Growing accountancy firm snaps up new premises

An expanding North West accountancy firm has put aside any post-COVID economic concerns and moved into larger premises to aid its further expansion.

MoynanSmith Chartered Accountants and Tax Advisers had outgrown its previous base and has now bought the former offices of Handelsbanken in Carlisle.

The business was set to sign for the Parkhouse estate premises just as Boris Johnson announced the lockdown in March.

Now, after a period of working remotely, it is established in the new offices.

Partner, Darren Moynan, said: “We were due to complete on the Friday when the Prime Minister announced the lockdown, the Monday before. That was a moment.

“But, in truth, we didn’t consider not completing the deal. We have absolute faith that the economy, here in Cumbria and elsewhere, will bounce back and, in truth, this has been a very busy period for us.”

The move to new premises, which will enable the recruitment of additional staff, was supported through Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growing our Potential fund.

Darren has run the business with partner Jamie Smith for five years. They’ve grown from working in Darren’s kitchen to now employing eight staff at the two-storey premises.

And while the pair, who are both chartered tax advisers, are keen to continue their expansion, they want to retain what has brought them success to date.

Jamie said: “Our clients do say that we offer a great service and for us it will always be about quality over quantity. We would never want to grow to a size where Darren and I lose sight of what’s happening with our clients.

“We are very proactive with tax planning for our clients. Growing the team means we have more time to work on the advisory side, enabling us to offer a better service.”

Darren added: “Preparing accounts for a business is obviously an important service, but we like to look holistically at a business and understand their problems and issues.

“For instance, to his surprise, a new client was hit with a £35,000 tax bill. However, after taking the time to understand the position, this was an error and we dealt with the matter, getting the bill reduced to just £167.”

The impact of the lockdown means MoynanSmith has been busy handling queries around the furlough scheme, VAT changes, government loan schemes and helping businesses with revised cashflow projections.

Jamie added: “I think that with the redundancies we are seeing there will be a rise in people going self-employed and we’ve got plenty of experience in helping start-up businesses, as well as larger, corporate clients.”