I come from a very working-class upbringing and did not enjoy school. My dad made me choose accountancy as an option and I absolutely hated it; I just didn’t understand the whole double-entry thing and I vowed I would never become an accountant.
But after school, the only job I could get was as a junior accounts clerk working for a plant-hire business. They sent me on day release, doing BTEC business and finance, and after that I started AAT. After a while I dropped out; I just wanted to earn money and go out at weekends with my friends.
A few years later, I began to realise that to make something of your life, you’re going to have to work at it. Working at a DIY business, part of my job was dealing with the auditors at the year end. One explained what they do, and I thought I would absolutely love to do it. So I got a training contract, joining Leavitt Walmsley Associates (LWA) at the age of 23. I found that I was really good at accountancy – once I grasped the double-entry side! I got through my AAT this time round and went straight onto ACCA. I failed the first couple of exams, but once I realised that ACCA was on a completely different level, I got my head down and sailed through.
You need two parts to the circle to complete the regulatory and commercial aspects
Since then, I’ve written several books and countless articles, and that has opened up a lot of avenues for me; I’ve even won a couple of awards along the way. I do a lot of training and I work with ACCA writing technical factsheets. I also spent five years on the UK GAAP technical advisory group at the Financial Reporting Council.
LWA is a mixed practice with 18 staff and two offices, headed up by myself and Les Leavitt. In any successful practice you need two parts of the circle to complete the regulatory and commercial aspects of client relationships, and Les and I dovetail exceptionally well.
We act for a lot of sportspeople, including rugby and Premier League football players
Our biggest clients have a turnover of about £60m-£70m a year; our smallest can be businesses like sole-trader window cleaners. We have several specialisms including sports tax; we act for a lot of sportspeople, including rugby and Premier League football players.
The most pressing issue for practitioners is increased regulation – particularly for auditors. Alongside this is increased scrutiny from professional bodies and regulators in the form of monitoring visits. With technology, we’re expected to do things much faster; while tech does help, the job itself is very demanding so there are countless requests to deal with during a typical day.
To the untrained eye it might seem like I constantly have my head in an accounting standards book. But I like going on holidays, watching Warrington Wolves, socialising and skiing (if you can call it that). I’ve got a big birthday coming up at the end of this year as well, so there are lots of parties on the horizon that will keep me out of FRS 102.
