A company with more than three decades of experience is challenging the traditional view of accountancy by offering a wide range of services to support growing businesses.
Elsby & Co launched in 1993 in a back bedroom of a Northampton home and has gone on to employ more than 30 accounting professionals at its current Rushden headquarters, working with clients ranging from sole traders to large SMEs.
Inspired by its own impressive expansion, the company has developed a suite of services, which greatly exceed those typically provided by traditional accountants, to help its clients on the road to success.
This includes business coaching and Elsby Wealth Management, which is managing £60m of assets for customers, and its Business Hub, which takes care of clients’ back-office finance functions and provides real-time management accounts information and regular strategy meetings.
Managing Director Claire Emery, who specialises in providing support and advice to businesses, said: “Many businesses only work with their accountants on end-of-year accounts and tax returns, but we’re committed to being a proactive partner who provides our clients with as much value as possible.
“We strive to be the only accountant our clients will ever need. We provide them with a personalised service that supports them throughout the growth of their businesses up to the time company owners want to start making exit plans and beyond.
“We recognise that every stage of a business is important and embarked on a major recruitment drive last year that enabled us to build an outstanding team with the expertise we need to support our clients on every step of their journey.”
The Business Hub
Elsby’s Business Hub supports clients of all sizes, including organisations with turnovers of over £1m. It provides firms with regular bespoke management accounts with real-time key performance indicators and a complete outsourced finance function, including bookkeeping, credit control, payroll and payment processing.
Partner Leona Bateman said: “Growing businesses reach a stage where they need higher level finance support, such as an in-house Financial Controller, Finance Manager or Finance Director, and support staff to carry out things like bookkeeping and credit control, and dealing with issues of confidentiality and cover for holiday and sick leave, but this can come at a big cost to them.
“Our Business Hub clients receive a cost-effective outsourced finance function and also benefit from support from our partners and senior management team and from our wider team’s wealth of experience.”
Elsby Wealth Management
Elsby Wealth Management provides a level of wealth management which is normally reserved for clients with multi-million-pound portfolios.
It brings together experts in wealth management, estate planning, personal and corporate insurance, mortgages and pensions to provide clients with a joined-up approach to managing their finances.
The team gains an understanding of the client’s lifestyle and financial situation to help them to establish clear short- and medium-term goals and long-term aspirations. It then creates a tailored financial plan.
Claire Emery said: “This range of services and expertise goes beyond the remit of most traditional financial or wealth advisers.
“Elsby Wealth Management clients receive a level of wealth management that you tend to only experience if you’re with a big banking and wealth management group in the City and have a multi-million-pound portfolio.
“We’re helping our clients to reduce their income tax bills, giving them a stable platform to build their business on and work with them on their wealth, mortgages, insurance, inheritance, tax, wills and powers of attorney.”
Managing Director
Founder
Business Coaching
Elsby’s business has grown significantly with help from its Head of Operations, Ann Phillips, who is a highly experienced executive coach and management development specialist.
Not wanting to keep its success to itself, Elsby has begun offering Ann’s extensive coaching expertise to clients who want to expand their own businesses.
Ann provides one-to-one coaching, builds bespoke training workshops, and can help troubleshoot problems to enable managers to focus on fixing the long-term causes of issues.
She said: “We care about our clients and take the time to get to know them and learn about their ambitions so that we understand their unique needs.
“This enables us to provide them with coaching which can help their businesses to grow and creates a positive working environment and culture.
“We’re pleased to off er this extra layer of service which isn’t something we would be able to do if we chose to operate in the way you would expect from a traditional accountant.”
Auditing and succession planning
Auditing is an expanding area for Elsby. The firm offers a range of services, including statutory audits, charity specialist audits, due diligence, minimising fraud exposure and sector benchmarking.
Its audit services are designed to be more than just a compliance exercise as the team believes the audit process can help businesses to thrive. Leona, who heads up the audit team, said: “Often, companies see audits as a necessary but expensive process from which they don’t feel they gain any benefit.
“We always seek to add value for our clients so when we carry out an audit, alongside their audited set of financial statements, they also receive a management letter and we help them to identify where they can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase profitability.”
Elsby has also helped several firms to achieve successful employee succession plans, also known as management buyouts, during the past year.
These plans are ideal for company owners wanting to hand over the reins of their business. They can provide owners with full value for their business and the opportunity to sell it to people who they trust in a timescale they want, in the knowledge that the business they have worked hard to create will live on.
Employee succession plans enable trusted staff to take over the ownership of a business without borrowing money. The staff start running it, allowing the business owner to retire. The new owners continue at the same level of earnings – plus inflation – and the surplus profits are used to fund the business purchase.
Elsby’s wide range of services make it stand out from the crowd and far exceed what clients normally receive from their accountancy firms.
It is unsurprising that Elsby has chosen to go above and beyond for its clients as this approach chimes perfectly with its values.
Claire Emery explained: “At Elsby we’re committed to creating deep and meaningful relationships built on trust, and we always act fairly and with integrity.
“We’re open, honest, friendly and approachable, we’re practical in our advice and deal with things quickly and efficiently.
“We’ve created a strong management team by working hard to develop our staff and their ‘soft skills’ because we want to make a difference to the lives of our clients and help them to be successful.
“We don’t want to simply crunch the numbers. We go the extra mile that someone else wouldn’t because that extra mile is where the difference is made.”
The experts at Elsby are ready to help companies that want to find out more about the firm’s services, or that need support from the expert team following the latest Spring Statement.
Contact Elsby & Co by email at help@elsbyandco.co.uk or call 01933 312950 or find out more on their website here.
