Michele A’Court
Master of Ceremonies
Winner of “Female Comedian of the Decade” at the 2010 NZ Comedy Guild Awards, Michèle A’Court is a stand-up comedian, writer, social commentator and corporate MC.
Michèle is a frequent voice on RNZ National’s “9 to Noon” and “The Panel”; and she has been writing a weekly newspaper column on social issues since 2008, which is published in “Your Weekend” magazine with the Press, the DomPost and Waikato Times, and also on the Stuff website.
She has written two bestselling books: “How We Met” (2018) and “Stuff I Forgot To Tell My Daughter” (2015) both published by Harper Collins.
Her international experience as a stand-up comedian includes work in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. She has been working as an after-dinner speaker, event host and conference MC for more than 20 years.
Michèle is Chair of “The Aunties” Trust, a grassroots charity for women and children in need. She is also Patron of the Moving & Handling Association of NZ (MHANZ) which cares for carers in the health sector. Michèle is a proud member of Actors’ Equity, and a Life Member of the NZ Comedy Guild.
Latesha Randall
Keynote speaker
Tesh Randall (or Mrs Coconut as she's known in Raglan) is an enthusiastic entrepreneur - starting out in her home kitchen in 2014, Raglan Coconut Yoghurt now supplies over 600 stores around New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Pacific Islands.
She believes that business can be used as a tool for creating positive change and is a woman of many hats (literally & figuratively!), with side projects including writing books, hosting glamping enthusiasts in their yurt and tiny house, and her position as editor of Arrival travel magazine.
Tesh is an Edmund Hillary Fellow, SheEO activator, and member of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
She lives in Raglan with her partner Seb (Mr Coconut) where they love surfing and being part of the tight-knit community.
Naomi Ferguson
Commissioner and Chief Executive, Inland Revenue
Naomi has been Commissioner and Chief Executive of Inland Revenue since July 2012. She is leading the customer-centred business transformation, and chairs the Strategic Governance Board.
Naomi has a Master of Arts in English Literature and Sociology from Glasgow University. She is an experienced public sector executive with more than 25 years' experience working in revenue agencies in the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand. She has successfully delivered major transformational change projects and built effective teams to deliver results.
Naomi was the Deputy Commissioner, Service Delivery Inland Revenue New Zealand from 2003-2006, and immediately prior to returning to New Zealand to take up her current role, she was the Director, Business Customer and Strategy at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK. Naomi has also worked in the banking and health sectors.
Naomi contributes to a number of public sector wide initiatives and groups, including the Women in Government Network and is a member of the Diversity Works Board and the Ministry of Justice Risk and Audit Committee. In 2016 Naomi won the Women of Influence Award for Public Policy.
"Harnessing the power of technology to grow your practice using systems & automation"
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 1.15pm
Brad Golchin has a unique insight into the industry - a combination of technological expertise and accounting experience. For the past 15 years he has run an accounting practice in NZ and Australia and was one of the first to move to Xero and fully harness technology to streamline and grow his business. Brad now supports other accountants & bookkeepers so that they too can benefit from the power of technology- he has the expertise to bring together a basket of skills for the benefit of his clients. Online-marketing, video production, accounting, using technology, plus opportunities with social media, enable him to offer a comprehensive service with the years of experience behind him to offer a full support package for his clients.
"Creative SMarketing: How To Improve Profit. Promotion. Productivity"
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 2:15pm
You are going to love this session with free, easy and resourceful ideas and tips for you to improve your business success. client acquisition and retention. Without fluff or filler, Debbie will give you tip after tip to:
- Grow your income.
- Use Google to improve your online presence
- Free up time
All from minimal effort.
Entertaining and practical, Debbie is one of the worlds leading business productivity experts as well as one of the most sought after results oriented speakers and trainers in Australasia.
Like you, Debbie is a parent, a partner, heavily involved in business. Debbie’s achievement is that as a mother with a young family, she started a business from scratch, grew it to a 6-figure annual income, built an enviable international reputation, became a bestselling author of sixteen books, a media columnist – all in a short timeframe and on a miniscule budget.
