This webinar is all about empowering young finance teams with the right technology and re-thinking what a modern finance career looks like.

Hosted by Nick Longdon, Chief Revenue Officer at AccountsIQ, with live demo support from Helen Lawler, Presales Consultant, the session is built around insights from AccountsIQ’s research report:

“Confessions of the Finance Function” – a survey of 250+ finance professionals across practice and industry, spanning both young and experienced finance professionals.

What you’ll learn

1. What young finance professionals are really thinking

Nick kicks off by sharing key survey findings that highlight a growing tension inside finance teams:

• 75% of young finance professionals spend a quarter of their time on labour-intensive data collection tasks
  • Chasing clients for data
  • Wrestling with multiple formats (Excel, PDFs, exports, portals)
• 32% say their frustration isn’t just the manual gathering – it’s the manual reporting that follows
  • Heavy reliance on Excel as “comfort blanket”
  • Rebuilding reports every month or quarter

Young professionals often:

• Feel stuck doing back-office, low-value tasks
• Feel under-utilised given their training and ambitions
• And more than half say they don’t plan to stay in the profession for more than 10 years

This contrasts with older generations who typically expected a career-for-life in finance.

2. How experienced finance professionals see themselves

The survey also shows many highly trained, experienced professionals still:

• Perceive their roles as back-office
• Don’t always feel valued in the wider business
• Work with a patchwork of different tools and systems, often exporting to Excel for:
  • Consolidation
  • Management reporting
  • Scenario analysis

The result:
Lots of manual work, fragmented systems, and not enough time for business partnering.

3. The “old” vs “new” finance function

Nick uses a simple but powerful pyramid visual:

Old finance function (left-hand pyramid)

• Most time: manual transactional processing
• Some time: compliance & statutory reporting
• Very little time: analysis, insight & strategic decision support

New finance function (right-hand pyramid)

• Much less time on manual processing – thanks to automation
• Same regulatory effort on compliance and statutory reporting
• Much more time freed up for:
  • Insightful management reporting
  • Business intelligence
  • Advising stakeholders or clients on decisions

The mission: flip the pyramid so finance becomes a central, value-adding function, not just a historical reporting machine.

4. Where AccountsIQ fits in your tech stack

Nick then positions AccountsIQ in the finance systems landscape:

• Cloud accounting software only – no on-premise legacy
• 20,000+ users in 60 countries
• Ideal for organisations that have outgrown entry-level tools such as:
  • Xero
  • Sage 50 / Sage Accounting
  • QuickBooks
• But who don’t need or can’t justify the cost and complexity of full ERPs like:
  • NetSuite
  • Sage Intacct
  • Workday

Key strengths:

• Automation of data entry and processing:
  • AP inbox / OCR for supplier invoices
  • Bank feeds and automated bank reconciliation
  • Bulk payments and payment file generation
  • Recurring journals and deferrals
• Strong group accounting:
  • Multi-entity
  • Multi-currency
  • One-click consolidation and intercompany support
• Custom integrations:
  • Ecommerce platforms
  • Maintenance / job systems
  • CRMs and billing systems
• Powerful reporting & business intelligence:
  • Dimensions / cost centres
  • Extended analysis reports
  • Management packs
  • New interactive dashboards

The goal: help finance teams move beyond Excel-heavy workflows and keep analysis inside a controlled finance platform, reducing error risk.

5. Helen’s live demo: from data input to business intelligence

Helen then gives a whistle-stop tour of how AccountsIQ actually supports this transformation.

a) Group structure & consolidation

• Demo dataset with 4 trading entities:
  • Different base currencies (GBP, EUR, USD)
• Consolidating into a GBP group entity
• Support for:
  • Sub-consolidations
  • Minority interests
  • Group-level control of FX rates and analysis structures

From the group screen, users can:

• Trigger consolidation at a click
• Run group-level reports without exporting data to Excel

b) Chart of accounts & dimensions

Helen shows:

• 3-tier chart of accounts:
  • Category
  • Subcategory
  • GL nominal
• Plus up to 6 analysis dimensions (cost centres):
  • e.g. Region, Employee, Department

