A Yorkshire chartered accountancy and business advisory firm has been shortlisted for five prestigious industry awards, following several key client wins and a 13% growth in turnover over the last 12 months.
Hentons, which is ranked as one of the top 100 accountancy firms by fee income in the UK by industry bible Accountancy Age, has been shortlisted for ‘Mid-Tier Firm of the Year’ and its payroll and digital teams have both been shortlisted in the ‘Team of the Year’ category of the Yorkshire Accountancy Awards. In addition to this, Tim Baum-Dixon has been shortlisted for the 'Partner of the Year’ award and Moosa Sacha for the ‘Support Staff of the Year’ award.
The Yorkshire Accountancy Awards celebrate the achievements and successes of the region’s best and brightest accountancy firms and their employees. Hentons employs a team of 120 at offices in Leeds, Sheffield, York, Thirsk, and London.
Partner, Tim Baum-Dixon said: “The ‘Partner of the Year’ shortlisting follows my election as Borough Councillor for Anston & Woodsetts in Rotherham, so it’s been a very exciting month personally.
“Over the last few years at Hentons, we have transformed the business with our shift to digital accounting, which has seen our firm become recognised as one of the top three large firms in the UK by leading cloud-based software firm, Xero. This award followed a 600% increase in clients moving across to Xero in less than two years.
“With an internal reorganisation that has seen us create specific digital teams, we have led the way in terms of innovation, listening to what clients want and investing in the latest technology to deliver that. We now use an innovative video messaging service to deliver accounts to clients, so they can access them where and when they want and have received excellent client feedback on our digital offering.
“We have also made sure our clients can easily access all our other services, including our financial services offering via our wealth management team and our digital software consultancy service, which is proving particularly popular in the medical and overseas property sectors.
“From the onset of the pandemic, it’s been our priority to help our clients get the funding and support they need, and this saw us setting up a dedicated crisis management team that advised on access to finance, job support schemes, tax relief, business plan reviews, cost reduction, working capital funding and turnaround strategies. At its peak, more than 50 clients a day benefitted from free advice and support, both financially and personally, and several million pounds of funding was obtained for clients. This work was recognised by the British Chamber of Commerce in its Business Heroes campaign.”
Managing director Peter Watson, added: “It’s a record number of shortlistings for us. The fact that both our digital and payroll teams have been shortlisted, alongside our incredibly dedicated IT manager, Moosa Sacha, and our inspirational partner, Tim Baum-Dixon, is something the entire team takes great pride in.
“We operate on a national and international basis, but are roots are very firmly anchored in Yorkshire. All our specialist divisions, which include property, agriculture, healthcare, music and entertainment, have adapted well to the challenges that the last 12 months have brought.
“Investing in our people and technology has meant that we have been able to support more SMEs, owner managed businesses, start-ups, entrepreneurs and entertainers, including singer-songwriters Emile Sandé, Mabel and electronic music duo Disclosure, then ever before.”
The winners of the awards will be announced on 8th July at an event at New Dock Hall in Leeds.
