Case Studies

When Leigh joined his wife Sarah in her practice, he was shocked by the ‘spreadsheet monster’. This was not the lifestyle business they’d dreamt of when leaving the corporate world. Cue: Technology and automation. It’s still early days in AM’s acquisition by Bright and we could tell you ‘the future’s bright’ until the cows come ...

Vicki Boddice started her career at one of the Big Four firms. After struggling with her mental health, she escaped the industry – seemingly forever. Until, that is, her new business venture led her back to accountancy. On her terms. When we interview our users, their lives are so interesting, that we don’t have much ...

When we were chatting to Claire Rulton, owner of Addison Accounts, we kept getting déjà vu. Not from another case study, but from our recent best practice advice for getting started and introducing AccountancyManager to your team.  Claire Rulton took an unusual route into accountancy, working in management accounting for the Duke of Bedford – ...

For Khiya Kara, founder of Kara Bookkeeping Specialists, owning a practice isn’t about money or quantity of clients, but the relationships. Just one year in, KBS is a great example of a practice never being too new or too small to utterly love AccountancyManager. Khiya launched her practice last year, having worked in various finance ...

Jordan Jewitt isn’t shy about using the odd swear word. In fact, it’s become part of his official tone of voice. Catering to the construction industry, Jordan has plenty of other unique approaches too. Not least in his use of AccountancyManager… We always tell our users: ‘AM is your bricks, cement and tools. The masterpiece ...

StriveX is owned by soon-to-be husband and wife, Rachel and James. They met at a Top 100 firm and are now striving to right the wrongs they experienced there. We talk: totally transparent pay, hoodies with awesome puns and, of course, AccountancyManager. James incorporated StriveX in 2017 and worked alone for the first 18 months, ...

Amanda Lang runs Maccass & Lang from her home in Bonnybridge, near Falkirk. She’s a one-person-band with no plans to expand. In fact, Amanda’s ‘not in it for the money’, just to help her clients – and go on the odd holiday.  That doesn’t mean Amanda isn’t constantly growing and evolving her business in other ...

Francesca and Charlotte met at a networking event in 2018, where they bonded over a shared passion for cloud accounting. Three years later, Future Cloud is a fast-growing firm of eight – with AM at its heart. For this week’s AM in Practice, we travelled (in real life) to the offices of Future Cloud, with ...

This edition of AM in Practice takes us to exotic locations like Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Exeter. Join us as we quiz Anita Cocks, owner of Tax and Financial, about her fascinating back story and experience using AccountancyManager.   Anita’s father worked in bomb disposal for the British Armed Forces, so she grew up globe-trotting. “I ...

EP Tax has used AccountancyManager for three years. In that time the team has multiplied and the clientbase has gone through the roof. We caught up with practice manager Dom to find out how they’re getting on.  Dominique is the practice manager at EP Tax, she joined in 2018, the same year the practice launched. ...

Praddy Velayuthan is living the dream many business owners have. By delegating both compliance work – and now advisory – to his team, Praddy is stepping away from the day-to-day to focus on the bigger picture. All with a little help from AccountancyManager.  Praddy Velayuthan was born and raised in Sri Lanka, where he worked ...

Every AccountancyManager user sits somewhere on the ‘digital knowledge’ spectrum. Those who admit technology terrifies them at one end and actual developers at the other. Aaron Patrick is of the latter ilk. So much so, he once started building his own version of AccountancyManager.  Aaron’s practice, Boffix, is four years old and has around 10 ...

The Sage Impact Award Winner (who never planned to have a practice) Many people have itchy feet for a while before launching a business. Donna, however, loved her previous role and never planned to leave. It was exploring new technology that sparked an interest that would become Accrual World Accounting Solutions.  Only one year into ...

Rachel Dale, Tax Director at ChadSan, formerly Chaddesley Sanford, spoke to AM’s Jonathan Stobart about putting their motto into action: Technology driven. People focused. Rachel Dale starts our interview with a caveat. As AM is used in a multitude of ways in different teams across ChadSan, Rachel can only comment from a tax team perspective. ...

Caroline Hocking is the owner of Mona Accountancy, located… wherever she wants to be. Caroline has dyed red hair, piercings, tattoos and rides a motorbike, but nothing surprises us anymore. We stopped expecting grey hair, suits and ties a while back. It’s been over a year without exhibitions and we’ve missed seeing users face to ...

Alistair has always been progressive in his thinking, whether it’s adopting technology early, promoting flexible working or training the next generation of accountants. Alistair spoke to AM’s Jonathan about how AM supports his approach and the daily operation of his 3-office firm. We love our interviews with AM users, they’re a unique window into how ...

Christopher Blunn, Alex Shall and Pete Heslington met as partners at Haines Watts in London – and became firm friends. Discovering a shared ambition, they became friends with a firm in late 2020. Chris talks to AM’s Jonathan about Praxis’ first six months and how they’re finding AM. A pandemic, an acquisition and a launch ...

Ben Thexton’s story is amongst the most unexpected and inspiring we’ve heard yet. After a severe head injury nine years ago, Ben has defied doctors, qualifying with the ACCA, becoming the owner of multiple successful businesses and raising two young daughters. Ben’s career started off in the construction industry, working on-site with his family’s business ...

Vicki and Pippa have known each other since they were 11. Now, with their kids all grown up, they joined forces to run Creative and Numbers, a Kent-based practice dedicated to the creative industry. The female founders both hail from unlikely backgrounds and are far removed from the traditional view of a stuffy accountant. Thanks to ...

