About Us
The Alternative Accountants aren't just any accountancy practice, we strive to be different in ways that will help you and your business achieve your dreams. I can literally hear your scepticism about that from here! Really though, not only are we able to translate Accountant in to plain English, our goal is to be there for your whole business. We don't just see or speak to our clients once a year, we're here all year round to answer queries and help you out with all things finance. Whether that's your normal accounts or tax return, or whether it's a business plan and cash flow to help you raise finance. Whether it's setting up management reporting so you have a real time view of how your business is actually performing or advice over implementing systems and mitigating risk. We are here to help. We are not your traditional accountants, we are so much more!
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Who are the Alternative Accountants?
Laura Perks
Hi Guys, I’m Laura, the owner here at The Alternative Accountants. I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about me and why I do what I do.
I’ve been at this accounting lark for a decade now. I started my journey at a great firm in Oxford and when I started my ACA I was interested in Accountancy but I didn’t think it was my passion. It turns out I was wrong, it was! I know you’re all thinking, yeah right you can’t get passionate about something like that, snore. The thing is though, it’s so much more than doing a set of accounts or a tax return. It’s essentially about helping people achieve their dreams. A bold claim but valid I think.
When I first started, it was all about the puzzles. A set of accounts is like a jigsaw puzzle, fitting all the pieces together correctly to tell the story of the business for that year. Once I’d got the puzzles down it was about double checking the puzzle was right. In other words auditing! Now I’ve generally found over the years that if you ever want someone to stop talking to you, tell them you’re an Auditor and they will disappear, it’s a bit like magic!
I loved it though, again it shouldn’t be about telling people they’ve done something wrong it should be about helping them make their business better. This definitely gets lost in translation though and the message changes I think as the companies get bigger. I moved on to Deloitte after I qualified because I wanted to be an auditor.
In some respects it was great, I travelled a lot, I got to work with some great companies, but it was essentially just a massive administration exercise. There wasn’t really any added value to any of these companies as a result of the huge audit fees so I became a bit disillusioned with it all.
That’s when I moved and started working in industry, it was a massive change but I loved the way you can actually get involved and help businesses from a financial or tax perspective. I finally felt like I was doing what I wanted to do.
As the years ticked on, I was still enjoying what I did, I’d had some great promotions and my career was in a great place but there was something nagging at me. The more people, friends, colleagues with small businesses I talked to the more I realised that they would hugely benefit from an accountant who would provide whole business support. From things like business plans and cash flows to risk reviews and tax planning as well as the ‘Standard’ accountancy services.
Finally in May 2016 I decided to bite the bullet and started my own practice. That was incredibly scary but I can honestly say it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Now I get to do what I love every day and, as I said at the beginning, even help people achieve their dreams.
Being an accountant is awesome!