Boogles Bookkeeping Best Book-Keeping Company - London In an interview with Boogles Bookkeeping Ltd’s Lisa Newton, she reveals the current state of the accountancy industry. www.acquisition-intl.com
Without a Worry in the World Candice Fourie of No Worries Company Services Limited tells us about the company’s vision to deliver outstanding, easily accessible accounting services tailored to suit the needs of professional contractors working in the UK.
welcome
to the 2016 Global Accountancy Awards
The 2016 Global Accountancy Awards have been created to highlight the vital work done throughout all industries and sectors by the behind-the-scenes experts who ensure that every firm, regardless of size, reputation, geographical location or area of expertise, can be confident that the figures that make it tick are in safe hands. Accountants all over the world carry out a vast array of essential tasks, from ensuring the accuracy of statements and maintaining compliance with laws and regulations, to advising on best practice and making recommendations regarding the most effective allocation of resources. The biggest and best businesses naturally work with only the most innovative, mindful, dedicated and talented accounting professionals and it is these specialists that we seek to reward through our prestigious awards programme.
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GLOBAL ACCOUNTANCY awards
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contents 4. Future Success Business Advisory has won Best for SME Business Advice - Australia 6. MTM Accountants Ltd has won Best Accounting & Book-Keeping Practice - Milton Keynes 8. No Worries Company Services Ltd has won Best in Contractor Accounting - UK 10. Norman Bookkeeping & Payroll has won Book-Keeper of the Year - West Midlands 12. Business Partnering LTD, Steven Swientozielskyi has won Recognised Leader in Business Transformation & Change Management – UK 13. Boogles Bookkeeping LTD has won Best Book-Keeping Company - London 14. RoseRyan has won Most Innovative Finance & Accountancy Firm - California & Best XBRL Practice - USA
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Best for SME Business Advice - Australia
Future Success Business Advisory
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GLOBAL ACCOUNTANCY awards
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Future Success Business Advisory was established in 2014 to meet the commercial and financial needs of SMEs and Not for Profit organisations in Western Australia. They recognised that there was a large gap in the services offered by traditional accounting firms who tended to focus on past performance only, rather than helping businesses to understand how their day to day decisions affect future financial performance.
Company: Future Success Business Advisory Name: Lou Charlet Email: lou.charlet@futuresuccess.com.au Web Address: www.futuresuccess.com.au Address: 9 Makybe Drive, Baldivis, 6171, WA Telephone: 08 9520 5401
They specialise in business planning and forecasting for new and existing organisations and also financial due diligence for new business purchases. The firm also help larger companies to streamline their operations and increase efficiency through targeted business process improvements. In a short interview, Future Success Business Advisory’s Lou Charlet outlines the state of the accountancy industry today, the firm’s approach to clients and what the future holds for their business as they stay on the cutting edge of developments. What are your views on the state of the accountancy industry in your region at present. What major challenges does it currently face and what are the major outside influence factors? The accountancy industry in Western Australia is largely made up of firms providing traditional services, however with the evolution of cloud-based accounting software, business need for this type of service is reducing. This poses a challenge for firms which are not embracing the change, but creates great opportunity for firms which are focussing on business advisory and consulting services. What is your overriding philosophy for areas such as client service and the acquisition of new business? We approach our clients with a partnership philosophy. Future Success advisors have had extensive commercial and operational business experience and are able to explain accounting concepts and financial projections in a way which empowers business managers and owners, rather than isolating them. We are proud of our approach and acquire new business largely through referrals and recommendations. We believe that businesses are all about people and conversations and always make sure that this is at the heart of our new business meetings. Working within such an evolving and dynamic industry, what steps do you take to ensure that your firm remains on the cutting edge of new developments? How do you ensure that you are always best placed to meet your clients’ needs? Future Success Business Advisory is founded on a concept of future-proof, sustainable financial management and as such we are always looking at ways to be dynamic. We spend time listening to our customers and through reflection and conversation, ensure that our services are always relevant to our clients’ changing needs. What does the future hold for your business? Are there any specific projects or major developments on the horizon that you would be willing to share with us? We are looking at the “part-time CFO” business model and trailing the concept with some of our larger clients. It’s not as popular a concept in Western Australia currently, but we would like to lead this change as we see great benefits for our clients and future clients. We believe that the traditional stigma attached with accountants needs to change, as SMEs and Not for Profit organisations need financial business partners to help them make informed, fact-based decisions. We want to help organisations feel more connected to the numbers that tell the story of their business and have more relevant conversations with them. We hope that this makes accounting a more personable and supportive profession in Western Australia, by looking to the future together.