Harry Walker started his practice just two years after becoming an accountant. Harry left AccountancyManager in 2019, only to return in 2020 after trying IRIS practice management. Turns out we’d set his expectations a little too high…  It was Harry’s mum – a bookkeeper with her own practice – that inspired him to become an ...

Anna Nikolovska started her practice in 2018 and signed up with AM on day one. The following year, Anna appeared at our Accountex stand laden with chocolates. A tasty testament to how much she values the software and our ‘brilliant, brilliant customer service’. AM’s Jonathan Stobart caught up with Anna to see how she’s getting ...

Before launching Sterling Finance 20 years ago, Kamlesh Rajput was the CFO of a multinational – a role that frequently took him around the world. Noticing the stark difference in customer service and satisfaction between the UK, US, Europe & Middle East – and the unfair advantage of large corporations – led Kamlesh to help ...

Beth Jackson at 2 Sisters Accounting mainly attracts clients through social media – which is where AM’s Jonathan spotted one of her unusually candid videos. Turns out, 2 Sisters signed up for AM last summer and they’re finding huge value – despite not turning on automated emails yet… Beth and her ‘big’ sister, Jessie set ...

Will Sterling, one of the owners of Sterling Accounting Solutions (SAS) in Kings Langley just outside Watford, Hertfordshire, grew his team at an impressive rate over lockdown. He spoke to AM’s Jonathan Stobart in early January about 2020, life with AM and his plans for the future. Will started out by training in audit with ...

Andy Sullivan knows his stuff when it comes to business technology. He also happens to be an accountant. Only two years in and business is good. Really good. Find out how Andy uses tech in his own practice and how AM is inspiring his clients to introduce their own efficiencies. Everyone we’ve interviewed for AM ...

Khyam Chudhry is the proud owner of a fully digital, paperless practice that doesn’t experience ‘the panic thing’ every January: Fortuous Limited. He also has strong convictions when it comes to advisory. He’s been with us since our very beginnings and AM is the only software he has no plans to switch. When self-employment is ...

AM’s Jonathan Stobart caught up with Ben Steele – AccountancyManager user and owner of Bristol-based firm, Steele Financial. On top of his accounting and people skills, Ben is quite the technical guru. In fact, he’s been offering so much free advice to clients around the best technology to use, he’s started to commercialise it. Steele Financial – accountants and ...

This week’s case study took an unexpected turn. Buhir Rafiq gave AM’s Jonathan Stobart an in-depth tour of his practice management set up. It was a fantastic way to see how Total Books has evolved thanks to time saved by automation and the visibility of data. Get comfortable. Buhir is using almost every feature of AM, with ...

This week, we take the virtual train up from Warwick to Eccles to meet Carolyn Cullen from Monton Green Accountancy Ltd. Currently under local lockdown, Carolyn spoke to us from the home office she’s sharing with her husband. Due to a case of coronavirus in one of her daughter’s year groups, Carolyn is also still having ...

This year has been full of feature releases for AccountancyManager, around 16 in the last three months in fact. But there are always ongoing projects bubbling away in the development office too. (There may be plans to start barricading the door so James can’t ‘pop in’ with more ideas for the road map.) Customising AccountancyManager for the ...

We’ve spoken to a few long-term users of AccountancyManager (AM) recently. So this week, we’re shifting our focus onto newcomers, with Yorkshire-based practice: SAS Senior Accounting Services. AM’s Marcus Bellis caught up with owner, Samantha Senior, stealing half an hour from her exceedingly busy schedule. Meet Samantha and her practice of many sides Samantha started her ...

Jim Borrill at D H Tuck & Co recently joined us on a webinar hosted by Dan Cockerton of Digital Accountancy fame. The discussion centred around cloud software and the interactions between them. The following week, our Head of Sales, Marcus caught up with Jim as he took the hot seat for our latest AM in Practice.  ...

We’re taking a closer look at AccountancyManager in action. Last week we grilled Zia Tahir at Spherical Accountants in Hackney. This week we travel south (and inadvertently stick with the theme of geometric shapes) to Diamond Outsourcing.  Bal and Sam have been friends since childhood. Both choosing careers in accountancy, Sam opted for the practice route while Bal ...

We’re taking a look at AccountancyManager ‘out in the wild’ – AM in the hands of the accountants and bookkeepers that use it day in, day out.  “It’s great to see people come onboard with AccountancyManager, but I get far more satisfaction hearing about how those same people make AM work within their practice.” Marcus ...

Recently, Liston (on our support team) shared a great result with us. Mark Francis, from Francis Bookkeeping Solutions Ltd, had casually mentioned that he’d doubled his client base by using AccountancyManager. Hold the phone. We said: We feel a case study coming on. AM’s CEO James Byrne caught up with Mark and discussed, among other things, opinionated ...

Finding time to properly focus on clients and grow the business is an ongoing challenge for firms big and small. Never more so than over the last few months.  Matt McConnell – co-owner of Certax Accounting in Durham – should be struggling more than most. He and his partner, Jonathan Tait, are running a 32-strong ...

First, a little history (don’t worry, it starts in 2017) In 2017, James Byrne – AccountancyManager CEO – was a practicing accountant with familiar frustrations: Writing repetitive emails and constant reminders. Always reprioritising work according to deadlines and information received from clients. And having no time to spend on developing the practice or giving proactive ...

We’ve taken a break from reporting on the coronavirus to have a chat with one of AccountancyManager’s oldest clients (in terms of her use of AccountancyManager, not her age). Lucy Drake started her accountancy career at 16 and is now owner of Southampton-based practice Hassle Free Accounts and Tax. “I spend less time on onboarding clients, now ...