Paul Clarke on championing financial visibility for business owners

How do you add value for your clients with your combined accountancy and business knowledge?

Firstly, I wanted to make sure that business owners expectations are managed with regards to their finance team.

We understood very quickly that there was a huge void between what business owners expect from their accountants and what accountants expect business owners to deliver. I mean HUGE!!

Most business owners expect their accountants to deal with everything financial and want them to find ways to save tax and improve profitability and cashflow. They are also expected to pick up the self assessments, compliance work and monthly management accounts. This is usually well outside the scope for a basic set of accounts.

Most accountants expect business owners to provide a complete set of reconciled accounts with paperwork and supporting documents to enable them to provide a set year end accounts and a self assessment. They end up spending most of their time sorting out basic accounting errors, using up the agreed fee and creating additional bills.

This is where we step in. We add most of our value buy bridging this gap to make sure both business owners and accountants expectations are met.

Becoming part of the day-to-day within each business we work with, we are able to deliver accurate, timely management accounts, making sure our clients have everything they need to help their businesses grow and become more profitable.

We also liaise with accountants to make the sure their time is well spent on tax efficiencies and business structure to aid the overall outcome for the client. In some cases, we encourage our clients to pay their accountants a little more to get a better service rather than just having the basics.

What are your plans and aspirations for the future?

We have started work on our three-year plan to double year on year, with a target of eight offices servicing clients across the south, of course including Southampton.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

I try and get a nice work life balance – I enjoy golf and spending time with my wife Hannah, and our teenage son Harvey and daughter Isabelle, as well as a couple of mad cockapoos – Baxter and Piper.

Getting that balance is something we really advocate as a company. We operate a “results only work environment” in the office and I try to encourage my peers to plan time off around themselves. We’re trying to find more ways to promote that way of thinking because it’s more beneficial for mental health and well-being when you fit in the things that you want to do.

Who or what was the last thing that changed your thought processes?

At the moment I’m currently listening to a book on Audible called Stolen Focus by Johann Hari and it’s really changed my outlook on a few things regarding time management and how distracted we are all the time. It’s such an interesting book; it’s crazy how social media is moulding us and changing society and the way we work, act, and live.