Hello everyone, and a belated Happy New Year. We’re out of the darkest weeks of the year, and there’s lots of promise on the horizon with both Joint and Several Liability Changes and Making Tax Digital, giving us a great opportunity for new business – and we’re already seeing an increase in the numbers!
To help manage the increase, we’ve been investing in both new technologies and new staff (welcome Oliver, Dillon and Ed to the New Business Team, and Rob to the Welcome Team!) – so, hopefully, we have all the tools in place to deal with the increase in numbers.
2026 could be a really strong year for the business – we’ve recently had our best week since March 2021 – and I appreciate all the hard work that I see every day going into ensuring we make as good a success of these opportunities as possible.
– Nick H.
Im pleased to share that we are now moving forward with the implementation of our new Connex AI automation platform. This marks a major step forward in improving efficiency, enhancing accuracy across departments, and freeing up our teams to focus on higher‑value work.
Over the coming weeks, Connex will be integrated across our key systems — including 8×8, SugarCRM, Outlook and internal file drives — to support the automation of time‑heavy processes, streamline communication channels, and strengthen our service delivery. Departments including, Welcome, Customer Services and Payroll will be the first to see new automated workflows introduced – Jon.
It’s been a busy and productive period across the company, with every department contributing to our progress in different ways. Here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening and the key news from teams around the business.
It’s been a busy start of the year! Our first monthly newsletter to contractors using our new email marketing platform went out at the beginning of January – with a 75% open rate! It also generated 20+ leads for our new Making Tax Digital Service for CIS.
Talking of MTD for CIS, we’ve also been busy putting that package together, ready to promote – so hopefully we’re in a good position to go live with that within the next couple of weeks.
In terms of our onboarding platform, we have been working on creating links for agencies that they can provide to their contractors so they can use our online platform. This is part of an eventual new agency portal, where they’ll have illustrator and calculator tools, generate illustrations, and onboard their contractors.
Busy, busy!
The accountancy team did a great job working through clients’ Self-Assessments, ready for the 31st January 2026 deadline.
With the Self Assessment season over, the next project will be Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which comes into force in April 2026.
There have also been a few changes within the department with Tom Oxtoby having left the company and Mykel Gee stepping up to the role of an Accountant. This means that we’ll now be recruiting for an Accounts Assistant to join the team. January also marked a special milestone as Sheraz celebrated an impressive 10 years with the company, a reminder of how valuable long‑standing team members are to a company’s success.
Here in Welcome, we welcomed (pardon the pun) Rob Henderson to the team. Rob joins us at a crucial time, as we’re busier than ever with the increase in contractor volumes!
A few updates to catch up on here! Firstly, a belated welcome back to Bethan 👋
Secondly, we’re celebrating James McInnes’s 10-year anniversary with us – so congrats, James 🥳
And last but by no means least, congrats to Ste Holt, who welcomes baby Nori on the 12th January! 👶
We’ve been very busy on new business with 3 new recruits – Ollie, Dillon and Ed – welcome to the team boys! They’re here filling the shoes of Ste Horseman, who left us for a position in the RAF, and Liam who will be heading off travelling around Asia.
We also celebrated our biggest week since March 2021 – with 432 sign ups for the W/E 15th January! 🎉
Since the start of the year, we have been consistently hitting over 300. Out next target is to smash the 500 mark. So I’d just like to say a big well done to the team for all the hard work they’re doing!
Customer Service have seen a steady increase over the last few months in new enquiries coming in and December gave us our only drop in incoming queries with Christmas. Things have picked up much quicker this year and with the addition of George and Emilie in the last 6 months, their contributions to an already busy team have been invaluable. They’ve both fit into the team really well and have already gotten up to speed much quicker than we would have expected. A well done to both of them for their dedication.
We will be looking over the next few months to see how the JLS and the increase in switchers and sign ups has a knock-on effect for us, but we’re taking steps to make sure we have solid plans to deal with any influx. We’re excited for the coming year as we want to become more proactive than reactive and by the staff numbers and the company’s new aim at streamlining and improving efficiency, we can hopefully see some great changes for our contractors!
A belated congratulations to George and Bella, who was voted the most “Christmassy” Umbrella.co.uk pet in the lead up to Christmas. George won a box of goodies for Bella to enjoy 🐶.
We’re always looking for ways to improve – and your feedback matters. Whether it’s a new idea for an event, a small change, or just something on your mind, we’d love to hear it. Use the form below to share your thoughts or suggestions with the team. All responses are welcome and can be submitted anonymously.