One liners...

1. AAT qualified staff
2. Full professional indemnity cover
3. Registered with HMRC, Money Laundering Regs, Data Protection Act, Crown Copyright.
4. All small business and general accountancy needs served
5. Additional services for Polish businesses and NHS contractors/surgeries.
6. A friendly team offering knowledgable service at reasonable fees

Short version

1. November 2006 Staff 1, Clients 1
2. November 2009 Staff 5, Clients - just short of 300

Long version

1. Hey, we're quite proud of the short version!  :-)

1. Did you know absolutely anybody can call themselves an accountant?
2. 
   
3. As a requirement for buying a franchise, a large competitors website states that no formal accountancy qualifications and no experience at all is required as a six week intensive training course is supplied as part of their franchise package.
4. 
   
5. Wow!
   

1. On the other hand, all our accountants are AAT qualified or (a higher level international qualification). This comprehensive three year course is the recognised standard for 'back office' accountancy and taught in the state higher education system. One of our staff is being sponsored by the company through ACCA training to become Chartered and in the meantime we have a consultant Chartered Accountant on call. No-one in our office has less than four years experience, some have over twenty! Nuff said!
   

1. We have a cheesy name!
2. You haven't forgotten it though have you?

The idea behind Discountants was that we felt there was a place in the market for a service which was lower priced than the Chartered sector but still offering an properly qualified and knowledge based service, light years ahead of the 'bucket seat' and unqualified providers. In other words to sit in the middle, just like most peoples business needs.

On the one hand there will be a few issues we will defer to Chartered and if your turnover is more than £3M you must use Chartered of course. Interestly, a lot of Chartered practices employ AAT staff for the 'nuts and bolts' of your accounting needs anyway.

On the other hand we might not be the very cheapest either. If we judge a competitors quote to be simply too low to provide enough attention to do the work properly, how can we respond any other way?

Anyway, enough of the corporate mission statement nonsense, I hear you say! I agree, but how does one make accountants exciting? What can be done? Paint the beans bright colours? Help?!

Well, what we can offer is our good humoured and personal, friendly approach which is at the core of the way we work with you. We also thought we might have a nice bright, open-plan office with a glass frontage instead of the usual stuffy anonymous office with the vertical blinds. You know, the ones that look like a funeral parlour.

Currently, we are at a very exciting time with new client growth continuing a pace and a big web based project to offer free on-line book keeping to our clients. A few of the Polish clients have gone home but for most, home is now the UK anyway. The other side of the coin is that a lot of new English businesses have stepped in to fill that void as they try to reduce costs and fees in the recession.

Our people

Under construction (the site, not the people)