Management Accountants' Week 2023
21 - 24 November
Online via MS Teams
Discounts for additional tickets:
When you book your first ticket your booking confirmation email will include a 20% discount code for you to share with colleagues at your own HEP so when the code is used on any additional bookings from the same HEP they will be discounted by 20% (i.e. additional bookings will cost £76 plus VAT when using the code). Therefore, if you have several bookings to make for your HEP, ensure you book a single ticket first, wait for the discount code in the confirmation email and then book the other tickets. If you are likely to have several bookings from your HEP, please co-ordinate this process before any bookings are made if possible, to avoid the need for refunds as much as possible.
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You can now book your place on our Management Accountants' week taking place from the 21-24 November. We will be hosting a series of webinars across a range of topics which we hope you will find interesting and valuable to you and your team members.
TIMETABLE
Day One: Tuesday 21 November
09.30-10.30 | Welcome followed by Presenting Data with Impact - Alan Rutter, Fire Plus Algebra When you're regularly presenting financial data, it can be challenging to grab the attention of your audience and make sure they understand the most important points. Structured preparation and smart use of visualisations can help boost the impact of your reporting. |
11.00-12.00 | Reporting to drive action - Harriet King, Ferguson King Consulting In this session Harriet will walk through a framework to help you focus your management reporting and variance analysis to generate conversations that will drive real action in your institution. |
13.00-14.00 | VAT - Risks and hot topics, what you need to know - Andrea Marshall, BUFDG Tax Specialist BUFDG’s Tax Specialist, Andrea Marshall, will talk you through the background to and tax risks associated with international on-line learning. She will then quickly cover other VAT hot topics including overpaid Import VAT, VAT on fuel and power and Tax Automation. There will then be an opportunity for delegates to ask questions. |
14.30-15.30 | The current HE landscape and what this means for Finance - Craig Jones, CFO University of Derby and BUFDG L&D Group Chair Craig Jones gives his insight into the current opportunities and challenges in HE from his perspective as COO of the University of Derby. Craig will explore what this means for Finance teams and where finance can support the university. |
16.00-17.00 | Live and dynamic financial reporting to budget holders using Power BI - Noah Herr, Financial Planning and Analysis Lead, Institute of Cancer Research In 2022, the Institute of Cancer Research launched new financial reporting tools to budget holders using Microsoft Power BI. These live and dynamic tools have been credited with “transforming” the information that budget holders receive on their budgets, and have demonstrably led to better engagement with and management of budget portfolios. This session will include a demo of the tool, as well as some reflections and lessons learned from its development. |
Day Two: Wednesday 22 November
09.30-10.30 | Balancing finance and sustainability at your university - Sally McGill, CFO, Staffordshire University Looking at our own organisations, how is the relationship between environmental sustainability and financial sustainability developing and how, as finance professionals, can we bring about change in our organisations as we try and meet are sustainability targets. |
11.00-12.00 | Communication Styles - How to work effectively with others - Shirley Dalziel, Develop Global To recognise your own preferred communication preference and start to recognise that others have different preferences. In the session you will complete a questionnaire which will indicate your own preferred communication style. The session will help to understand how these communication preferences and 'drivers' are formed. We will have a chance to hear from those with different preferences and enable you to start to identify what you may need to do differently when communicating with those with other preferences. |
13.00-14.00 | Current and future policy in Higher Education, Josh Freeman, Higher Education Policy Institute Josh will explore the existing landscape of Higher Education policies, reflecting on current and evolving challenges. Josh will also take a look at potential policy direction and what this means for HE. |
14.30-15.30 | How to write an effective Business Case - Simon Perks, Sockmonkey Consulting A powerful business case is the key to making good ideas happen. In this fast-paced session, we’ll look at what a business case is and what it needs to do. We’ll explore the three key elements that make a compelling case for change. And we’ll discover how we can use words, data and emotion to persuade even the most sceptical stakeholder. There’ll be plenty of time for questions and discussion, too. |
16.00-17.00 | Empowering Transformation: The Evolution of Robotic Process Automation at the University of Plymouth - Louis Gilmour, Teresa Baker and Heidi Dawe - Transformation team, University of Plymouth The transformation team at Plymouth will take you through their journey into Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Find our more about how Dougal, Ermintrude, Zebedee and Brian are helping the team with tasks. Louis, Teresa and Heidi will give examples of where the bots are making a difference. Come along with your questions for the team. |