You will not only be inspired and motivated - you will learn fabulous tips to become much more effective and efficient.
"Payroll Panel: The Future of Payroll"
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 11:30am
Di Crawford-Errington is the Founder and Master Problem Solver at Ontrack Bookkeeping Ltd, a bookkeeping firm based in Whangarei. Over the last 18 years, the business has evolved from a bookkeeping support role to include a tax agency, business development services and a payroll bureau with over 60 payrolls processed each week. Ontrack Bookkeeping has a team of 7 and specialises in supporting small businesses with financial solutions, payroll support, training, and systems advice. Di believes upskilling business owners gives them the best chance at success, which in turn ensures the success of our communities. She is an ICNZB Gold Certified award winning bookkeeper and has recently been named the only New Zealander in the Top 50 Women in Accounting for 2020.
"Lessons from the battlefield – a firsthand experience of growing a thriving bookkeeping business."
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 2:00pm
“Success isn’t achieving the goal in the future. Success is pursuing the process today.” – Craig Groeschel
From founding Admin Army in 2016, to a highly successful merge into the Streamline Business Group in 2020, Irene will be sharing her highs, lows and everything in between.
During this 35 minute session, Irene will talk about how she did it, and more importantly why she did it. What worked, what didn’t and the unplanned change in tack that led her to merging with a larger entity and the opportunity that has provided.
"Basic Building Blocks of Bookkeeping"
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 11:15am
Leaine Jones is long standing member of the bookkeeping community and is well respected by all her peers. She has successfully operated her business, Jones Business Solutions, in sunny Hawkes Bay for 15 years offering bookkeeping and accounting services. Her view on business is holistic and she works with entire teams to gain insights on whole operations to the betterment of her clients.
Leaine is a passionate member of ICNZB, having previously been the Hawkes Bay Regional Director, is an experienced Tax Agent and member of both ATAINZ and NZPPA.
In this session Leaine will focus on the Accounting Equation and how it helps you understand transactional bookkeeping. Get the insights from Leaine to demystify this theoretical concept with some practical worked examples. A perfect session for entry level bookkeepers, and even some of the more experienced.
"From Super Stressed to Focused Success"
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 11:30am
Linda has both vast knowledge and experience in business and specifically the management of business stress. As a professional keynote speaker Linda engages her audience and takes them on a journey of practical techniques and skills to assist them to reclaim and enjoy life!
Linda has delivered presentations, seminars, and workshops to businesses and groups throughout New Zealand, Australia, and North America, conducts a private practice for individual clients, and has won many accolades for her skills and achievements.
Her International Award-Winning book ‘Transforming Your Stress into Business Success’ is written in Linda’s unique style which guides the reader through a series of strategies and tools in a process of identifying the conditions caused by stress and then provides practical tools to eliminate those conditions.
"How to package, price and promote a 5-figure credit control service to your clients"
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 10:45am
Matt is the co-founder and CEO of Debtor Daddy. Since 2012 Matt and his team have helped thousands of businesses around the world improve cashflow and save time by taking a more customer-focused and automated approach to credit control.
Now Matt is working with bookkeepers and accountants across New Zealand, Australia, USA and the UK, teaching them how to set up a scalable, best practice credit control solution for their clients.
In this session Matt will talk to you about:
- How to deliver a best-practice credit control service to clients while maximising internal efficiency.
- Hourly or fixed? Learn the best ways to package and price your credit control service for maximum profit.
- Sales and marketing tools to help you promote your credit control service.
- The steps one of our bookkeepers took that resulted in a new client and a $7,000 credit control contract.
Mike Kelly and Ata McGregor, 
2Shakes
"Client Onboarding and AML: A Bookkeeper’s Guide"
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 10:45am
Things have come a long way since we started co-designing 2Shakes with Bookkeepers in 2016! We take a tour of best practice client onboarding, government authorities and AML compliance.