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Best Accounting & Book-Keeping Practice - Milton Keynes
MTM Accountants Ltd MTM Accountants Ltd is a Milton Keynes based accountancy firm serving primarily private limited companies and self-employed workers. We spoke to the firm’s Founder Mary Majoni in order to gain an insight into the firm and the services they provide.
Company: MTM Accountants Ltd Email: mary.majoni@mtmaccountants.co.uk Phone: 07496929398 Website: www.mtmaccountants.co.uk
MTM Accountants offers a range of accountancy services to suit the needs of clients operating outside of the PAYE system. Currently I find that the accountancy industry is very busy, as many people move away from the mainstream workplace and register either as limited companies or as being self-employed. As such there is a lot of business for firms such as mine, but there are also a lot of companies within the industry that act as competition. However what sets MTM Accountants apart is that I always put my clients’ needs first, working hard to ensure that everyone who uses my firm receives a professional service which is tailored to their individual requirements. This is why, although some of my clients come to me organically through my website or social media, most are referred to me by previous satisfied clients. This high level of referred business highlights both my dedication to client service and my accountancy skills. Both of these factors are of vital importance, and therefore as well as ensuring each client receives a top quality service I ensure that my industry knowledge is fully up to date by attending ongoing courses and seminars on accountancy to ensure I have up to date knowledge and skills. Additionally I take full advantage of advances in technology by ensuring my software is always up to date, which makes it easier for my clients to undertake daily tasks such as filling our expenses forms and invoices. The future is exciting for my firm, as I have recently been approached by a local college to take train some apprentices. This offers my firm the opportunity to grow as we take on more staff, and it is always invigorating to be able to share my knowledge and experience with the younger generation. Alongside this new legislation is due to come into force later in 2016 which will pose fresh challenges such as explaining the effects of the new rules on my clients and helping them to prepare for the changes they will need to make in order to comply. However overall I see these challenges as positive and look forward to seeing what the year has to offer.
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Best in Contractor Accounting - UK
No Worries offers accounting services tailored to suit the needs of professional contractors working in the UK who want to operate either through their own limited company, or through an umbrella company.
Company: No Worries Company Services Limited Name: Candice Fourie Email: candice@no-worries.co.uk Web Address: www.no-worries.co.uk Address: Unit 18 Elysium Gate 126 New Kings Road London, SW6 4LZ Telephone: 020 7731 1117
No Worries was kicked off in 2003 by two New Zealander’s living and working in London. The aim was to deliver an outstanding, easily accessible accounting service. We pride ourselves on our outstanding customer service delivered in easy to understand, plain English backed up by robust, easy-to-use cloud based software. Our commitment to providing contractors with effortless access to their company operations, and personalised accounting support at a competitive price, remains our number one driver. The contractor accounting sector is ever changing with consolidation of larger contractor accounting firms, and new private equity owners coming into the marketplace. We pride ourselves on our independence from external shareholders which makes us nimble, and responsive to both our clients, and to the regular statutory and legislative changes the contractor sector face. In order to become truly successful not only do you need to have a great idea of what your clients want and need, but also make sure you listen to them. We have bespoke software developed in-house that is not only cloud based, but is also tailored to our clients specific needs and continues to evolve as laws, times and clients’ needs change. But we are not just an online tool. We make things easy for our clients to understand, and manage. Every client has a dedicated account manager, and a team to support them. We are available through email, telephone and face to face meetings. Excellent customer service makes you stand out in the crowd. We will try to do anything and everything that we can to assist our clients, and make sure that they understand what they need to be doing to maximise their position. We don’t advertise, and all business comes from word of mouth, so keeping our clients happy is at the very core of what we do. The annual summer event we hold for clients, and our quarterly breakfast tax briefings around London are popular ways to meet clients, and discuss current events affecting accounting and tax for contractors. We keep ourselves up to date with the developments, and changes through a number of ways. Lots of listening and reading, attending seminars and conferences, and staying in touch with the relevant professional bodies is key. We are in the process of re-engineering of our online system and software, and we have some very exciting changes and updates coming out in the new tax year. As we look ahead to the future we are excited about the role technology will play in our sector, and evolving our accounting and tax services for contractors to keep ahead of tax and statutory filing changes. As well as keeping up with the demands our clients place on us from the contractor landscape they operate in. And as the first cloud-based accounting firm to operate in the UK, we intend to keep making tracks and not follow well-trodden paths.
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Book-Keeper of the Year - West Midlands
Norman Bookkeeping & Payroll is a specialist company offering excellence in all aspects of bookkeeping, account management, payroll control, VAT, invoicing and chasing debts, making them essentially an outsourced accounts department, dedicated to providing a professional commitment to day-to-day accounting. Managing Director, Rob Burnell gives an overview on his dynamic and dedicated company.