You can:

• Define unlimited elements under each dimension (e.g. multiple regions or projects)
• Create BI codes (analysis codes) that combine multiple dimensions
• Tag every transaction with BI codes to enable multi-angle reporting (by region, department, project, employee, etc.)

c) GL Explorer & budgets

In the GL Explorer, Helen demonstrates:

• Instant P&L, balance sheet, and trial balance views
• Period or year-to-date views
• Comparisons vs:
  • Budget
  • Revised budget / reforecast

Budgets:

• Download system-generated templates (Excel)
• Populate and import back into AccountsIQ
• Store two budgets for comparison (original + revised)

6. Automation across the finance cycle

Helen then focuses on automation that reduces manual work:

Purchase Ledger & AP Inbox

• Rich supplier records:
  • Types, custom fields, default GL & tax codes, credit terms
• Purchase workflow:
  • POs with configurable approval hierarchies
  • PO & non-PO invoice approvals
• AP Inbox:
  • Unique email per entity
  • Supplier invoices emailed directly into AIQ
  • OCR reads and pre-populates key fields
  • Auto-matching to POs (full or partial)
  • Add BI codes at this stage for reporting
  • Attachments follow the transaction through the system
• Approvals via:
  • In-system approval screen
  • Email with attached invoice PDF
  • Mobile expense/approval app

Fixed assets

• Integrated fixed asset register:
  • Asset classes and individual assets
  • Links to invoices
  • Stored info on insurance, maintenance, leases
• Automated depreciation:
  • Straight line or reducing balance
  • Month-end run posts all depreciation journals automatically

Bulk payments

• Bulk payment run screen:
  • Suggests invoices due based on credit terms & dates
  • Filter by supplier/payment method
  • Drill into supplier details, notes, attachments
• Send the payment run for approval
• Once approved:
  • Download bank file in the required format
  • Import to bank’s online portal to pay all suppliers in one go
  • Email remittances out automatically

Bank feeds & reconciliation

• Live bank feeds via Plaid:
  • Up to 4 updates per day
  • Works for bank accounts and corporate credit cards
• Transaction colours:
  • Green: fully recognised & auto-reconciled
  • Orange: suggested posting (system recognises pattern; user confirms/edit)
  • Red: first time seen; user sets a new rule
• Over a few weeks, the system “learns” patterns and automates most reconciliation, turning a half-day task into minutes.

7. Sales, expenses & reporting

Sales ledger

• Invoices can be:
  • Raised directly in AccountsIQ (quotes → orders → invoices)
  • Or created via integrations from CRMs/industry systems
• Support for recurring invoices:
  • Weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly
  • System flags when they’re due; you generate & email out

Employee expenses

• Dedicated expense app for out-of-pocket claims
• GPS mileage, categories by role, receipt photos
• Manager approvals and posting back into AIQ

Reporting & analysis

Helen highlights:

• 250+ standard reports:
  • Multiple P&L formats
  • Balance sheet, aged creditors/debtors, cash flow
  • Management packs combining key reports
• Extended Business Analysis report:
  • P&L by BI code (e.g. region, department, project)
  • Columns for:
    • Actuals
    • Budgets
    • Variances
  • Anything in blue is drillable down to transaction level

At consolidation level, reports show:

• Group totals
• Breakdown by entity
• Drilldown from group to entity-level transactions without logging out

8. New UI & dashboards (sneak peek)

Helen finishes with a preview of the new navigation and dashboards:

• Left-hand navigation bar for:
  • Modules
  • Reports
  • Favourite pages for quick access
• Embedded Qlik-powered dashboards:
  • P&L overview
  • Working capital
  • Accounts payable dashboards (top suppliers, overdue, aging)
  • Income vs expenditure
• Fully interactive:
  • Change periods
  • Filter by BI dimensions (department, region, project)
  • Click charts to drill into detail

Future enhancements include:

• Non-financial KPIs (e.g. occupancy, volumes)
• Editable dashboards and report builder, all inside AccountsIQ
• Direct connections to Excel and Power BI for those who still want external reporting, but with live data.

‍

‍