to 10%.

In the words of Talking Logistics: “Shippers and service providers must operate smarter, not bigger. This is where profit will be made, and where the leaders will separate from laggards.”

Core to predictive maintenance is collecting, storing and analysing data sets. On a high level, predictive maintenance relies on three layers:

1. Collection – the accumulation of data, which is likely to come from sensors used on devices through the Internet of Things (IoT)
2. Interpretation – data transferred through the collection is stored, analysed and interpreted
3. Prediction – you can predict events through the calculation of event entry probabilities.

Here are some simple steps to getting started

• Start small. If you’re starting from scratch, you’re bound to get some resistance with a new way of working. Start with looking at one or two critical assets initially with your predictive maintenance implementation – it’ll mean you can take care and analyse mistakes in the process before pursuing a large scale roll-out.
• Identify what assets to use for predictive maintenance. You need to ask yourself what assets would work for a predictive maintenance approach. When you first start, it’s probably worth using low-cost or expendable assets to test the reliability of your predictive maintenance approach before going to more mission-critical assets.
• Identify what resources you need. Of course, you need to put in place the tools and technology for predictive maintenance – such as sensors, cameras and software. But it’s not just technology around collecting data from assets you need. You also need to look at what you need in terms of people, training, materials, and physical space.

As a distributor, you should recognise that you’re more under the spotlight when it comes to sustainability and the environment. But there is evidence that the circular economy can work from a business point of view.

Gatwick Airport, for example, implemented a 10-year green strategy in 2010. By 2017, as well as a 10.5% reduction in carbon emissions and a 5% reduction in energy consumption per passenger, it achieved the goal of sending zero untreated waste to landfill.

With predictive maintenance, you can make efficiency gains that will help you save money and increase profitability. You have a significant role to play in engineering secondary markets, and the use of IoT data and AI for predictive applications could be central to your success.

The potential for predictive maintenance is inspiring and it’s certainly worth looking carefully at what it can do for you.

This article was first published in January 2020 and has since been updated for relevance.

Employment Hero announces enhanced global integration with Indeed, including free job adverts and one-click applications.

8 October 2025 – Employment Hero, the global authority on employment, today announced an enhanced global integration with Indeed, expanding on its existing connections with leading candidate sources including LinkedIn and SEEK.

The upgraded integration is designed to give small and medium-sized businesses greater reach and efficiency in their hiring efforts — helping them connect with quality candidates faster while reducing the cost of recruitment.

Through the enhanced Indeed integration, employers using Employment Hero can now:

• Post free job adverts directly from the platform to increase visibility and reach.
• Enable one-click applications, streamlining the candidate experience and boosting conversion rates.
• Use integrated screening questions to accelerate shortlisting and identify top talent quickly.

David Holland, Managing Director of Talent Solutions, Employment Hero

“This upgraded integration marks an important milestone in our mission to build a smarter, more connected employment ecosystem. By moving from a third-party connection to a direct integration with Indeed, we’ve unlocked greater functionality for our clients and candidates alike. This means a more seamless hiring experience, reducing friction, improving data accuracy, and delivering faster, higher-quality matches between employers and job seekers.”

This announcement builds on Employment Hero’s continued investment in making recruitment simpler and more effective for businesses worldwide.

Ben Thompson, CEO and Co-founder of Employment Hero said:

“When Dave Tong and I founded Employment Hero more than a decade ago, the goal was to create proud, confident employers who felt well equipped to employ, pay and manage their people. And we wanted to give small businesses a competitive edge. Looking ahead, our focus remains on simplifying employment and giving SMBs the infrastructure to operate at the same level as the world’s largest companies.”