Company: Norman Bookkeeping & Payroll Ltd Name: Rob Burnell Email: info@normanbookkeeping.co.uk Web Address: www.normanbookkeeping.co.uk Address: 1A Birch House, Birch Lane Business Park, Aldridge, WS9 0NF Telephone: 01922 456105
Norman Bookkeeping & Payroll were established in 2010, to offer a back office accounting solution to small and medium sized businesses both in the West Midlands and nationally. Our clients are either small or medium sized businesses with a typical turnover of about £500k, although we have clients either side of that figure. We deal with a wide range of business sectors from IT consultants to restaurants, from manufacturers to musicians, among others. Our commitment to client service means building a relationship of trust, offering peace of mind and value for money. To achieve this we ensure that all new clients are listened to and their requirements and problems are thoroughly understood, in order to meet their accounting needs. Currently one of the biggest problems within the accountancy industry is adapting and keeping pace with new IT technology, such as cloud based accountancy software, mobile phone apps and tablet solutions. Equally, clients expect a more contactable and fast service, in order to meet the challenges of an ever more complex business environment. Norman Bookkeeping & Payroll have invested considerable expense, training and time into meeting these growing challenges. Our staff have excellent and up-to-date knowledge, with training in IT accountancy software and solutions, with the latest cloud technology playing a key part in the expansion of our national services. Moving forward, there are a number of exciting developments ahead, which will provide us with fresh, new challenges and opportunities. Our business has more than doubled in the last 12 months, with a number of new and exciting clients starting to work with us in the New Year. The trend is for more and more companies to look at outsourcing their back office and accounts departments to firms like Norman Bookkeeping & Payroll, who have the knowledge and expertise to meet the adapting IT and cloud challenges. Even big accountancy companies like KPMG have moved into our market sector, which will give us the exciting opportunity to compete against one of the industry’s giants.
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Recognised Leader in Business Transformation & Change Management – UK
Steven Swientozielskyj is the CEO of Business Partnering Global LTD, and also has several directorship and Chairmanship roles. We spoke to him to get his insight and advice on business transformation and change management.
Company: Business Partnering Global LTD Name: Steven Swientozielskyj, CEO Address: Apartment 112 153 Great Ancoats Street Manchester Greater Manchester
Across the corporate landscape, organisational activities on both a global and national scale are more volatile, uncertain, complex, and subject to increasing ambiguity. Globally, the accountancy profession will have major challenges going forward. Existing business models are being disrupted with increasing pace in both the private and public sector. With this in mind, how the accountancy profession is going to add proactive support and added value insights will become an increasing challenge. What will become critical to delivering success is the way in which companies utilise cash optimally, comply with legislation and regulations, speed up activities by cycle time reduction, as well as how they both improve and enhance the customer experience. This is known as the ‘4C Model’, and the real challenge and opportunity is to keep all of these factors optimised within the business model that serve their markets. I personally believe that this is what will generate and sustain success over the long term. From my experience, applying this model has achieved phenomenal results. It has generated world-class standards, motivated staff to high performance standards and generated millions of pounds in savings in cash flows. To meet the client needs is simple; you start and end with customer service. At the moment, Business Partnering Global Ltd is now focusing upon dissemination to knowledge, skills and competences globally. Major projects include the 2016 launch of Business Partnering, a practical handbook which will provide an educational platform for learning with our selected partners. Looking ahead, the opportunities and challenges for the accountancy profession are both simple and difficult, and it is in keeping up with the increasing pace of activities and expectations on both individuals and organisations that is key. In tackling the opportunities and challenges, it is all about disseminating which innovations have been successful and learning from those which have been unsuccessful. Personally, I have found that there is always a degree of resistance to new ideas and change in our industry. As such, delivering and sharing practical thought leadership, succinct, successful models, and methods is both a global opportunity and individual challenge.
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Best Book-Keeping Company - London
Boogles Bookkeeping Ltd help people with their bookkeeping (day to day), as well as bookkeeping training on systems such as Quickbooks, Xero, Solibooks and various others. Their clients come from a range of industries including charities, arts organisations, service-based companies such as IT people, mechanics and one man bands starting up working from home. Sometimes they need help with a backlog, and other times they may just need a system setting up, which they can then maintain themselves.
