1. In a nutshell, tell us about Accounting Angels’ story.

Accounting Angels was formed 8 years ago by our founder and my best friend Sarah, and it came from her seeing there was a gap in support for small businesses. Most bookkeepers want a few bigger clients, small clients take as much admin as a bigger client, follow ups etc but have less financial reward, so sadly they at times get lost, we have a passion for helping smaller and growing businesses.

2. Why do you believe it’s important to offer specialised bookkeeping services for female-led businesses, and how do you think these services can uniquely support their growth and success?

We noticed that there were more and more women in business, especially mummas, going into business to either give themselves more time with their kids or be able to provide for them more securely, and that really spoke to us. As mums ourselves, we get that drive to provide for and do better for your family but wow, being a mum and owning a business means there are a lot of hats to wear, so we wanted to take one hat off our clients and also help them make sure all the hours they are putting in are actually for something, are they meeting the goals they want to meet, do they know how much they need to bring in or are they just working and working and not knowing the end goal and lets not forget working super hard, putting money away just for it all to go in a tax bill. We wanted to give our clients back some time and help them have more confidence and clarifty in an area of business that can be really stressful for a lot of people.

3. Can you share an example from your experience where your financial expertise particularly supported a woman entrepreneur?

We have this client, lets call her Jane. Jane and her wife wanted to be mummas but running a business meant the financial side of it was causing them stress. Whilst working with our senior team to get to know their business numbers, they shared that with us, and so one of their goals was to build a business that meant they both could take time off when Bubba arrived. Each month we would check in and make sure they were following the plan and that the plan still worked now fast forward to the end of a TWIN pregnancy. Both mummas are now taking a number of months off, they have money in the bank and a clear plan on who needs to go back to work when and exactly how many clients they need to see in those early days of easing back in. The look on their faces of sheer relief was so heartwarming to see the impact knowing your numbers can have on a business owner and mumma-to-be.

4. Small businesses have their own set of challenges. Can you share a story about a time you helped a small business navigate a tricky financial situation?

One of our specialties are catch up jobs, or sometimes called a rescue job. One we worked on, she was 7 years behind, yes SEVEN, and the previous bookkeeper had been working a quarter at a time but taking a long time to do it, so she would get one quarter a head but then call back a month or so, it was a mess. She had BAS to lodge and tax returns and knew there would be a tax debt and then of course the mounting cost of getting the work done. We worked with her to simplify it all, do the whole 7 years in one go over a number of months so she wasn’t then falling behind as she court up, then also gave her a flat fee payment plan on the cost and negotiated with the ATO getting her a great payment plan but being honest with the ATO explaining what happened to this real life human, not just an ABN, and asking for help. She is all caught up now and keeping up to date and now working with your managers to work on future plans and getting to know her numbers and what her business is really capable of.

5. You have a permanent desk at our new site, WOTSO Blacktown! How are you finding the WOTSO experience? How has WOTSO supported your business growth?

I have been working from home for the past 7 years and needed a change. I was so nervous coming in, but Lisa made me feel comfortable straight away. The space and the people are just amazing, and I am so glad we found WOTSO.

Being at WOTSO and networking with all the other member has helped us grow a bigger support network around our business so now when we have issues we have people in our space that we can turn to for advice and support.