We’ll cover what to know, what to look out for, and what’s coming. See how to ditch the drudge and make taking on new business exactly what it should be – a pleasure!
Mel Morris, Xero
"An update from Xero"
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 1:15pm
Melanie joined Xero as NZ Head of Bookkeeping in 2016 after a varied and successful work journey, that also led her to found Bookkeeping and Beyond (Xero NZ Gold Partner) and Training and Beyond (Xero Platinum Partner) both multi-awarding winning businesses. Both companies are pioneers in the cloud technology community and act as training partners and conversion specialists for selected Xero add-on partners.
After 4 years growing Bookkeeping and Beyond, literally inventing the wheel and working in silo, Melanie identified the need for a professional body that provided education, standards and support to other Bookkeepers. Bookkeeping and Beyond was sold in 2016 when Melanie joined Xero in a part time capacity as Head of Bookkeeping.
When it comes to bookkeeping and financial governance, Melanie has ‘skin in the game’. In 2010 she founded the New Zealand Bookkeepers Association or the (ICNZB) and consulted with both government agencies and private industry to provide strategic leadership and advice for small business development and cloud-based solutions. Her governance roles include, financial management of the Bookkeepers Association, Chair and financial committee of the Lyttelton Primary School Board of Trustees. Current Treasurer and Trustee of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Foundation.
Neil Bhattacharya and Rob Gilmore, 
Tax Management NZ
"TMNZ is Provisional Tax"
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 11:15am
TMNZ has been helping small businesses over a decade to manage cashflow better and help save thousands by using tax pooling. We will show you how this works, how this benefits your client and, adds value to your client conversations. We are in the business of making paying tax easier. This session is presented by Neil Bhattacharya, a customer success strategist heading client services and delivery at TMNZ and Rob Gilmore, who leads the team at TMNZ responsible for managing the majority of smaller accounting firms including bookkeepers.
"Payroll Panel: The Future of Payroll"
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 11:30am
HR has a reputation for being dull and dreary - a tick the boxes, soulless kind of activity - however the Gals from Spice HR add more than a touch of spice to the businesses they partner with!
Co-founder of Spice HR in 2016, Nichola Gold brings to the Spicey table over 20 years’ experience in HR, including Reward and Recognition and Sales Promotion Management in New Zealand’s highly competitive Insurance industry. These days she describes herself as an ‘HR allrounder’, with ability to make quick decisions and a knack for successfully dealing with the unexpected – which is tested on an almost daily basis! Nichola’s strong stakeholder relationship management skills and positive, love for life attitude make her very approachable to both clients and their employee’s, no matter what the issue or concern. The heart of Spice HR is ‘getting the best out of people’ and she loves the challenge of motivating people to achieve things they never dreamed possible and taking the initiative to create unique solutions – which are of course tailored to the needs of small to medium business owners. .
"Payroll Fundamentals with PayHero and Advanced Payroll with PayHero"
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 10:45am and 11:15am
Session 1: Payroll Fundamentals with PayHero
The FlexiTime team has been providing payroll software and supporting kiwi businesses for over 13 years. In this session, Pete and Grace will cover topics including paying employees otherwise working days, calculating final pays, what a ‘Review Period’ is, getting accurate leave reports and time tools that make payroll easier. This session aims to equip you with the fundamentals of paying employees right using FlexiTime’s flagship cloud payroll product PayHero.
Session 2: Advanced Payroll with PayHero
In this follow up session, Pete and Grace will cover topics including how work patterns affect leave calculations, how to automate extensions of sick and annual leave anniversaries and changing employees from Holiday-Pay-as-You-Go to permanent employment. This session aims to build upon foundational payroll knowledge to learn some extra for expert features in the PayHero payroll product.
