John Taylor
About John Taylor
John is a Chartered Accountant who spent many years advising small and medium-sized businesses across the North of England.
He worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers before moving into industry as finance director of a medium sized plc.
He later joined Leeds Beckett University where he specialised in teaching auditing and management accounting on ACCA professional courses, and Forensic Accounting at Masters level.
John is the author of two industry standard textbooks Millichamp - Auditing and Forensic Accounting. He has also written several auditing textbooks for AAT courses.
What makes John tick?
John cares about ethical practice and fair dealing in business and requiring businesses to honestly recognise their responsibilities to the environment.CPD Courses
10 Key Risks for Your Organisation
If your organisation is aware of the risks it faces, it will have a better chance of mitigating their potential negative impacts. This bites explores 10 key risks organisations of all sizes and in all sectors should be prepared for.
10 Pricing Strategies for Your Organisation
Setting the right price for your products and services involves striking a balance between maximising profits and staying competitive. This bite explores 10 pricing strategies to help you get it right.
10 Reasons Mergers and Acquisitions Fail
Those who have been involved in a merger or acquisition deal will know there's a lot that can potentially go wrong. Use this bite to discover ten reasons why they fail and how you could mitigate key risks with future deals.
10 Steps to Buying and Selling a Business
Buying or selling a business can be a long process, especially for finance professionals. This bite explores the process in 10 steps, so you can identify where you might be of help to your organisation or clients.
2025 Compliance: Ethics in Practice
Part of a series on 2025 Compliance. This module explores common ethical grey areas, when to apply professional judgement to your decisions and how your practice can maintain an ethical culture.
Part of a series on 2025 Compliance. Ethics is a complicated, political and emotive subject. For the tax practitioner, there are a lot of issues at play. Balancing your duty to your client alongside your duty to society can be prove to be a tightrope-walk.
4 Key Approaches to Budgeting
Incremental budgeting is the most widely used approach across organisations. But is it always the best? This bite gives an overview of both traditional and non-standard methods of budgeting, so you can consider the most suitable for your business.
4 Steps to Building Trust in Professional Relationships
How do you ensure your clients or colleagues trust what you say? This bite considers four areas you need to focus on to develop and maintain trust in your professional relationships.
We all know buying or selling a business can be risky. But what impacts can a merger or acquisition have on the finance function of an organisation? In this bite, discover five key considerations for accountants.
6 Ways to Build a Culture of Ethical Compliance
Regardless of the size of your organisation, everyone must comply with ethical standards. But how can you build a culture that encourages this? Find out six simple steps you could take with this bite.
8 Tips for Estimating Project Costs
Accountants involved in project management will be expected to produce cost estimates for the various tasks and activities and an overall project budget. Here we cover tips for generating cost estimates and reliable figures.
9 Ways to Optimise Decision Making in Your Organisation
Bad decisions can have significant and potentially costly consequences. Do you think your organisation has an effective decision making process, or is there room for improvement? Here we explore nine ways to optimise decision making.
Business Turnaround
Most businesses, at some point, will face issues that bring into question their long-term survival. This course examines common warning signs and the actions you need to take to implement an effective business turnaround.
Buying an Online Business
More organisations are thinking of purchasing an online business. But how does this differ from buying a terrestrial business? From risks and operations to SEO, this bite gives you a guide to the key things to consider when undertaking due diligence.
Corporate Ethics, Governance and Sustainability
Nowadays, stakeholders want a financially successful business that is also ethical, and sustainable. This course explores key principles involved in ethics, sustainability, and governance and how your organisation can adopt them.
Corporate Resilience and Business Recovery
Businesses that succeed in a crisis are ones that have prepared, building up a resilience against uncertainty. Identify the foundations, structures and management systems needed to help your business to embody resilience during times of instability.
Corporate Resilience and Decision Making
At times of immense pressure, like now, businesses make decisions that affect their whole future. This course looks at how to optimise our decision making to cope now, and with any future shock that could be thrown at us.
Creating a Cost Management Plan
A cost management plan is a vital component of any project. But what should it include? Whether you're new to creating cost management plans or looking for a refresher, this bite explores the key things to remember.
Critical Thinking for Accountants
Critical thinking is becoming increasingly vital for accountants, as businesses depend on you to deliver insight, analysis, and proposals to improve your or your clients' business. This course examines critical thinking techniques and provides practical guidance on using them to benefit the organisations you work with.
Due Diligence in Buying and Selling a Business
This course explores the process of due diligence from both the buyer and the seller's perspective. You will learn the importance of due diligence for both parties and will consider the risks involved in buying or selling a business, and what you can do to minimise these.
Ethical Shades of Grey
As an accountant, you are often responsible for making sure that your organisation behaves itself. So, in this bite we consider what you should do when you find yourself in situations that might be ethically complex or ambiguous.
Part of a series on 2025-26 ethical updates. This update reviews the core ethical principles for professional accountants and looks at how recent developments may cause ethical dilemmas and threats to arise in the real world.
Ethics in Action: What Would You Do?
Ethics can be a grey area. This course uses case studies and scenarios to equip you with the necessary tools to recognise potential ethical dilemmas and determine the best approach to them, in line with the ethical framework you adhere to as an accountant.