Day Three: Thursday 23 November
09.30-10.30 | The current economic climate - Jeavon Lolay, Head of Economics and Market Insight, Lloyds Bank A summary of the main global and UK economic and market themes to consider in the year ahead. |
11.00-12.00 | Handling difficult conversations - How to be more influential, Richard Matthews and Tom MacKay, Develop Global The aim of this session is to give you a framework to handle those conversations that you find more difficult. The facilitators will allow you to view a ‘difficult conversation’ that takes place between a senior manager and a management accountant. As session participants you can ‘guide’ the management accountant to enable them to be more effective as part of this conversation. You will also gain some tips, techniques and a framework to handle those more difficult conversations. |
13.00-14.00 | A review of Monthly Reporting at the University of Manchester - Vicky Skinner Join Vicky as she shares her examination the monthly reporting process at Manchester. Currently part of a wider review, Vicky will discuss her objectives, findings so far and plans for improvement. The session will be interactive, so please bring your thoughts and we can try and share learning and best practice across the sector. |
14.30-15.30 | HE Sector Pensions - what is the latest? - Rebecca Dodd, Mercer and Sharon Moore, UUK Rebecca Dodd from Mercer and Sharon Moore, from UUK will take you through what’s been happening and what is yet to come in the world of the sector wide pension schemes in Higher Education. Rebecca will look at the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) and will share what some institutions have done or are thinking about. Sharon will focus on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) – the current situation and how things may develop in the future. |
16.00-17.00 | Understanding performance through TRAC - Andrew Bush and Catherine Jones, KPMG This session will unpack what TRAC is, the information it uses and the outputs that can be generated from it. We will outline how the data has been used by Government and Funders and the benefits that can be drawn from this. We will consider the benchmarking information that is available and assess the different analysis that can be produced from the data to support the institution. The session will give you an opportunity to consider how the TRAC data set can further enhance the analysis of financial performance of different activities across the institution. |
Day Four: Friday 24 November
09.30-10.30 | Technology and AI, what's happening for Management Accounting - Alistair Brisbourne, Head of Technology Research, ACCA Global We're hearing a lot about Artificial Intelligence this year, so just what is happening? What can help us and what may we need to worry about? Alistair takes us through the developments as Head of Technology Research for ACCA Global. |
11.00-12.00 | Communicating with purpose - Emma Scott-Smith, Heliotrope If we want to communicate financial information effectively, we need to consider the purpose of what we’re writing as well as who we’re writing to. Without these crucial planning stages, our report or email may be too detailed and not give our readers the insight they need. But, when we’re up against a deadline, we may forget to plan. After all, with word processors we can launch straight into writing and change it later - at least we’re writing something, right? Wrong! That’s how inefficiency creeps in. Instead, you need to step back and consider your objective up front. |
13.00-14.00 | “You had one job…” - how to get it right first time, more of the time - Greg Fradd, the Accuracy People We all know that human error is costly in many ways. Even the silliest of slips and the most momentary lapses of concentration can cause us to lose a significant amount of time, if nothing else. They can damage our reputation and erode trust with colleagues and stakeholders. Human error is part and parcel of being human. But it needn’t be inevitable. Making fewer mistakes saves us time and increases efficiency. This interactive session shares insights into why we make mistakes at work, and explores practical strategies to reduce human error. |
14.30-15.30 | Financial Modelling and Forecasting - Graeme Tough, Director and Jessica Holden, Associate QMPF QMPF will leverage their experience in this area to suggest the best ways to approach modelling for the sector (ensuring they are user-friendly and transparent), how to get the most from your models and then use the outputs to inform business decisions. They will include:
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16.00-17.00 | Costing and contribution of teaching activities, Alan Bates, Higher Education Consultant Following the publication of the 'costing and contribution of teaching activities report', Alan Bates will summarise the key findings of the research, including the techniques used by the participating organisations. |
Your ticket will allow access to all sessions throughout the week, as well as all the recorded sessions and resources post-event. You will not need to pre-select sessions - attend as much or as little of the week as you can. Tickets cost £95 plus VAT, however, there will be a 20% discount for additional tickets for staff at the same HEP (see details above).
For any queries on the event, please contact gill@bufdg.ac.uk
Tagged : Management Accounting, Business Partner, Learning and Development, Annual Conference
Type : Conference
Please contact info@bufdg.ac.uk for more information