"Getting a Grip on Time for Over-worked Bookkeeping Professionals"
Friday, 30 July 2021 at 1:15pm
Business people everywhere say they don't have enough time. You know the constant time challenges - life is fast-paced, everything seems to be rapidly changing, you’ve got ridiculous amounts of email to handle daily, interruptions are non-stop, the open-plan office might be driving you nuts and it's a constant struggle to balance work, family, and other interests.
If you’ve ever felt that there’s never enough hours in the day, that life is just too busy, and you wish you could get more time for the activities and people you love to be with, you’ll look forward to spending time with international time management specialist Robyn Pearce CSP. Bring your questions for this interactive session.
"How to help your clients perfect their payment terms to take care of their business and yours."
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 10:45am
During these pandemic times and constant challenges to productivity, cash flow can be at serious risk for your clients. They will turn to you, their trusted advisors, for ideas on how to help... without a hefty price tag.
This hands-on workshop is for you if you have service-based clients who deliver projects or services across several weeks or months and struggle to collect payment in frequently enough to keep them on the right side of struggle street.
Join Sian, a contract skills trainer and payment terms expert, in this 30-minute interactive session where you will be guided through her Perfect your Payment Terms™ workshop where you will discover 3 ways to boost cash-flow for FREE by:
- Discovering why you should encourage clients to use deposits to secure bookings for service-based work
- How to help your clients to plan to use instalments/progress payments to boost cash flow
- Where to advise your clients to locate this key payment information
All with a handy take-away worksheet and guidance notes so you can implement back at the office.
"Build to sell. Or not."
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 1:30pm
Stephanie Crawford is a NZ bookkeeper turned business coach and a passionate advocate for bookkeepers. She is a driving force behind many NZ bookkeepers’ business success, impacting the lives of many by growing incomes, capabilities and, ultimately, freedom. Stephanie was the owner of her own bookkeeping business for over 8 years, building her team before selling in 2015 in order to focus on building and growing her coaching business. Stephanie is a long-standing member of ICNZB and now teaches others how to grow their bookkeeping business with her From Bookkeeper to Business Owner coaching programme.
In this session, Stephanie will talk about how she grew her bookkeeping business into a saleable business and what it takes to go from bookkeeper to business owner.
Steven Mayo-Smith, Independent Business Consultant
"Don’t Get Hacked! How to Protect Yourself"
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 1:30pm
While attacks on large organizations make the news, approximately 46% of all attacks are aimed at small businesses with a high success rate.
How can you trust that the email you get from a regular client is actually from them? It could be a disguised virus.
Is your business, like so many others, unprepared and particularly susceptible to hacks and breaches?
This session will help you to protect yourself and your business.
Steven is an independent business consultant, working with a range of business on their technology transformation and growth strategies. Previously he led Digital and Health High Impact Programmes for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and is well versed in the topic he is presenting for our delegates.
"Adding a new revenue stream to your practice… The ‘peaks’ and ‘pits’ of App Advisory."
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 2:15am
Tara and her team have been offering app advisory to their clients since 2016 and have steadily grown this service to over 80% of their annual revenue. Now she is here to share the ‘peaks’ and ‘pits’ of App Advisory with our delegates.
In this session, Tara will cover topics including app evaluations, industry specialisation, common pitfalls and the key factors of DIY or delegation.
This session aims to inspire delegates to consider adding App Advisory as a new revenue stream in their own business.
"Making It easy to drive business performance through data analytics and business intelligence."
Saturday, 31 July 2021 at 11:45am
Founder and CEO of Smetric Insights, Warwick is a Business Intelligence expert with deep knowledge of what drives business performance from many years of experience as a CFO, CA and Business Consultant. He is an entrepreneur of 9 businesses, including 5 start-ups. He has deep industry experience in supply chain related industries and manufacturing. Analytics are nothing new. But the tools have changed and require both business expertise and data science. Smetric Insights focus is on supply chain related businesses who are on multiple systems. They focus on tracking the metrics that really matter, across the entire organisation –critical supply chain metrics and performance indicators, sales and marketing analytics etc. This enables businesses to get insights at a glance from their business data, making it easy to drive business performance.