Ethics in Audit
This short course sets out the ethical position for accountants undertaking audit or review work and due diligence assignments. It explores the Revised Ethical Standard issued by the Financial Reporting Council in January 2024 and considers practical actions you can take to ensure compliance.
Forensic Accounting
This course introduces you to forensic accounting by giving you a level of knowledge and skill that will enable you to understand more about this role, identify fraud and plan appropriate investigations.
Growing Your Business Through Acquisition
Making the decision to grow your business through acquisition should not be one that is taken lightly. This course will guide you on how to grow your business through mergers and acquisitions and the pitfalls and issues to be aware of along the way.
How to Make Good Decisions in a Crisis
Making decisions can be hard at the best of times. But when a crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic arises, it becomes even more difficult. In this bite, discover nine dos and don'ts of effective decision making in a crisis.
ICAEW Ethical Framework
All accountants, ICAEW member or otherwise, have a public duty to remain ethical. This course explains why integrity and independence are essential for accountants and how to uphold them throughout your work.
Identifying and Preventing Internal Fraud
In our digital world, fraud is a major concern for all organisations. But did you know it's often those within who pose the biggest threat? In this bite, discover how to spot the signs of internal fraud and the steps you can take to tackle it.
Improving Business Profits
This course takes a comprehensive look at how to improve profitability. Discover the processes necessary for enhancing revenue, optimising costs, eliminating waste and maximising assets and finance.
Key Ethical Policies for Your Organisation
As accountants, you know full well the importance of ethical behaviour. Use this bite to discover two key ethical policies your organisation should have in place, and your role in upholding them.
Key Indicators of Susceptibility to Failure
Predicting the likelihood of an organisation going under is difficult. But there are two popular approaches, which look at common indicators of susceptibility to failure, that will help you gauge whether yours is in danger.
Mergers and Acquisitions
How can you ensure a successful acquisition or merger? This course explores the intricacies of these deals and highlights the crucial role accountants play in structuring the transition. We cover the entire process from the initial stages to post-deal organisation.
Practice Update: Ethical Issues for Accountants
Revised and up to date for 2025. Accountants in practice frequently face morally complex situations that leave you questioning the correct action to take. This course explores common ethical grey areas, when to apply professional judgement to your decisions and how your practice can maintain an ethical culture.
Preventing Financial Crime
Understand the various types of financial crime and the controls that can be used to limit the opportunities for fraudsters to commit them. Look at how to create the right culture within an organisation to discourage collusion in fraud and encourage reporting and disclosure.
Professional Credibility
Building your professional credibility is important in order to be seen as knowledgeable, fair and dependable. Understand how you can do this, with practical steps covering business acumen, professional scepticism, ethics, communication and your authoritative voice.
Project Financial Management
This course equips the financial project manager or team member with a range of techniques to anticipate and prevent problems throughout the different stages of a project. Discover the right set of tools you need to review, revise, and update your financial models.
Real World Budgeting
Budgeting is a standard tool in most businesses, but - without care - it can have unexpected consequences and even lead to dysfunctional behaviour. This course explores the challenges of budgeting in the real world, exploring different methods of gaining a deeper insight into the pros and cons of the process.
Real World Forecasting
We can't prevent every mistake, but we can create forecasts that are adaptable and resilient. This course equips you with the practical skills to develop meaningful forecasts that drive better business decisions.
Reporting to Stakeholders
Does your current reporting take a sufficiently holistic approach? This course will make sure that you stay on top of key developments and trends to help you meet the changing expectations of both internal and external stakeholders.
Risk Management
Risks can occur anywhere in an organisation, therefore, integrated and organisation-wide approaches to risk management are key to minimising negative consequences. This course provides an overview to the key elements, processes and approaches to successful risk management.
Spotlight on Professional Competence and Due Care
This bite defines professional competence and due care as a core ethical consideration for accountants and looks at a couple of dilemmas that highlight how this principle can come under threat.
The ICAEW Code of Ethics
All accountants, ICAEW member or otherwise, have a public duty to remain ethical. This course explains why integrity and independence are essential for accountants and how to uphold them throughout your work.
The Role of a Forensic Accountant
In this bite, we'll break down what a forensic accountant actually does, including the areas they specialise in and the different fraud-related work they might undertake.
The Role of the Expert Witness
As an accountant, you may be required to testify in court as an expert witness. But what does this involve? In this bite, find out about the role of the expert witness, and the reports and evidence they must provide.
The Role of the Trusted Business Advisor
What makes a trusted business advisor? Use this bite to discover how you can take on this role as well as the benefits it can deliver to you and your clients.
The Trusted Business Advisor
These days your clients are looking for more from their accountants, they want a trusted business advisor. This course looks at the processes, steps and technology that enable you to understand your clients' businesses, build stronger relationships and add real value.
The Wild Frontier of Cryptocurrency
Greater regulation and improved security is required before cryptocurrencies can become mainstream.
Valuation
This course introduces valuation processes and provides an overview of the main methods involved. You'll explore the use of asset-based, earnings and cash flow-based valuations as well as the complexities involved with non-standard and internet-based businesses.
Ethics: Dilemmas and Threats
FREE 1-hr CPD module. Understanding right from wrong is only a small part of the ethics equation. As an accounting professional, when you notice anything inappropriate, you have to know how to respond and - most importantly - to actually do something about it.