DAS 2025: What we learned, shared and loved

Last week, the Fathom team headed to Evolution London for the Digital Accountancy Show 2025, and what a show it was.

With two full days of content, conversation, and connection, this year’s DAS was a reminder of just how much the profession is evolving. From AI and automation to outsourcing and mid-market expansion, the agenda was packed with insight and inspiration.

Top themes from this year’s show

• AI isn’t coming, it’s here
  With more than 15 sessions dedicated to AI across the two-day agenda, this was the biggest talking point at DAS 2025. But the real conversation wasn’t about what AI can do, it was about how firms can implement it meaningfully. From content creation to cash flow forecasting, the message was clear: AI is changing the way we work, but the biggest hurdle is still execution.
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• Outsourcing is on the rise, especially for midmarket clients‍
  More firms are recognising that high-growth businesses don’t always want to build in-house finance teams. The opportunity? Offering outsourced services like CFO-level reporting, analysis and forecasting, all backed by scalable systems and smarter workflows.

• Firms want better systems, not more systems‍
  From CFO panels to breakout chats, many attendees spoke about the tech fatigue they’re seeing, both in their own teams and their clients’. There’s a growing demand for tools that simplify workflows, centralise data, and make insight delivery easier, not harder.

• Proactive advisory is the new standard, if firms have the tools to support it.‍
  The most forward-thinking firms are shifting from reactive to proactive services. But to do this at scale, they need better visibility across their client base and fast, actionable insights that prompt real conversations.

Fathom on the ground

Darren Glanville, Dan Murphy-Moore, Emily Eden, Jess Miller, Shivani Chheda, and Ellie Nicholls were out in full force at Stand D8, connecting with familiar faces and meeting plenty of new ones. From live demos to insightful conversations, our team spent both days deep in discussion about how firms are evolving and how Fathom’s latest features can support that evolution.

The message from attendees? Firms are looking for ways to work smarter, not harder; with tools that make it easier to scale advisory, deliver meaningful insights, and support clients at every stage of growth.

A first look at Portfolio

One of the biggest highlights for us was unveiling The Insights Dashboard and Fathom Portfolio to attendees. Built for firms managing a large and varied client base, Portfolio gives teams a way to monitor performance across clients and deliver insights efficiently, without extra overhead.

Hearing direct feedback from the firms we designed it for was invaluable. The conversations we had didn’t just validate the problems we set out to solve — they gave us a clearer view of what’s next. From identifying advisory opportunities faster to engaging lower-touch clients more effectively, it was exciting to hear how Portfolio could fit into the real workflows of real teams.

Fathom customers take the stage

We were incredibly proud to see several of our customers sharing their expertise across the agenda.

In a mainstage session, “Missing Out: Why Accountants Need to Embrace Business Process Outsourcing for Midmarket Clients,” Fathom customers Nicki Savill (Moore Kingston Smith) and Katherine O’Carroll (BDO) spoke about the shift towards outsourcing for growing clients—and why UK firms need to act now. They were joined by leaders from Armstrong Watson and iplicit, highlighting how the midmarket is becoming the next big opportunity for firms to provide value beyond compliance.

In the CFO Mindset Panel, Fathom customers Julie Sinsbury (Moore South) and Jack Deeming (Dains) explored the tension between rising technology use and rising stress levels among finance leaders. They discussed the growing need for strategic digital advisory services and how firms can step in to guide their clients through the complexity.

Elsewhere, Fathom champions featured across panels and fireside chats; from Lucy Cohen (Mazuma) discussing the realities of M&A and private equity investment, to Kat Wellum-Kent (Fractional Finance) on how to build and scale an outsourced CFO service.

We also saw inspiring contributions from Francesca McClory, Andy Turpin, Ewan Bolt, and Nathan Keeley, touching on everything from scaling finance systems to navigating rapid client growth.

One team, many products

We were also excited to see our sister Access products, Unleashed and Lightyear, exhibiting at DAS. Together, we’re helping firms unlock greater value across advisory, inventory management, and spend control.

What’s next?

We’ve rounded up some of our favourite insights and moments from DAS 2025 below. We’ll also be sharing some amazing snippets from our expert customers who dropped by the stand. Follow us on LinkedIn  to see them all.

Thanks to everyone who came by the stand and helped make this year’s conference one to remember. We’ll see you next year at DAS 2026, held at The ExCeL in London, for the very first time.

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If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to Fathom at any time by sending an email to support@fathomhq.com