Matthew's LinkedIn profile

My brother-in-law was working at an accountancy firm in Hull which brought accountancy to my attention, and I had the chance to do some work experience in a small practice in Cleethorpes and the effect on me was profound. I really enjoyed the varied work which you don't get in industry and realised that it was my calling. University didn't feel right for me, and I wanted to learn on the job, so I got a job at a practice and worked for several years before doing my ACCA qualification. Doing self-study in the evenings whilst working full time is really challenging and the relief when I finally qualified was unbelievable - probably the same as when my first child was born!  

The progression path in the practice I was working in was uncertain but one of the clients was a residential builder and surreptitiously interviewed me and asked me to be their financial controller. I love practice and the variety but agreed to work four days a week for Keigars and spend one day a week on my own practice. As my practice grew and my time became more constrained, Keigars became a client of my practice, and I now spend a day a week working as their financial controller and the rest of the time on my practice.

I was looking for larger premises and a former colleague who had also started his own practice had premises larger than he needed. Instead of renting some of his space, we merged the practices together. As we expanded, we needed larger premises and bought our current premises in the centre of Grimsby and then a few years ago I bought out my partner.

Residential building and the property sector are areas we specialise in because of my background with Keigars and referrals that have come from them and clients in those sectors. This niching has helped us to grow quite quickly. Residential builders can range from small operations like someone with a plot of land that they can fit maybe five units on, to large operations with multiple active sites and a land bank that they can start developing as and when. Residential builders differ from property developers in that the latter take something already there and improve it whereas a residential builder literally starts with nothing and gets planning permission and builds residential properties from the ground up.

They're different to clients in other sectors because the numbers are usually much bigger. The treatment of land stock is very different to, say, where somebody has a manufacturing business. Although ultimately the treatment is the same – you're still recognising income and expenses – how you value that land stock can be different compared to a manufacturing company as its value usually only goes up – particularly when you acquire planning permission.

One of the challenges we're facing is that we spend a lot of time catching up on the ever changing legislation that is being put both on accountancy practices but also filters down to businesses. Accounting practices sit between the Government and businesses, so it falls to us to actually explain those changes to businesses such as changes in tax legislation or Companies House ID verification. We bear the brunt of the communication – I had one client who thought the Companies House IDs were the same as the proposed digital ID cards and I had to explain the difference. Misinformation on social media has become prevalent and accountants have a responsibility to cut out the incorrect information for clients and explain the facts and why it is happening which means there is a bigger burden on accountancy practices.

Clients can see us as the collector of taxes and bearer of bad news, but I try to flip that on its head and be optimistic and encourage clients to be proactive and make sure they're paying the right amount of tax and no more – so looking at pension contributions and other ways to minimise the tax liability obviously within the legislation.

You don't have a great deal of downtime when you're running your own practice, but I make sure to spend time with my little boy and wife – we love walking in the Lake District. I took a break from cricketing when my son was born but now that he is a little older, I'm getting back into it and recently played my first match. I was shocked when the Facebook page announced my return as a veteran – I'm only 46!