April Loop round-up
Welcome to your round up of news and updates shared on The Loop in April.
Colleagues
Group update on April 22nd:
Once again, a big thank you to everyone who joined us via Teams last week for our quarterly group update. The presentation included a business update (including our 4Ts), a Commercial focus and a People & Culture update and the full summary of what was covered can be found here: Thank you for joining our Group Update – Affinia Marketing Blog
As a reminder, we would really value your feedback via our post-event questionnaire here.
New team members:
Over the last month we’ve welcomed 11 new colleagues to the team, across our Audit, Accounts, Payroll, Business Support and People & Culture teams. Welcome once again to Affinia!
Work anniversaries:
We celebrated 14 work anniversaries across the business, ranging from 1 year to 25 years.
Promotions:
We were delighted to promote Ben Turnbull to Associate Director last month. You can read about it here: Ben Turnbull: Promotion to Associate Director – Affinia Marketing Blog
Exam success:
We had 16 staff pass exams, including Freddie Scott-Yates, Ash Thompson and Ruby Smith who are all now AAT qualified.
The full People & Culture update can be found here: http://affinia.fusion3media.co.uk/hold-people-and-culture/
Heartwarming news:
We were delighted to share the fantastic news of our colleague Anthony Tapsell in the Harlow office being declared cancer free, following treatment after diagnosis in March 2020. Here’s Anthony’s story: Anthony’s Story – Affinia Marketing Blog
Clients
Darren, Richard and Andrew visit our Cape Town colleagues:
Darren Redmayne, Richard Lane, and Andrew Runicles travelled to the stunning city of Cape Town to visit our audit service line colleagues, who support our UK client base.
This was an opportunity to discuss plans for future growth and development of Affinia and our South African operations, and additionally mark the formal transition of leadership of the team from Richard to Andrew.
Our South African colleagues were amazing hosts and the trip was a huge success. You can read about it in full here:http://affinia.fusion3media.co.uk/audit-south-africa-trip/
Making Tax Digital (MTD):
Daniel Rodger from our Personal Tax team shared information about the communication being sent to clients whose 2023/24 tax returns suggest they may be mandated into Making Tax Digital for Income tax from 6 April 2026. To get ahead of this, our tax team have been contacting appropriate clients to explain the MTD rules.
You can view the full notice here: Making Tax Digital – Affinia Marketing Blog
Private Client Tax updates:
In their April newsletter, the Private Client Tax team shone the spotlight on IHT Business and Agricultural Property Relief, sharing some key takeaway facts to help clients to protect their family businesses / farms. Please view their full update here: April Private Client Tax Newsletter – Affinia Marketing Blog
The Corporate Finance newsletter:
In their April update, our Corporate Finance team shared news on recent transactions they’ve completed, insights into market trends, and a technical spotlight on EMI schemes for succession planning. You can view the full update here: Corporate Finance and M&A Team March Newsletter – Affinia Marketing Blog
The Audit monthly newsletter:
Last month our audit team reported on:
- A sizeable new client win, referred internally by Mitchell Gooderham in Ipswich
- Changes to the audit threshold limits, which affects which accounting basis companies are able to use to prepare their financial statements, and in turn statutory auditing requirements.
- An internal focus on what it’s like working under the Audit service line, hearing from Aaron Low, an Audit Senior based in Stratford.
The full update can be found here: March Audit Newsletter – Affinia Marketing Blog
Cloud Accounting update:
Our cloud accounting team welcomed their three new recruits: Josh Jones and Becky Barker, Senior Cloud Accountants, and Puiver Chan, Junior Cloud Accountant. They also shared news about Affinia’s involvement in The Digital Accountancy Show (DAS), as well as highlighting their service offering menu for clients:
To read this update in full, please visit: Cloud Accounting Updates: April – Affinia Marketing Blog
Community
We were delighted to share some Community Updates from across the offices, covering:
- Gabriella Exley’s forthcoming run for Race for Life, raising money for Cancer Research
- Our Colchester office’s generous donation of Easter Eggs to Emmaus, a charity that supports children’s homes, children’s groups and children’s charities in the Colchester area
- Our Ipswich office Red Nose Day bake sale
- Our Sidcup office’s £51k donation to NHS Charities Together, a wonderful cause supporting 230 NHS Charities throughout the UK.
You can read the full community update here: Community Updates – Affinia Marketing Blog
Our 3 Cs combined!
Q&A with Accountancy Age – Affinia’s Growth Journey:
At the beginning of the month we highlighted Darren and Chris’ recent interview with Marina Mouka from Accountancy Age. This was a fantastic piece of news coverage about who we are as a firm, how we are scaling with intent and why culture comes first. You can read more on our feature here: Q&A with Accountancy Age: Affinia’s growth journey – Affinia Marketing Blog
That covers the key updates from April. If you have any questions about anything covered here, please get in touch with the head of service line as appropriate.
Happy Friday and have a fantastic weekend everyone!