This webinar dives into how finance leaders can attract, retain and empower young finance professionals by giving them a modern, integrated finance tech stack. Drawing on AccountsIQ’s research study, “Confessions of the Finance Function”, where we surveyed over 250 finance professionals (split between “young” and “experienced” accountants) across both industry and practice, we reveal what today’s finance teams really think about their day-to-day work, their use of technology and their long-term career ambitions.

The findings highlight a clear pattern: younger finance professionals are spending too much time on low-value tasks such as manual data gathering, rekeying client information, and updating Excel-based reports. Many see themselves as stuck in back-office roles, disconnected from commercial decision-making, and more than half say they don’t plan to stay in the profession for more than 10 years. Experienced finance professionals, meanwhile, often still rely heavily on spreadsheets and fragmented systems, reinforcing a culture where transactional work dominates and true business partnering is squeezed.

In the webinar, Nick Longdon (Chief Revenue Officer) explains how this reality contrasts with the potential of the “new finance function”, where automation dramatically reduces time spent on data entry and reconciliations, while freeing up capacity for analysis, advisory work and collaboration with the wider business. He shows where AccountsIQ sits in the market—as a cloud accounting platform for growing, mid-market and multi-entity organisations that have outgrown Xero, Sage 50 or QuickBooks, but don’t want the cost and complexity of ERP systems like NetSuite or Sage Intacct.

You’ll then see a practical demonstration from Helen Lawler, who walks through how AccountsIQ’s features help address the pain points raised in the research. This includes AP inbox automation for supplier invoices, bulk payments and bank feeds to speed up payment runs and bank reconciliation, fixed asset and depreciation automation, and powerful group accounting and one-click consolidation for multi-company structures. Helen also showcases AccountsIQ’s multi-dimensional BI codes and dashboards, which allow teams to analyse performance by entity, department, project, region or employee—without exporting everything to Excel.

By the end of the session, you’ll understand how the right finance tech stack can invert the traditional finance pyramid: reducing time spent on transactional processing, maintaining robust compliance and reporting, and massively increasing time available for data-driven decision support. Whether you lead a finance team in industry or in practice, this webinar will help you see how cloud accounting, automation and integrated reporting can make your function more attractive to young talent—and more valuable to the organisations and clients you serve.

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