ABE has been running for a number of years now and based on feedback from people I’ve spoken with appears to have been a success in 2026. They advertise it as having about 150 speakers, 100 organisations displaying their wares and 3,000 visitors. For the most part I don’t go to hear speakers, (and I have been a speaker sometimes) I go to speak to people and catch up on what’s happening in the accounting profession. Xero had a small presence and Intuit and MYOB a somewhat bigger presence. BGL and Class were obvious omissions.
It was a pretty good cross section of providers to the profession. The IPA were there but not CAANZ or CPA Australia. The Access Group had a big presence. Many of you may be aware this group comes out of the UK and has acquired a significant number of local businesses including APS, Attache, ATO SmartDocs, Change GPS, Fathom, Handisoft, MicroPay, Sage and a few others I don’t remember. I’m still getting my head around how the strategy is playing out but appears to revolve around an AI platform called “EVO” which is going to tie together many of these different tools. I‘m going to learn more about this as it feels like a work in progress but with some good promise.
On the document management side both FYI and SuiteFiles were there as was Virtual Cabinet 2.0. That’s now called Workiro and has been built from the ground up as a cloud based tool. A couple of people with some knowledge of it told me it is looking good and I wonder if it might become a credible competitor to the very established FYI and Suite Files.
There were some common themes coming through for me.
AI is everywhere
No real surprises here. Pretty much every software vendor is spruiking their use of AI inside their product, although some are more advanced than others, who are more of a “coming soon” offer. The rapid progress in generative AI tools is opening up more use cases in firms, and in addition we are seeing some specialised AI tools emerge. Tax research and note taking are two areas we are seeing this. At ABE I talked with the team at Savvy Wise and Tax Guru. Also there but I didn’t get to them were Cyborg Law and Elfworks. (They were tucked away in a spot I totally missed!) If I was running a small to medium firm right now, I’d certainly look at each to determine if there is a business case for their use. They have very different pricing models.
Law Cyborg – Tax & Law Research
Elfworks AI Tax Platform Online
Offshoring is also everywhere
Despite the rise and rise of AI and the not unreasonable view that it may significantly diminish the need for offshoring, I think the short term need for offshoring has remained strong. For a range of reasons, which I’ll expand on next time, many firms are finding they simply do not have enough capacity using Australian based people to meet the needs of their clients. A number of offshore providers were represented, including long term player Frontline Accounting. No TOA Global presence though. (They have a huge year end event so I guess that is why.)
AML Tranche 2 is a hot topic
Again, not a surprise. I think we are going to see maybe three different approaches inside firms:
- A largely “manual” based approach , probably using the tools and templates provided directly by Austrac Accountant guidance | AUSTRAC
- Use of a third party tool to “systemise” as much as possible – for example Easy AML and InfoTrack. EasyAML weren’t at ABE but did a great job briefing many of my clients on what is needed to comply with the Tranche 2 requirements. The pricing model of these two is quite different with Info Track having a zero monthly fee but higher cost per search as I understand it. As always you do your research and decide what works best for you.
- Use of some accounting specific tools already being used.
Content Snare Content Snare, Seamlss would be the front runners here I suspect. They already do a great job to streamline onboarding so it’s a natural extension.
Addressing the people shortage
A special shout out to Shaye Thyer of Pallas and Michaelle Kvello of Lantern Partners who ran a great session on the need to redesign expectations of senior roles so 50% of the population is not being excluded. A very good reminder that many firms are still largely ignoring the potential sitting in the female workforce. As I noted earlier, I’ll write more on the people shortage next time as I think it’s a critical issue for the profession that isn’t going to be fixed anytime soon.
The dates have already been sent for ABE 2027 – 17 and 18 March back at the ICC Sydney.