Speaker Q&A: Hamish Edwards, Firmcheck

Hamish co-founded Xero back in 2006, where he was pivotal in Xero’s early growth across NZ, Australia and the UK. At the time Hamish was a practising accountant before his journey with Xero.

Whilst, no longer a practising accountant Hamish is still passionate about how technology can continue to be transformative for accounting, and that is reflected in his involvement with Firmcheck.

Learn more about Hamish ahead of his seminar sessions at Accountex next week!

 1. How did you get into the profession?

After finishing up my career in the Army, I went to work as a Chartered Accountant in my fathers Accounting Practice.

After a few months, I told my father that we were not not making enough money, and we should fire everyone and start again.

We did just that. I then led the repositioning of the firm to be more aligned with the value I believe accountants should bring to small businesses, and so with that, we rebranded and positioned ourselves as Virtual CFOs.

We grew really fast, eventually selling the business to Deloitte, ultimately because I got too busy with the other businesses I co-founded, a household name you might know well… Xero.

 2. What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job (career)?

It’s definitely the amazing people I have worked with. That includes team members of my firm and Xero but also all the clients I had and all the Accountants I met through Xero. Most of these people were SME owners and through the work we did I think we had a material impact on the business and as such the quality of their lives.

I have never really been a corporate guy or ever worked with many big companies. I like the human side of what I do and help make people’s businesses or accounting firms better. I really enjoy working with talented people and finding interesting ways of solving different problems and growing opportunities.

I have always measured my success by the success of my clients and the accounting firms we have helped. Specifically with Xero, we helped thousands of accounting firms unlock the benefits and power of the internet.

It was fundamentally life-changing for so many of the people who ran or worked in those accounting firms. I honestly believe we have helped transform the accounting services industry.

 3. What do you see as key trends for the accounting sector in the coming year?

I don’t see new significantly disruptive trends. However, I do think cyber security is something to watch.

Accountants need to just keep doing what they do best, looking after the accounting, financial, and tax side of their clients’ businesses.

They need to look after the people in the firms, make sure they have the correct training on all the software they use, and keep them updated with legal, tax and professional changes.

Accounting firms need to have good leadership, a clear strategy, and listen to their clients and their people. They need to make sensible well-executed changes and decisions.

Basically, just be really good at business (and that means working on their own business too).

 4. What are you most looking forward to at Accountex?

Talking to everyone, discussing new ideas and listening to what is going on in the industry right now.

It’s been several years since I’ve been on the ground in the UK, in the industry so I’m hoping to draw energy from coming to Accountex and get really enthused about the accounting industry and what it’s capable of.

It’s also a huge learning opportunity for my new software firm, Firmcheck. I want to hear from everyone about what they want, what is their dream list of stuff they would like from us.

Gathering insights on the future of AML management would be fantastic.

 5. What do you want visitors to take away from your session?

I would love it if firms go away and think about how they actually run their business.

In my opinion, not enough accounting firms provide the kind of Virtual CFO services that I think their clients really want.

I also want firms to be honest about their technology strategy, of which I see AML compliance playing a big role. I want to be able to provide them with some guidance about how to review their current approach to technology and offer some ideas for things that might help them unlock efficiencies in their firm.

Hamish will be delivering the seminar ‘Using technology to enable your firm’s growth and create efficiencies’ at the ‘In Practice’ theatre at 10am on 15 May.

He will also be joined by Will Farnell, Co-founder of App Advisory Plus for the seminar ‘The era of cloud accounting – beginnings to now and where next, with Hamish Edwards Co-Founder of Xero’  at the ‘App Advisory’ theatre at 11am on 15 May.

Accountex London is taking place on the 15-16 May 2024 at ExCeL. 

You can register for a free ticket here. 

The post Speaker Q&A: Hamish Edwards, Firmcheck appeared first on Accounting Insight News.