The Receipt Bank Blog

AccountingWEB’s Practice Excellence week is fast approaching, as is the much-anticipated awards ceremony on 19th October. Among the firms nominated for the Practice Excellence awards, we are delighted to see the names of so many of our partners. In fact, we have at least one partner nominated in every single category – what a result!

We caught up with the lucky nominees ahead of the awards ceremony next week to find out what it takes to run a truly excellent practice. Here’s what they had to say:

NEW FIRM OF THE YEAR

"Everything starts with the client", Adrian Markey of Adrian Markey Ltd

“I think my success came from something beyond just offering clients cloud services. I run the practice based on reverse engineering what my clients want from an accountant and what they hope to achieve as a business.

What I think is important is the impact such a nomination has on clients. It has already helped solidify my relationship with current clients and they have already expressed how proud they are of their firm being nominated.”

"Make business painless", Ben Nacca of Cone Accounting Ltd

“We believe in our customer focus first and foremost, making their lives as pain-free as possible and with tools like Xero and Receipt Bank, it helps to speed up our ability to help clients and keep data entry down to a minimum.

It's great to be shortlisted and we are going to continue to push ourselves as a company and individuals to keep improving, innovating and building on our performance over the next two years.”

"Help clients go global", Alex Falcon Huerta of Soaring Falcon

“We use tech to make their lives more efficient and easier. This does mean learning the main products inside out - like Receipt Bank.

We have helped customers reach other countries. We have started to gain a global presence and are supporting the UK Subsidiaries. To us, this is really cool. The growth and expansion plans are underway . Super proud of the team and the awesome customers who have helped us reached this point in our journey so far.”

SMALL PRACTICE OF THE YEAR

"Keep refining your service", Luke Smith of Purpose

“This is wonderful confirmation that we are truly doing something different and are giving our clients the best business advice out there. To achieve practice excellence, we have been refining our service and now have a superb balance of customer service, people development and suite of top quality products and tools.

We are always developing to make sure we stay at the top of the game, being shortlisted for the Small Practice of the Year award is a brilliant way to celebrate our commitment to continuous improvement and innovation.”

"A passion for processes", Sian Kelly of Inform Accounting Ltd

“Its fantastic to receive recognition for our team’s hard work and growth to date, our cloud based strategy, coupled with excellent customer service, passion for continuous process improvement and faith in talented young graduates and school leavers is really working for us. We couldn't be more delighted to be shortlisted!"

"Make advisory standard", Olly Evans of Evans & Partners

“At Evans & Partners, our mission is to help clients love running their business and still have a life. One of the ways we achieve this is by offering advisory services as standard so that clients are able to see the latest financial status of their business and plan for the future, rather than rely on out-of-date financial data and constantly play catch-up.

Outstanding client service is a mantra at Evans & Partners. Uniquely, we have a Client Service Manager and Client Service team responsible for building and maintaining client relationships and ensuring an efficient and friendly service.

The use of leading technology and the key focus on nurturing client relationships has led to a very successful year for Evans & Partners with new business levels doubling month on month."

"Be the tax team to beat", Nikki Adams of Ad Valorem Accountancy Service Ltd

“To be shortlisted in four national awards categories means a great deal to us, especially the National Tax Practice of the Year, where we are only one of three finalists. We are very proud of our team and couldn’t ask for a more dedicated and exciting group of people to work with.”

SPECIALIST TEAM OF THE YEAR

"Demonstrate your expertise", Alan Nesbitt of Forrester Boyd

“I believe we have made the shortlist because we were able demonstrate genuine technical expertise allied to great levels of client service. Our success in this area is very much down to our whole academy team across the firm who put themselves out to stay up-to-date with developments in the sector and ensure that these are communicated pro-actively to our academy clients.

Their dedication and commitment is such that we almost take it for granted the fact that we complete compliance by whatever deadlines are set for us.”

"Be the tech experts", Barry Chernoff of Davis Grant

“We are incredibly proud of our expert team, and it is testament to the dedication of our Tech Sector Specialists that we have been shortlisted for this Practice Excellence award.

It’s great to see that our core ethos of providing a personal, timely and valued service is being retained as our firm grows beyond traditional accountancy services and embraces new technology. This could not be clearer than in the hard work of the team as led by Steven Sandford and Neil Driver.”

INNOVATIVE FIRM OF THE YEAR

"Take risks", Wesley Rashid of The Accountancy Cloud

“We have a reputation as a risk-taking and innovative firm; adopting new technologies and approaches to ensure a better customer experience. But with the rest of the profession starting to catch up, we're finding more ways to disrupt our market.

Innovation is business as usual for The Accountancy Cloud, so it is measured as part of overall success; not separate initiative. It’s important for our clients to know that our apps can scale to meet customer demand, even on the busiest days of the month!

Whilst our company culture is evolving; we embody an entrepreneurial culture and have a niche strategy focusing on working with tech start-ups so for us, recognition for Innovation Firm of the Year enhances our positioning in the market as the go-to partner for the technology sector."

"Improve constantly", Simon Kallu of SRK Accounting

“It is an honour to be recognised by both the Practice Excellence Awards and British Accountancy Awards for our commitment to constantly improving and adding value to our clients. I am proud of my team and what we have achieved.”

"Roll with the changes", Paul Donno of 1 Accounts Online, nominated for the 2017 Practice Excellence Pioneer Award

“We are very pleased to have been recognised as one the UK's pioneers in our profession. The use of technology has changed immensely since I started my first practice and I could see that the profession was about to go through some major changes and I wasn't wrong.

Cloud technology has allowed us to work more efficiently and provide solutions and support to our clients in a cost effective and efficient way. 1 Accounts Online clients now only use cloud technology and we have seen phenomenal growth particularly in the last year.”

"Look after your clients , watch referrals roll in", Anna Carthew of The Peloton, nominated for Practice Growth of the Year

“Our clients are at the forefront of everything we do. Referrals account for over 60% of our new business, therefore we invest a lot of time and effort into making sure our existing clients are receiving the best service possible.

Working as a team is imperative. Together, we agree on how to resource the companies growth, how to build initial budgets and the creation of new marketing strategies.

We are absolutely delighted to be nominated for a Practice Excellence Award! We have an incredible team and everyone as individuals plays a very important part in the success of the business. We could not be prouder of how much we have achieved in such a short amount of time. Our fingers are firmly crossed!”

Congratulations to all the nominees! It goes to show what's possible when you take the time you used to spend on data entry and chasing items and put it into your client relationships. We wish all of you good luck for the awards – you’re all winners in our eyes!