In our new ‘meet the expert’ feature, here Ian Lloyd, Audit and General Practice Partner based in our Bath office, answers a couple of questions on advice for the year ahead and using technology in finance.

What’s the one biggest bit of advice you would give at the start of the calendar year?

The New Year period is often seen as a time for reflection, and while it is good to assess your performance in the previous year, it is just as important to adapt or create new strategies for the year ahead – and, more importantly, begin to take action on them as soon as you can.

In addition, it’s an important time to have a pre-year-end planning meeting with your accountant to think about your options as we approach the end of the tax year, such as topping up an ISA, contributing towards your retirement by topping up pension contributions (possibly bringing forward unused allowances from the previous three tax years, as long as you were a member of the pension scheme within those years), saving for your children through a Junior ISA (the annual allowance for a JISA in 2022/23 is £9,000) or a longer-term option of contributing into a stakeholder pension for children, and using any capital gains tax allowance (depending on individual circumstances).

It’s also worth discussing changes to tax reliefs coming in from April 2023.

How do you use technology in finance?

As early adopters of the latest cloud accounting technology, we have been able to make sure clients are prepared for digital transformation, such as Making Tax Digital.

By investing in automation technology, we are not only helping our clients to achieve more, but we have also saved considerable time, enabling us to focus on advisory services which provide deeper insight and greater value to our clients.

Want to learn more about Ian Lloyd or get his latest advice? Please get in touch.