Company: Boogles Bookkeeping Ltd Name: Lisa Newton Email: lisa@booglesltd.com Web Address: www.BooglesLtd.com and www. WorkAsABookkeeper.com Address: 5th floor, 230 City Road, London EC1V 2TT Telephone: 020 3371 8894 (24 hr)
In an interview with Boogles Bookkeeping Ltd’s Lisa Newton, she reveals the current state of the accountancy industry, the importance of customer service, staying at the cutting edge of new developments and what the future holds for the business. Please give me your views on the state of the accountancy industry in your region at present. What major challenges does it currently face and what are the major outside influence factors? I think the accountancy industry is changing as there are more and more smaller companies who may want more help (hand holding), as opposed to established businesses. I think the major challenge is to get people to come forward for help in a timely manner and not at crisis point. There is a lot of opportunity for people to get online help at a fraction of the cost, so this could pose as a major challenge / threat to traditional accountants if they’re just competing on price. In your view, what attributes should a company in your industry or sector possess in order to become truly successful and be able to provide the best possible service to its clients? I think you need to be very responsive to customers – make yourself available 24 hours a day – or at least be speedy and get back to people quickly. I think being able to ‘educate’ your clients (and potential clients) in an easy, understandable, jargon-free manner, makes you more approachable and they’re more likely to come to you when they’re in need because they will have some experience of you, and they’ll trust you to know what you’re doing. Working within such an evolving and dynamic industry, what steps do you take to ensure that your firm remains on the cutting edge of new developments? How do you ensure that you are always best placed to meet your clients’ needs? We read industry articles and attend networking events and podcasts to hear what others are saying. But most importantly – we’re on the frontline! We talk to our clients, we do surveys and we make ourselves approachable and open to suggestions. We’ve commissioned independent client research in the past, to hear their views and opinions, and if anyone ever does leave, then we do have a client-exit questionnaire, to find out why and what we could do differently. We ask the staff regularly – what would be a really good idea for Boogles to do? What does the future hold for your business? Are there any specific projects or major developments on the horizon that you would be willing to share with us? We’ll be doing more training courses on the plethora of accounting software out there on the market. We’ll also be recruiting more partners to join our network and philosophy via the site: www.WorkAsABookkeeper.com because we’ve realised that there are a lot of people out there with the technically competent skills who want to do the work – yet aren’t marketers so struggle with finding the clients. Our solution is pain-free.
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Running on empty and overloaded from that acquisition? RoseRyan finance pros can power you through it.
Whether you are running on fumes, growing like gangbusters or rapidly expanding with an IPO or acquisition, RoseRyan has the senior finance pros to get you through it. Our award-winning consulting firm based in Silicon Valley has the finance dream team that has helped companies get to the next stage for over 21 years.
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Most Innovative Finance & Accountancy Firm - California & Best XBRL Practice - USA
Based in Silicon Valley, RoseRyan is an award-winning finance and accounting consulting firm that gets you through any acquisition. We deliver specialized firepower exactly when and where it’s needed to companies of all kinds.
Company: RoseRyan Name: Maureen Ryan, Vice President Email: Please contact Maureen Ryan through RoseRyan’s website. Web Address: www.roseryan.com Address: 35473 Dumbarton Court, Newark, CA 94560 Telephone: 510-456-3056
Recognized for innovation and strong leadership, RoseRyan has worked with more than 700 companies since 1993. We rank among the top accounting firms in our region and are known for our deep level of expertise, in-demand experience and passion for conquering the finance challenges of fast-moving companies. While we specialize in supplementing teams in the tech and life sciences sectors, we can help companies in any industry overcome a remarkable array of finance transactions and issues throughout their lifecycle. Whatever stage you’re at and whatever milestone you’re approaching, RoseRyan can get you through it.
Powering Silicon Valley and beyond Four key factors drive our success as a finance dream team: • Total flexibility: RoseRyan matches services and talent to clients on the most nimble basis. Clients really appreciate our ability to deliver exactly what they want and need. We also offer highly flexible work arrangements for our senior-level pros, known as our gurus. That means clients get the freshest talent, people who bring their professional and personal best to every engagement. • A collaborative culture. Our corporate culture is vibrant, heavy on collaboration and teamwork. We carefully defined and set our culture on course six years ago, and have been nurturing it ever since. Today we see many benefits from this strategic differentiator. We have an aligned team made up of friendly gurus with can-do attitudes. They leave their egos at the door. • Emphasis on innovation. Working out of Silicon Valley, we are naturally all about thinking forward. We love to dream up new solutions for making the work lives of our gurus easier and easing the burden of our clients’ financial complexities. • Mighty technical accounting talent. RoseRyan brings a sophisticated, multi-layer approach to our work with clients by giving them access to senior-level, technical accounting talent that helps them navigate the toughest corporate quandaries. We’re aces in helping companies through complex acquisition deals and the mountains of work during the aftermath. We’ve handled chaos, crushing deadlines, hyper growth, pre- and post-IPOs, the most complex accounting issues, tricky transactions and more.
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RoseRyan is the award winning finance and accounting consulting firm that can get you through the trickiest transactions. Power through it. Whether you are starting up, growing like gangbusters or rapidly expanding with an IPO or acquisition, RoseRyan has the senior finance experts to get you through it. Our Silicon Valley finance dream team has helped over 700 companies get to the next stage.