Accounting Excellence Awards host joins BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing

There was a reason Luca Pacioli, the father of accounting, devoted his life to double entry and not paso doble. For a long time, the accountancy profession and dance was as split as debit and credit. 

But at the Accounting Excellence Awards on 8 September, the accountancy profession will be swapping business attire for sequins and glitter as the Awards Night’s “fab-u-lous” host Ellie Taylor has been revealed as the latest celebrity to join Strictly Come Dancing. 

The Accounting Excellence Awards will be coming from London’s Tobacco Dock on 8 September, where some of the biggest names in the profession will vie to win the prestigious accountancy gongs. 

The finalists will be competing across hotly contested categories such as small, medium and large firm of the year, and will be hoping their firm name is called out so they can quickstep to the stage and collect their award – the Accounting Excellence version of the 10 paddle. 

While the award entrants didn’t specify the foxtrot or jive, the finalists did describe the delicate dance they had to perform over the past year to tackle the talent wars and the transition to the big virtual finance trend.

Ballroom blitz

Taylor, who is a regular on the BBC’s Mock The Week and Channel 4’s The Great Pottery Throw Down, said that she is “absolutely over the moon” about joining the Saturday night ballroom staple. “I’m focusing on the excitement and glitter and choosing to ignore the fact that I have the dancing ability of a newly born giraffe,” she said. 

The Strictly Come Dancing launch show will be recording on 7 September, the day before the Accounting Excellence Awards. The attendees, therefore, will be keen to see if Taylor shows off her new moves on the Tobacco Dock dance floor.

But Taylor’s “newly born giraffe” dancing technique will be facing fierce competition at the Award Night party after the accounting profession has recently shown a flair for busting out dance moves. 

Excel trainer Kat “Miss Excel” Norton, for example, has shown how the fusion of dance and office software has introduced the beloved spreadsheet to Gen-Z on the social platform TikTok. 

Accounting Excellence dance floor moves

But if like Pacioli you think boleo is a new accounting app, here are three dance moves you can attempt at the Accounting Excellence Awards. 

The HMRC hop: This is a dance move most accountants have already performed in their offices. You’ve been on the phone for over half an hour to HMRC, your foot has gone to sleep and you’re getting swept away by the hold music. To recreate this move, just jump from foot to foot (as you would to get the blood circulating in your feet again), while switching your hand holding the figurative phone receiver from ear to ear. You finish the sequence by bolting upright as if a colleague has walked into the room.  

Making it rain receipts: Who would have thought that a box of receipts would be a perfect inspiration for a dance move? You’ve all been there: it’s self assessment season and a big box of receipts has been dropped on your desk. For this dance move, encircle your dance troupe and imagine picking up a wad of receipts and mime throwing the receipts in the air and watching them flutter down like it’s the night before 31 January and you just don’t care. 

The expense capture jive: Inspired by the big fish, little fish, cardboard box style of dance moves, this one involves you miming scanning a box of receipts using your expense capture app of choice. To the music, mime picking up a receipt with one hand and with the other, pretending you’re holding a smartphone, just zap. 

Take a bow

Intuit QuickBooks is the headline sponsor for the Accounting Excellence Awards, while IRIS, Koinly, Mercia, Sage and Xero are category sponsors and Beanworks by Quadient is an ambassador. 

Taylor is in high demand after starring in Apple TV’s comedy series Ted Lasso. After the stand-up comedian has hosted the Accounting Excellence Awards, she will be launching two new formats – You Won’t Believe This (w/t) for Channel 4 and co-hosting Cheat on Netflix alongside Danny Dyer.