Team News Archives

Welcoming Our New Tax Advisor: Meet Josh!

Posted on May 26, 2023 | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment

At 1 Accounts Online Ltd, we pride ourselves on being a family business that delivers first-rate financial services. Today, we’re thrilled to announce the addition of a new family member to our team. Meet Josh, our new Tax Advisor in Haverhill!

A Dynamic Professional and R&D Tax Credits Expert

Josh brings a fresh energy to our operations and carries a wealth of experience. Particularly in the niche area of Research and Development (R&D) tax credits. With a proven track record in R&D tax credits in Haverhill and beyond, Josh’s expertise will provide immense value to our clients. He is poised to help our clients navigate these complex incentives and save on their tax liabilities.

More Than Just a Tax Advisor

In addition to offering expert tax advice, Josh will also play a crucial role in helping with our bookkeeping service and business reviews. His comprehensive understanding of business growth strategies and taxation will enable him to identify and implement the best practices for our clients.

Josh’s strong analytical skills, coupled with his strategic mindset, make him an invaluable asset for any business looking to grow and save on taxes.

A Warm Addition to the Family Business

Picture of the Donno family and tax advisor josh

On a more personal note, we’re particularly excited about Josh joining our family business as he is Jade’s fiancé. Their combined passion and dedication to providing top-tier financial services will undoubtedly strengthen our offerings to our clients.

Meet Josh: Cricket Fan, World Traveler, and Dog Dad

Away from the tax world, Josh enjoys staying active by playing cricket. He also loves to travel and explore new places, capturing beautiful moments through his lens. His sense of adventure is not just limited to exploring the globe; he enjoys a lively adventure with his dog, Jango, who is a beloved part of the family.

Ready to Welcome Josh?

As we warmly welcome Josh to the 1 Accounts Online family, we’re confident that his skills and expertise as a Tax Advisor in Haverhill will significantly benefit our clients. We look forward to the new perspectives and insights Josh will bring to our team, enhancing the services we offer and contributing to the growth and success of your business.

For any queries related to R&D tax credits in Haverhill. Or to find out how we can support your business growth, feel free to reach out to us. Remember, at 1 Accounts Online, your business is our family. Here’s to new beginnings and many successes ahead!

1 Accounts shortlisted for prestigious national award

Posted on August 3, 2022 | by Jade Donno

A commitment to supporting businesses through the pandemic has seen 1 Accounts shortlisted for a top national award.
We have been named in the top five of the prestigious Accounting Excellence awards in the Medium Firm of the Year category.

While acknowledging the growth of the company, the shortlisting is also testimony to the bespoke service provided by 1 Accounts over the last two and a half years.
Paul Donno, director of our family-run business, said: “Our team worked above and beyond during the pandemic – at a time when we were all trying to keep our loved ones safe.
“Because we are an online business, our staff were still able to provide the same high-quality service to our clients. But we wanted to do more than that so we supported their loan and furlough applications free of charge.

“It was something we felt we could do at a time when our clients needed all the help they could get just to stay afloat.
“We also held webinars for both clients and non-clients to support other local businesses. On the back of that, we have received a lot of client referrals and our business has grown by over 60% in the last two years.”

1 Accounts was named best new practice at the British Accountancy Awards in 2016 and Paul is hoping for similar success this time around.
“I am incredibly proud of their hard work and honoured, as a company, to be nominated for this award,” Paul said.
“To be shortlisted in the medium size category is testimony to how much we have grown in a short space of time.
“In 2016, we only had three members of staff, including me and my wife Jenni, and around 40 to 50 clients. Since then, we have grown to in excess of 300 clients and we are just about to employ two more people, taking us to 15 members of staff.”
The Accounting Excellence awards will be held on Thursday 8^th September at a ceremony in London.

Press release & photo by Dave Gooderham at Gooderham PR.

1 Accounts Team Building Day March 2022

Posted on April 1, 2022 | by Jade Donno

Last week we closed the office for the whole day so that our team could enjoy our first Team Building day since the pandemic started!

We have added several new team members since our last team building day in 2019 including Fran, Katy, Che, Charlie and Harry! This is a huge growth for any firm but especially for one that puts family values at the forefront. This day was incredibly important for us to all bond as a team now that we are back in the office with all our new team members. It was also nice to be able to socialise outside of the office!

Axe throwing with Wild Blades!

