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ICB LUCA Awards 2016
LUCA Awards_ICB

Xero and Receipt Bank scoop bookkeeping Oscars

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1st Dec 2016
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Cloud accounting tools demonstrated their growing influence with a string of victories in the annual ICB Luca Awards.

Styled by the institute as the “bookkeeping Oscars”, the awards were presented by ICB patron Prince Michael of Kent on Tuesday night at Mansion House in London. The highbrow venue was selected to celebrate the ICB’s 20th anniversary.

In all, 22 Luca Awards were presented to individual bookkeepers and students, bookkeeping frims, trainers, “thought leaders” and international employers (see below for highlights).

But the changing shape of the profession was best illustrated by the software categories, where Xero beat out Sage 50 and QuickBooks to both the payroll and bookkeeping prizes.

AccountingWEB and ICB member Sarah Douglas commented that Xero UK managing director Gary Turner had told a recent institute gathering that bookkeepers were making the running in the use of Xero tools. 

Alongside the big accounting engines a raft of cloud add-ons were up for a specialist prize, with Receipt Bank carrying the day ahead of Avalara, BrightPay, Deputy Practice Ignition, Satago, Tsheets and Transfermate. Mark Wickersham’s Cloud Pricing project also earned a nomination in this category.

Receipt Bank, meanwhile, pipped Xero, XTBills, Tsheets, Sage and Intuit to the social media campaign prize for its online support for global bookkeeping week.

But Xero had the last laugh, with the final LUCA for outstanding contribution to the bookkeeping profession going to founder and CEO Rod Drury, making the final count Xero 3, Receipt Bank 2.

Sage executive vice president Jennifer Warawa won some consolation for the UK-listed developer with a Luca for thought leader of the year, partly on the strength of her speech at the ICB Summit this summer when she flew in and out from Atlanta on the day to tell the audience about her experiences as a bookkeeper, accountant and now software executive.

Other recipients included a business support service of the year award to HMRC for its Personal Tax Accounts project and AccountingWEB for accounting media of the year.

2016 ICB Luca winners

  • Student - Terry Ramm (Ideal Schools)
  • Employed bookkeeper - Rahana Iqball-Raffell (Bookkeepers in Buckingham)
  • New practice - Loud and Clear Accounting
  • Small practice - R&R Accounting Services
  • Large practice - ValueAdd Business Solutions
  • Small accredited training provider - Kaplan
  • Large accredited training provider - Training Link

Replies (21)

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Chris M
By mr. mischief
01st Dec 2016 09:43

Utterly ridiculous. Xero payroll is by a WIDE margin the very worst payroll software I have come across. it is a complete joke and my client who was on it has moved back to a proper payroll system.

In my view most business awards are pretty much a farce. My clients who have won awards have mostly been excellent at self publicity, and their profit and loss accounts win no awards from me!

Conversely I have 5 or 6 clients who from startups have created within 5 years very profitable and sustainable businesses which will probably see them fine for the next 10 to 20 years. The total number of business awards won by these 5 or 6 clients is zero.

Thanks (6)
Gary Turner
By garyturner
01st Dec 2016 11:09

These awards were voted by ICB members who use the products they are voting on. Payroll in Xero has lots of fans, (notably not you, and that's fine) and many thousands happily using it.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero
@garyturner

Thanks (2)
Replying to garyturner:
FT
By FirstTab
01st Dec 2016 13:35

Well done to Xero team.

Any progress on Xero UK final accounts? A dead duck? Failed promise?

Xero is our main software. We do not give a choice to clients. It helps to get to my utopia practice.

I am pleased we backed the Xero horse. Xero's own massive marketing is helping us. It has made a accounting software a little sexy.

We also like Xero Practice Manager.

I will not stop mentioning Turner's failed promise.

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Replying to garyturner:
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By [email protected]
14th Dec 2016 12:22

Right.

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Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
01st Dec 2016 12:34

Great article . Congratulations to Gary at Xero and all the winners including small practice R R accounting large practice Value Added . These awards are celebration of achievement and always will be . They bring everyone together for a big party. . The awards mean a lot to everyone who takes part including myself .

ICB has so much talent and a lot of respect for each other . Value added particularly support all of us working together in Glasgow and I was over the moon for Michelle . Richard RH accounting was overjoyed. You can have your view Mr Mischief but personally I like seeing people been awarded for hard work and the happiness it brings. Congratulations to all the nominees and I wish you success in the next awards.

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By RobertD
01st Dec 2016 12:42

I think Gary's award for his hard work feeding HMRC lines will be in the form of an enhanced bank balance. As for happiness, I'm pretty sure most of my clients who will struggle with higher fees or digital software and quarterly reporting will be pretty far from it.
All these glossy lines and awards quite frankly make me want to yac!
Just saying.

Thanks (1)
Replying to RobertD:
Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
01st Dec 2016 14:34

Actually I think you will find that bookkeepers give the clients good value for money and working well with a accountant is the best result for a client .

Thanks (1)
Replying to sarah douglas:
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By RobertD
01st Dec 2016 15:27

Bookkeepers. Didn't mention the word.

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Replying to RobertD:
Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
01st Dec 2016 15:37

The Luca Awards are held by the Institute of Certfied Bookkeepers for their members and associates within the bookkeeping business.

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Replying to sarah douglas:
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By RobertD
01st Dec 2016 16:02

Very nice. So? I still wasn't taking about bookkeepers

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Replying to RobertD:
Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
01st Dec 2016 15:39

Double posted

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Gary Turner
By garyturner
01st Dec 2016 14:14

@FirstTab - Have you checked out the new Report Templates we added in July that provide for the creation of sole trader accounts?

