Adviser Spring 2020

Digital Predictions for financial services Scrutton Bland predict what

will be big in the coming months

An acceleration in small businesses adopting cloud technology Cloud adoption rates have been growing fast so this may seem like an obvious prediction. But we think 2020 will be a big year for businesses moving their entire functionality to the cloud. The requirement for digital links from April 2020 as part of HMRC’s Making Tax Digital roll out compels businesses to link their systems. For micro businesses where everything is run from one programme, such as Xero, this is not a problem; most businesses of this size affected by Making Tax Digital have probably already moved to the cloud. The businesses that are mainly affected are those that operate many different systems and currently copy and paste information from one system to the other. Combine this “stick” with the “carrot” of efficiency gains, better reporting and a single source of data verification, and small to medium sized businesses are starting to bite the bullet and make the switch. In reality we don’t expect to see penalties for a lack of digital links to start hitting businesses until the end of 2020, as HMRC will only be aware that these aren’t in place when an onsite investigation is carried out, but we always advise clients to do this as you never know when an investigation may happen.

Predicting the future is always challenging, but Simon Pinion and Ryan Pearcy in the Systems Advisory Team at Scrutton Bland have attempted to do just that for the coming months. Here are a few of their expectations for the world of digital finance:

4 | S C R U T T O N B L A N D | D I G I T A L A C C O U N T I N G

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