The category winners in the 2026 AVN Most Inspiring Accountant Awards were recently announced.

These awards have been running since 1999 and they celebrate the achievements of our AVN member firms. It’s always a joy to read through the entries and see how they’re developing and growing their businesses, as well as those of their clients.

The firms that enter are very diverse in size, location, how long they’ve been established and their personalities. But no matter how different they are, every year the winning firms share common characteristics that set them apart from the competition.

What these characteristics are can shift as the business environment changes. And this year one factor was really noticeable. It was how much they cared about their clients as people, not just businesses.

Business owners are dealing with a lot right now – rising costs, changes to NI and business rates, global events, even the weather affecting some supplies. There’s a lot of anxiety and worry around.

What our winning firms do brilliantly is to make this part of their remit, not just the financials. They dig down into what really matters for their clients and what’s keeping them awake at night – and then they take action.

Here’s just one example:

A client of Office Assistants was heading into their peak season under a lot of pressure, with an overflowing shared inbox, capacity problems, unclear responsibilities and high anxiety.

Through in-depth conversations, they helped him to identify what was actually causing the pressure and supported him in turning those issues into practical actions.

Those conversations led to email restructuring, Shopify enquiry forms, improved warranty processes, sales scripts, stock tracking, recruitment planning and around 40 SOPs covering customer service, sales, returns and internal processes. The director’s anxiety reduced, the outlook of his team improved and responsibilities clarified.

Office Assistants went way beyond what you’d expect. And when the director said that he no longer felt overwhelmed, they knew they’d done their job.

Likewise, Phil Tarbun of Blue Ocean Accountancy was sparked into action when he saw how poorly served a new client had been by his previous accountant.

Phil is very honest that he’d fallen out of love with the profession; everything felt harder than it should have been. But as he onboarded this client, he noticed the opportunities that had been missed, the conversations that should have happened, the advice they should have received. And it made him angry.

In his words: ‘That moment completely changed my vision for the practice. The goal was no longer to just get more clients. It was to save them.’

That epiphany changed his entire approach. 

As Phil says now: ‘Today, we know exactly who we exist to help, what sort of practice we want to build and, just as importantly, what we don't want to become.’

He’s winning better quality clients who recognise how he can actually help their business, not just file their tax return.

Those are just two examples of firms that define success differently.

As technology and automation play a bigger role than ever in the accountancy profession, that human element matters.

Efficiency and accuracy are important of course. Clients expect those as a matter of course.

But as the examples above show, the best accountancy firms are much more than efficient. They make space to talk to their clients, to listen to their worries, to make them feel someone is on their side.

Being there for their clients is what makes these firms outstanding.

In a live webinar on 22 October, we interviewed the category winners to hear exactly what they did. You can now watch the presentation of the awards and find out who was voted as the overall winner.

ACCA kindly sponsored the Business Advisory category award – do read ACCA’s factsheet on how to win business and accountancy awards. Why not consider applying for an award next year?