Katie organised a wonderful day for us all. We visited Wild Blades, another local Haverhill business, for a day of axe throwing and team building challenges!

Despite the warnings of snow, the weather started out sunny but cold. Handy as the entire day was outdoors. Dan and Toby from Wild Blades gave us a safety breifing (axes are dangerous!) and then taught us the standard one-handed throw.

After a bit of practice, most of the team got this, some even hitting bullseyes early on! Jenni M. had an advantage as she had done it before, and it should be no surprise to anyone that Paul, James, Adrian and Charlie picked it up quickly.

Unfortunately, there were a couple of us who didn’t manage to master the one-handed throw. No matter how hard she tried, Fran couldn’t manage to hit the target with the right end of the axe using this method. Luckily, during a tea break, she practiced with Toby and tried a two-handed throw, and finally managed to hit the bullseye! Seeing this, Jenni D. also decided to try this method and also found it much easier.

Playing Games

Once we could all actually hit the target with the axe, we started playing games! First, we did a couple of quick rounds to see who could score the most. The first round was won by Paul (no surprise there) and the second round was won by Che! Charlie and James maintained a consistent second and third place. There were many other games including naughts and crosses, hit the card, and thump the stump.

Team Building Challenges

After a lovely lunch, we then began the team building activities. We had to work together to complete a series of 9 tasks in order to complete the Viking ship and sail to victory. It came down to the wire, but with us all working together and putting our strongest team members forward towards the end, we managed to complete all the tasks with 19 seconds to spare!

Overall we had a lovely day and feel like a much stronger team because of it, both in team spirit and arm strength! Dan and Toby from Wild Blades planned a fantastic series of events and were wonderful hosts and teachers who joined in with our banter perfectly. We highly recommend them.

A big thanks to Katie for organising the day for us, we can’t wait until the next one!

Our Covid-19 Policy for returning to the office

Posted on August 19, 2021 | by Jade Donno

Even though there are no longer any legal covid-19 restrictions in England, here at 1 Accounts we will be keeping some measures to ensure the safety of our clients and staff.

This is especially important to us as not all of our team members have been double vaccinated yet so we want to make sure they remain as safe as possible as we return to the office!

What we’re doing to stay safe

We are planning a staggered return to the office, with most staff members moving to a hybrid work week which will include some days in the office and some days working from home. We will be making sure we are all testing ourselves weekly with lateral flow tests and will not come to the office if we receive a positive result. As we have managed for over a year with the majority of our team working from home we believe that our service will remain the same and we will be able to continue with the same level of service you expect from us.

We are keeping many Covid restrictions inside the office as well. We are maintaining social distancing and have had a 1-way system in place in the office to avoid people having to be in close proximity when passing each other.

For visitors to the office

For visiting clients we have hand sanitiser available and we are asking you to please wear a mask while inside our main office. If you have scheduled a meeting with us, you will be able to take your mask off once we are sat in the meeting room if you are comfortable doing so.

With Covid-19 cases still rising, we are being cautious about our response and will be monitoring the government and medical advice. If our response changes in any way we will be sure to let our clients know. We ask our clients to please be understanding and adhere to these requests as safety of our team and clients is our biggest priority.

How has Paul kept positive during lockdown?

Posted on May 26, 2020 | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment

1 Accounts is a family run business with the Donno family all depending on the businesses survival. When lockdown was announced, Paul could have panicked – but he didn’t he stayed calm, collected his thoughts and worked out how to overcome the biggest crisis businesses have faced since the war.

So what has Paul done to stay positive?

In early March, when the virus was just being mentioned just in passing, Paul brought hand sanitiser and additional hand wash for the office. He also increased the frequency of cleaning to the office and communal areas. We also started to change all our meetings to ‘Zoom’ meetings. This was still early days and the team thought Paul was mad but as usual humoured him.

Two weeks later we were all working from home.

Panic mode

With the help of Platform 365 and Convergence communications, the 1 Accounts team adjusted quickly to working from home. With a morning and afternoon team zoom call to keep in touch. However, for our clients, this wasn’t always possible causing anxiety for Paul and the team. After all if our clients were to ‘go under’ we would go with them.

As a businesses owner, you can often feel alone, with the weight of the world on your shoulders. However this situation has proven to Paul, that this could not be further from the truth.

Our team have really adapted and supported our clients and helped take pressure away from Paul. We are so grateful for our amazing team and are thankful they have all stayed safe and well. Testimonials and feedback from clients has helped to keep all our spirits up, they have been wonderful and uplifting. Keep them coming.

