Find out why our firm really is Refreshingly Different

Accountancy often gets a bad rep.

I should know. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been introduced to someone new – whether it be at a party, or even a business networking event – and have watched that person’s eyes glaze over when I tell them what I do for a living. Usually they expect a middle aged bloke, in a grey suit with the most monotone of voices, describing his stamp collection.

While there are still firms like that, I’m proud to say ours certainly isn’t – I wouldn’t have lasted so many years if it was.

I want to challenge some of the stereotypes around the accountancy profession and outline why my job is actually kind of exciting, as geeky as that may sound.

The variety

They say if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life… Personally, i think ‘they’ – whoever they are – are a little too optimistic. Having said that, I do believe that if you enjoy something, you want to do it.

No two days are ever the same in our offices, one day we could be helping one of our many charities come up with new fundraising ideas, another we could be drinking from vases whilst auditing at a shot gun company (I once made my own drink at a client’s only to be told as I left the kitchen that I was drinking my water from a vase, not a glass… Total blonde moment).

Being able to give something back

To be successful – As I like to think we are – you have to give something back to the community and I love the fact we work with lots of local charities. When I say ‘lots’, I think it was around 25 at last count. Not only do we do a few freebies, we also get up to various fundraising activities.

I’d been here around 4 years when I got asked to ‘sail to Holland’ with Catzero – This charity helps NEETs (People not in employment education or training) gain confidence to get a job, go back into education or start something up themselves.

As a 20 year old female, mid-August, I thought it would be a breeze, like a long weekend to Amsterdam. It wasn’t until we were 2 days in, and I was sharing a bucket with my boss to vomit in that I realised I truly had joined a very different firm.

Said boss, Becky, and I also attended a football match for whom the Case trainees play – this charity helps improve the lives of people living with learning difficulties. We sponsored the kits, which the trainees themselves got to design (Obviously choosing Hull city’s famous amber colour) and it really give them a competitive edge when getting on the pitch.

Most recently, 4 of us here took part in tough mudder for a charity client called 5 senses. For those of you that aren’t aware (sorry for those sick of hearing about it like the other folks in the office) it’s a 12 mile military style obstacle course, it has trenches, electrocution and ice baths, not at the same time may I add.

Helping you help yourself and your business

Don’t get me wrong, we do actually DO some work here. It’s not all fun and games. But I get the vibe people often think that accountants are out to get you…
…I’m not imagining that, am I?!

If that’s you, you’ve got us mixed up with the dreaded tax man. We don’t like him either, we are on your side!!

We want to help you save money, not spend it. If you went bust you wouldn’t need an accountant so that’d be no good to us!

The other assumption is that we use long indigenous (that’s a joke) words. But to be honest, we live in the real world. We talk to you so you understand, plain English.

Innovation

HLAS has been around for 150 years, yet we’re very much at the forefront of new technology. I love that there are new techniques and applications being launched all the time and doing the whole brushing the dust off our shoulder thing, we keep up with it extremely well.: our new cloud-based accountancy system QuickBooks is saving our clients huge amounts of time and money, and it will be interesting to see how systems like this develop over the coming years.

If you need a bit more info on the cloud, see our previous blog. https://hlas.co.uk/blog/84/cloud-9

The team

Finally, saving the best part till last. I work with THE best team. There are 15 of us here; we’re all pretty different and all a bit crazy in our own ways. We often socialize outside of work and it just creates the best working atmosphere. We are happy to help out one another and we’ve found this really does enhance the support we are able to give out clients.

I think this is apparent as soon as you come into our office, and we receive fantastic feedback from our clients saying the same thing, we have an open door policy for those who need it and in an nutshell, it works.

So… If you’re looking for an accounting firm which is refreshingly different – and anything but boring, get in touch!