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BRILLIANT AT BUSINESS, TERRIBLE AT PAPERWORK?
Is regulation leaving neurodivergent entrepreneurs behind? Jorgina Williams, founder and director of Auriol Advisory, considers the impact of a growing administrative burden I f you’re reading this expecting another article from an accountant explaining Making Tax Digital, don’t panic. This isn’t yet another piece telling you to buy software,
TAKE NOTE Jorgina Williams (pictured) has seen incredibly capable business owners struggle with the necessary admin
keep digital records and remember your deadlines. It’s about a different question: what happens when increasingly complex financial and regulatory systems collide with brains that simply do not work that way? Some of the most capable entrepreneurs I know can build businesses, solve problems, create, sell, take risks, innovate and work with extraordinary intensity. But ask them to stay on top of bookkeeping, filing deadlines, digital records, tax admin, as well as an ever- growing list of compliance requirements, and the picture can look very different. I write this as an accountant and business adviser, not as a clinician or neurodiversity specialist. My perspective is personal and anecdotal, informed by people close to me and by seeing the real-life consequences when highly capable people repeatedly struggle with systems built around organisation, routine and administration. Making Tax Digital is only one example. Taken individually, these different requirements are perfectly understandable. Businesses should keep proper records. Tax needs to be reported. Deadlines matter. But collectively, the administrative burden of running even a relatively simple business is significant, and it is growing. As advisers we were discussing regulatory overload long before the latest wave of Making Tax Digital, Companies House identity verification and Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act reforms, on top of GDPR, off-payroll working, auto-enrolment and ever-expanding digital record-keeping and reporting requirements. I could go on, but even reading this list could be overwhelming for someone whose strengths lie in building the business rather than managing the bureaucracy around it. This raises a question: are we creating a regulatory system that’s inconvenient for some, but disproportionately difficult – and potentially exclusionary – for others? Difficulty with administration is not the same thing as difficulty running a business.
For some neurodivergent entrepreneurs, that burden may mean missed deadlines, penalties and persistent anxiety. For others, could it become a barrier much earlier: the prospect of accounting, tax and regulatory compliance is so overwhelming that a potentially great business is never started? The answer is not to suggest that anyone should be exempt from the rules, but perhaps we should think more carefully about the burden we create, how accessible our systems really are, and how much of that burden genuinely needs to sit with the entrepreneur themselves? Good systems, good technology and good advisers can remove much of that burden, but they come at a cost. If we want to encourage entrepreneurship, being great at building a business should not also require being great at the paperwork.
ABOUT AURIOL ADVISORY Auriol Advisory gives founders and business owners a single point of contact for everything finance-related – accounting, tax and regulatory compliance – so you are never juggling multiple providers or chasing answers. We work with owner-managed businesses, founders preparing for change, growing professional firms and international business owners, providing practical and responsive advice tailored to the needs of each client.
Perhaps we should think about the burden we create and how much of that needs to sit with the entrepreneur
aurioladvisory.com | 020 7129 7471
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK OCTOBER 2026 85
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