@Robert - We're as much on the receiving end of HMRC policy as you and your clients are. While momentarily amusing, the notion that the software industry is somehow conspiratorially driving HMRC policy is, I can assure you, ridiculous.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero
@garyturner

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Replying to garyturner:
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By RobertD
01st Dec 2016 15:26

garyturner wrote:

@FirstTab - Have you checked out the new Report Templates we added in July that provide for the creation of sole trader accounts?

@Robert - We're as much on the receiving end of HMRC policy as you and your clients are. While momentarily amusing, the notion that the software industry is somehow conspiratorially driving HMRC policy is, I can assure you, ridiculous.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero
@garyturner

Although you stand to gain with this initiative whilst many businesses do not. I don't suppose you and your competitors are capable of driving policy but I am pretty sure the nauseous discussion and glib presentation has helped shape HMRC's view of the benefits and ease of use of accounting software for all.
I may have overlooked it but have you ever commented on any of the countless issues that have been discussed on this and other sites. I have clients with real worries.
Of course you may be too busy whooping and high fiving with your colleagues.

Thanks (1)
Replying to RobertD:
Gary Turner
By garyturner
01st Dec 2016 16:00

Of course. I think I'll leave you with your world view for now.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero
@garyturner

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By BryanS1958
01st Dec 2016 14:41

Last time I used Xero, admittedly a few years ago - I dropped it like a hot potato and haven't revisited it since - it was very poor for small businesses. QBO is much easier to use, has much better reporting and searching facilities, much easier to change things if there is an error, very easy bank reconciliations, etc. It would be interesting to see on what 'scientific' basis Xero comes top.

Thanks (3)
Chris M
By mr. mischief
01st Dec 2016 15:39

Xero Pay came up with a P60 for the 2015-16 tax year in February 2016, I believe. It may have been March.

Either way how such an abject failure to deliver can even make the shortlist for a payroll reward simply trashes the currency of that award.

I have a whole list of issues with Xero pay, or did have back in April or May which i think was the last time I bothered to raise them with the Xero team. trivial matters like why the payroll submissions to HMRC were not in agreement with the trial balance.

I can't comment on whether they have been fixed as I've lost interest now my client has changed system.

But the credibility of these awards has been utterly shredded with this one. If it was software Turkey 2016 then hell yes!

Thanks (0)
Replying to mr. mischief:
Gary Turner
By garyturner
01st Dec 2016 15:51

Great feedback, thanks.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero
@garyturner

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Replying to mr. mischief:
Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
01st Dec 2016 16:41

You are well out of order. You may disagree with a winner and you have that right . But you are wrong to make comments like that about the awards . genuine people have worked extremely hard for these awards which by the way have no effect On you what so ever .

It is a free country and if you do not like a software then do not use it.

. Yes say you don't agree with a winner, but bitterness to others never comes across well .

Thanks (4)
Replying to sarah douglas:
Stepurhan
By stepurhan
01st Dec 2016 17:26

sarah douglas wrote:

You are well out of order. You may disagree with a winner and you have that right . But you are wrong to make comments like that about the awards . genuine people have worked extremely hard for these awards which by the way have no effect On you what so ever .

It is a free country and if you do not like a software then do not use it.

. Yes say you don't agree with a winner, but bitterness to others never comes across well .


Assuming you are responding to mr mischief, I think it is you who are being out of order. (If you are responding to someone else, please clarify).

His objections go beyond just not liking Xero Payroll. He is saying that, in his experience, Xero Payroll has failed at the things it is made to do. If something fails to do what you bought it for, then it is clearly undeserving of an award. If HMRC won an award for telephone support, would you not have doubts about the award process that allowed that to happen.

It may be that his experience is an isolated one, and the program is fine for the majority of users. That does not invalidate his personal experiences, or make his opinions derived from them simple "bitterness".

For what it's worth, the book-keeper I recommend is MICB. I recommend them to clients because it is a valuable service that they do well. That doesn't mean that I automatically assume the ICB awards must have high status because of association with them. Out of curiosity, do you know if these awards were self-nominating? It's hard to take a "best" award seriously if the options are all self-selected.

Thanks (1)
Chris M
By mr. mischief
02nd Dec 2016 09:03

All I am saying, Sarah, is that the 5 or 6 clients I have that i would give a business award to have a grand total of zero between them.

Conversely I have a few clients who have won business awards. And all I can say is they don't win any awards from me for business acumen. I would happily nominate most of my award winning clients for "business self-publicist of the year" awards if one could be created.

If any of my clients are reading this, I am not referring here to a bakery or restaurant! In fact my dubious award winners are all ex-clients now. That's not bitterness although in some cases it was strategic disagreement in the sense that I am a great believer in things like profits when you are running a business.

As I said to my main sub-contractor book-keeper once:

"It's a great pity we accountants are such killjoys and had to make up stuff like costs. If only the profit and loss account just had sales in it, award-winning client X would be the next George Soros."

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Replying to mr. mischief:
Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
09th Dec 2016 09:31

Hi Mischief

That is one thing I do agree with you on. Profits are the sign of success and no awards will change that. If you do not have a good business you will go under.

The ICB awards for the practice have always been about the particular practice achievements, growth in that particular year or a huge achievement for that practice and or individual . It is about their holistic approach to the other ICB members and supporting the bookkeeping network . It is about how the practice interacts with wider community with responsibility and helping others out for example charities or schools.

The criteria is wide, most of the practices who have won over the years have gone on to do really well in the bookkeeping world. So my issue was more about the hardwork of Small and Large Practice awards. As they are just like you and me.

Thanks (2)