FAQs
We get asked some questions more than others, so to help keep our discussions focused on you and your business, we've provided some below.It’s because we aren’t accountants, confused?
We are a business first and foremost. A business that sells a partnership offering to help small businesses. Our business just happens to do accountancy and related things.
The normal accountancy model most others follow is broken and just doesn’t work. We’re smart enough to know that so we don’t follow the crowd. It’s won us plaudits from clients (check those out HERE) and awards so we must be doing something right.
It’s really simple, we are in business to help your business. The better we are at it the more both of us in the partnership benefit. You could say we’ll be your financial friend with benefits but if you’d rather say we are your awesome new accountant we won’t take offence.
Benefits, awesomeness or both?
We are award winning. A panel of other accountants (a tough crowd to please!) judged us overall firm of the year in 2019 in the Accounting Excellence Awards.
We are a boutique firm, aiming to be the best at what we do, and so you’ll also have a direct line into the boss if you need it.
He’s called Paul and you can reach him on 07503 001001 anytime.
We survey our clients for satisfaction and feedback six times a year and we are grateful to clients who help us with them as it helps us get better all the time.
We aren’t selling perfection (that would be an impossible bar to set) but we are selling a philosophy of continual improvement and a desire to be the absolute best we can be so we can be the absolute best partner for your business.
Would you want anything less for the business you work so hard at?
You will get a dedicated client manager who is your main point of contact and ultimately responsible for delivering all the services in your plan so you have a single point of contact and someone to build a lasting relationship with.
They have people working for them that deliver bookkeeping, payroll, credit control, payment services and other aspects.
Whether you have a full finance team setup to start with or something more basic you will always have a client manager to rely on.
If you just want a service we aren’t for you.
Do you want a partnership and a relationship from your accountant?
Yes, your accounts and tax returns are fixed price for the year. We review after each year. Booking services are reviewed quarterly and payroll monthly to ensure you have what you need to support your business.
Monthly fixed price plans for your business paid by direct debit to help you budget. you can add bolt ons to your plan anytime as your business grows.
Cost, what are you on about? You have been brain washed into thinking “accountancy” might be a cost.
Doing a set of legally required accounts that you can’t avoid is indeed a cost. Any accountant can add up though so if you want the lowest cost then I suggest we stop right here.
We are an investment.
Why? An investment is something you expect a return on. We expect to provide a return on your investment and the more you invest the more we expect to return.
How? This is easiest to explain in tax first. We expect to save you more tax each year than you pay us.
Unlike a lot of accountants we don’t just do the job and send you a big tax bill. Our processes build in an active reduction strategy, we deliver the lowest number we can first time putting more money in your pocket. For us that’s not optional.
Our basic service is anything but basic and starts from a few hundred pounds a month investment.
On the other end of the spectrum we might charge £5,000 for a 15 minute phone call.
What!?!? I hear you cry. Let me explain. If I spot an opportunity in your business that has gone undetected for years and is worth say £60,000 to you would you not want me to pickup the phone and call you to tell you about it?
Obviously I will explain everything to you and we’ll agree it all in advance however the chances are you will gladly pay £5,000 to get £60,000, it’s a good return on investment, 12 times to be specific.
The phone call may last 15 minutes but it took me 20 years of training, learning and honing my craft to be able to spot the opportunity, that’s what your paying for. That is where the smart money is.
You don’t want a dumb accountant do you?
No. If you want to join for a year we would politely ask you to consider another accountant.
We want to work in partnership with you over the long haul.
This means we take an approach in the first year which often means we lose money.
You lose money? Yes, in the first year with us we often find that we spend much more effort sorting out historical things, setting everything up to work perfectly going forward, integrating systems and processes, talking to HMRC, learning about your business, forging the partnership and relationship.
We wouldn’t do all that for a one year gig and we wouldn’t not do all those things as it’s part of our DNA.
We wouldn’t want it any other way, would you?
Not many. That’s not a normal accountants brag!
We want to work with as few a clients as we can. Honestly.
Why? Because the fewer clients we work with the better we can work with them.
We often hear of accountancy firms bragging they have thousands of clients and accountants that work their having hundreds of clients each. With this approach you will only ever be a number no matter what they say.
This is our definition of a nightmare.
Our growth directors will perhaps only work with a handful of clients at once, our client managers a few more. Sorry to disappoint but we won’t be winning any prizes for the sheer number of clients in our firm anytime soon.
Is that alright with you?
Are you starting out, small now, growing fast, six figures, seven figures, looking for the magic ingredient?
Well, first of all we treat all shapes and sizes of businesses equally with the same care and attention.
We aim to operate in partnership with you for your businesses journey. We want to see you grow and prosper over time and we will help you achieve that.
Our scaleable model allows you to plug into what you need when you need it so nothing is holding up you achieving your goals and ambition in the shortest time possible. To do that we can’t just take on everyone as a client so we are quite selective, there are only so many seats at the table.
So if you are not right for us we’ll be open about that upfront and let you know, we may even be able to recommend someone who is.
Is that ok with you?