Our clients, some who are under immense pressure have also realised that we are under pressure too, and many have been very considerate and supportive.

A pain point for Paul was the banks struggling to get money out to clients. This has now been rectified with the ‘bounce back loan’ but it caused a lot of anxiety for many of our clients and us.

Great minds think alike

One of the biggest helps to Paul has been being a member of the Accountants Millionaires Club (something to aspire to!). His business coach Heather Townsend (founder of the club) and her team have supported Paul and other accountants through this situation.

Every morning Paul meets with other like-minded accountants and they share the previous days experiences from furloughing, bank loans, software issues, growing veg, guide dog support and general day to day things. The group has some real characters and has without a doubt kept Paul positive.

Paul recommends that even if you are talking ‘with the enemy’ try and support each other. Talking to other businesses, like yours, may give you ideas and help you realise you are not alone! We are all in this together and it is nice to talk with other businesses to get a real sense of community.

Sharing your thoughts with like minded people really does work and saves on the wine stocks too!

We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends

Posted on March 30, 2020 | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment

We get by with a little help from our friends.

This classic Beatles song has never rung more true. Right now we all need a little help from our friends. In the current circumstances it is time to work together and pull on whatever resources you can. We are always humbled by the help and support from our clients even when times are tough. We have been trying to help business owners from Sole Traders to Limited Companies during this current crisis. To get the message out Paul has been using his home video set up which was working OK – he thought.

Since the success of our evening group zoom calls, Paul was keen to start developing some You Tube Videos to help clients. During one of our Zoom sessions Edd from We Make Pictures kindly offered his help to set Paul up properly. On Sunday morning inspiration hit and so Paul contacted Edd for some help. Paul wanted to make a video for Sole Traders. In a short period of time Paul learnt a lot about lighting, sound and picture composition, which takes a lot for a humble accountant!

Paul had some basic equipment around him. He used his Canon 80D camera for the video, a USB Blue Snowball Ice microphone and a photography light. Edd spent time with Paul over Zoom advising on how to light the scene and record good quality audio with the equipment available. Edd then helped to sync all the elements together

Before Edd’s help

👇

After Edd’s Help

👇

This is Paul’s first Vlog and he hopes to record some more next week wearing a branded polo-shirt from Kiiwii clothing. Edd’s input was huge and made a significant difference to the output of Paul’s Video. Paul found it very interesting speaking to Edd as he has a huge amount of Knowledge and passion for his industry.

If you would like Edd’s help to create a video, he is offering all of our clients a free consultation to help you get set up! – How nice is that! His email address is INFO@WEMAKEPICTURES.CO.UK

At this time we all need to support each other and if someone offers you help – TAKE IT! When we come through this, we are certain that those of us that have tried our very best to help will come out stronger.

#weareallinthistogether

What happened in 2019?

Posted on January 10, 2020 | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment

2019

2019 was another great year for 1 Accounts Online. We have streamlined our processes, brought in more team members and continue to provide a great service to our clients. With new advancements in technology such as open banking and MTD it is an exciting time to be a part of a rapid changing industry.

Automation, Automation, Automation

ClickWe encourage all our clients to use technology and automation to help streamline their business. We have continued to increase our use of automation using our workflow system Karbon. The team used to spend a few hours (at least) chasing client information. With our new automated system they no longer need to do this, as the emails automatically send requesting the required information for tax returns, quarterly reviews and accounts. There have of course been a couple of hiccups along the way, but we have saved the team time so they can focus on helping our client’s businesses grow.

MTD

One of the big changes in 2019 was MTD. HMRC decided that VAT submissions will have to be submitted through online software. Luckily for us, all our clients were using Xero or Sage Business Cloud so we had the software down. Jade then signed each of our clients up for MTD at no additional cost to the client. After HMRC’s rocky start, MTD is now underway and we look forward to seeing all taxes made digital.

New Clients

We have had an influx of new and exciting clients from web design to construction. We love adding more clients to the 1 Accounts family and look forward to helping them grow. We have enjoyed helping our existing customers thrive, our passion is to help business grow and we have seen wonderful changes in many of our clients.

New Services

In 2019 we started to develop new services for our clients. These are, The Business Coaching Service and Social Media. Watch this space as both services will be up on our website soon! If you can’t wait, email jade@1accounts.co.uk for more information.

