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Brian Leighton

Brian is both senior partner and managing partner of Foster Squires, a chartered certified accountant practice based in North London in the UK. With over 1,600 clients and 23 staff, Foster Squires provides accountancy services, financial and investment advice and business growth expertise. Brian’s responsibilities include running the ever-expanding business by looking at cash flow, acquisitions and dealing with clients. “The firm has recently merged with another practice, so I am kept pretty busy with that at the moment,” explains Brian.

Since becoming an ACCA member in 1973, Brian has ensured that he has kept up to date with accountancy. “I read magazines and newspapers to maintain my awareness and knowledge of accountancy, finance and business news. In addition, we organise courses for all staff within the practice using external providers. It is important, though, that you pick the right type of course. Every three months, we all attend half-day courses on key topics such as tax, audit and money laundering,” explains Brian. “Because of the areas that we work in, for example, company audits (at the moment we do about 36 a year) and tax returns (we do 700 to 800 a year), it is important that we keep up to date with all that’s new in these specific areas. Our advisers tend to come in and keep us up to date with tax and audit standards so that we can ensure we are giving our clients the best possible service,” explains Brian.

In addition, Brian and the other partners in the practice also attend residential courses, such as the two-day courses offered by ACCA. “These are great, not only because of the content of the courses, but because I am able to get away from the telephone and focus on what I am learning. At work, there can be many interruptions!” he adds.

“As a practice with registered auditor status, we receive a monitoring visit from ACCA’s Monitoring Unit,” explains Brian. “This usually takes place every five years and the purpose of the visit is to check the standard of the audit work carried out in practice as well as our general business practices. However, in addition to this, at Foster Squires we arrange for an external firm of accountants to conduct a peer review on an annual basis to specifically review our audit files. This is good for our practice and the staff but also reassures our clients that we are committed to providing a first-class service.”

As well as being responsible for running the business, Brian is also involved with specialised projects such as due diligence in takeovers. “For example, I had to go to speak to a potential client who we were recommended to about due diligence for a takeover of another company. This specialised work is based on experience mainly – myself and another partner have done quite a range of this type of work over the past few years so we learn from one another and past experiences,” explains Brian. “Also, because we are a proactive company, I also get involved with financial forecasting for our clients. I really enjoy this type of work. However, I can still do bank reconciliation if it is required!”

Regarding staff training, Brian feels that at the moment the practice is not really big enough to have dedicated in-house training. “As well as providing time out to attend regular training courses, we have two managers who deal with accountancy staff training. The managers help all staff learn how to do certain procedures and then they are able to manage it themselves in the future,” Brian says. “In addition, we tend to recruit qualified ACCA members because we know that they will have a good background in accounts production and also that they have at least three years’ experience.” Brian feels that he probably does over 40 hours of CPD at the moment, and that he and his colleagues will be able to meet the ACCA Realise requirements.

Feedback from ACCA

Senior management need time for development too

As an ACCA member and senior partner, Brian not only has to consider his own training and development but also that of his 23 members of staff. He is only too aware that the demands of running a busy and expanding practice leaves precious little uninterrupted time for his own development and so it makes sense to attend external residential courses. By identifying his working patterns and the constraints on his time, Brian is able to source the most suitable learning to fit in with his work commitments.

Brian mentions the importance of finding the right type of course. Although learning and development has to be relevant for it to contribute towards CPD, members do not have to rely on the attendance of courses for activity to be classified as relevant. Under ACCA Realise, a wide range of activities are recognised as CPD.

Brian also mentions that he and a colleague work on specialised projects and that the sharing of previous experiences helps with such project work. Learning and sharing ideas with colleagues and drawing upon previous work experience are all important and contribute to learning, and would therefore be classed as relevant CPD.

Under ACCA Realise, research can contribute as relevant CPD and any research Brian may undertake to help him on specialised projects would therefore count. Also, keeping up to date with accounting and business issues through supplementary reading contributes to learning, and therefore to Brian’s annual CPD requirement too.

Training and developing staff

Brian and the other partners in the practice ensure that each of their staff receives adequate opportunities for training and development by attending external courses, as well as internal training from managers. This will count towards the CPD requirement for those members of staff on the receiving end of such training. For members involved in delivering training, coaching or mentoring members of staff, activity of this kind can count towards their own CPD requirement if they can demonstrate that it is contributing to their own learning and development.

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