New Team Members

2019 we brought 3 new members to the team. Katie started in the middle of the year for 2 days a week to help Jade with the sales side of 1 Accounts. Although they are sisters, they work well together and have developed a new sales process for the new year. Katie has also made great progression with her walking, and now walks the length of the office with a frame. We then had Fran start to help Jade for 3 days a week. Fran is also a pet photographer and loves to be creative and take pictures. In the last week of December we hired a new Bookkeeper Katy who will start with us this month. We are very excited to welcome her to our team and look forward to watching our team grow even more in the new year..

1 Accounts Wine & Cheese Night

Posted on June 6, 2019 | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment

Wine & Cheese Night

In aid of the St Nicholas Hospice Accumulator Challenge 1 Accounts Online will be holding a Wine & Cheese Tasting evening at Baythorne Hall near Haverhill …. And your all invited. The event will take place on the 9th of August at 7pm.

George from Baythorne Wines will be talking us through his favourite wines from his wine shop. Baythorne Wines was established in the former granary barn at Baythorne Hall in 2014. The shop offers over 400 wines from around the world and George’s knowledge is second to none. We can’t wait to try a selection of the wines. The cheese is from Ben & Ella’s Farm Shop. These cheeses will pair perfectly with the wine. You will be wanting to come back and create your own wine and cheese night at home!

Jade will be singing at the event to start the night. She will be singing some of her favourite Jazz tunes to get you in the mood for the wine and cheese.

1 Accounts May Update

Posted on June 6, 2019 | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment

MAY UPDATE

May disappeared before our eyes, with tax returns, accounts and quarterly reviews in full swing. The sunshine has been fleeting but our smiles have stayed all month long. Here is what we got up to this month:

Clever Grace

Grace got a whopping 86% on her exam on Management accounting and budgeting. She is studying hard for her level 4 AAT and will be fully qualified in no time. Her next exam is on Management accounting: Decision and control.

Outsourcing our IT

When there is a problem with IT it can be detrimental, especially to 1 Accounts as we need our computers in order to do our work. It can take hours for us to figure out how to fix a problem and so when starting 1 Accounts Paul decided to outsource our IT and take the hassle away. We have just changed providers to Platform 365. We can’t wait for them to start!

Jade Singing

Jade had her busiest month ever with her singing. She sung love songs, jazz songs, pop songs & rock & roll songs. She also had her first gig in her duo The Blue Jays at Nine Jars. Be sure to keep an eye on her Facebook Page for more events!

https://www.facebook.com/jadedonnosinger/

1 Accounts April Update

Posted on May 9, 2019 | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment

April Update

With the start of a new tax year, lots of bank holidays and new starters 1 Accounts have well and truly stepped into spring!

Start of the Tax Year

The 6^th of April marked the beginning of the next tax year. With this brought some changes to personal allowance, minimum wage, student loans and auto-enrolment. To find out more about these changes please read our blog ‘Happy New Year’.

https://www.1accountsonline.co.uk/2019/04/12/happy-new-year/

Automation, Automation, Automation

This year we have introduced client checklists. All our clients will notice that they have received a checklist from Jade to complete their self assessment tax return. These are sent automatically via Karbon so that we can spend more time helping our clients. We will also be automating emails on company year ends to request accounts information in order for us to get accounts completed as soon as we can. We love this new level of automation as we can provide a higher level of service.

A proper family business

We now have all the Donno’s onboard! Katie has now joined us to help us with our sales. Anyone who knows Katie will know that she can sell ice to eskimos and will look great doing it! We now have Paul, Jenni, Jade and Katie (the whole family) working for 1 Accounts. Paul won’t know what’s hit him!

Happy Birthday James

James turned 20! We all went out for a lunch at Nine Jars to celebrate his birthday. We also decorated the office especially! No birthday gets missed here at 1 Accounts!!

Paul went to prison

After Jade went to the prison last month, Paul decided he wanted to go. Unfortunately they let him out too. Paul spoke to the offenders about starting & running their own business. He was given lots of questions that he was happy to answer. He also gave them all a copy of his book, which they asked him to sign. We are not sure Paul’s head fit out of the prison doors on the way out!

Donation

If a client refers us we always send a gift to say thank you! We asked one of our clients for their home address to send our special thank you gift. They asked for us to donate to charity instead, which is an amazing gesture. We donated to Little People UK as it is a charity close to the company’s heart. We love how amazing our clients are!!