Why Jarvis & Co?
We think it’s really important that clients know who they are engaging with when it comes to accountancy. We are strongly committed to transparency in our industry and think that there is too much uncertainty when it comes to the substance within a firm.
Unusually for an accounting firm, we thought a front-and-centre guide on our website would help clients and those who aren’t yet clients, decide whether Jarvis & Co is the right firm for them.
Who are we?
There’s lots of information about Jarvis & Co elsewhere on this site. But to summarise, there are four partners (the principal for Jarvis & Co is Tim Emmony) and these four partners are the ultimate owners of the firm, too. We (Tim especially) see ourselves as the current custodians of this wonderful firm and don’t see ourselves retiring for some time yet!
We have a full range of staff working in our office in Melton Mowbray who can look after anything that is asked of us. In addition to this, there are some 30 other colleagues who work for the same company but in different offices, who may be more specialist in an area and may be a better fit for our clients’ needs in Melton. Our clients may therefore speak over the phone to someone outside the office in Melton, but it will always be the right person and we never work from home.
Despite our size, we take our personal service to clients very seriously and you will always have one contact in our firm - and you will love our admin team! We know that compliance as it is these days, it would be impossible for a firm to offer a full suite of services with anything fewer than a dozen people - maybe more. So you might like a small firm with just a few people within it, but this will be at the cost of a limited range of services or limited quality.
We are licensed, insured and are very well advised by third party professionals where it’s needed. This means that if you have a question about something we’re licensed to do but don’t specialise in, we might recommend that you get further advice from another business. It’s not a sign of weakness for an accountant to do this, but a sign of strength to stay within the boundaries of excellent advice.
Why should you choose us?
We’re the longest-serving independent firm in the town of Melton Mowbray. We’ve been in our premises for longer than anyone can remember (the exact date has proven impossible to come by so far) and we have many clients who have been coming to us since they were children, and now owners of what were their parent's’ businesses.
We’re staffed by many qualified professionals in many areas of accounting and tax. We have some colleagues who have been with us their whole careers and many who have been with us for over a decade - some over 20 years!
Our culture is stubbornly client-focused. We are obsessive about our clients receiving the right advice at the right time and from the right people - even if that’s a specialist firm we’ve introduced. We are a close-knit team and as a business, look after our team members well. We treat our clients with respect of course, but like to enjoy a fantastic working relationship with them too.
What sort of clients do we work best with?
We would say that as long as you care about your business or your finances (if you’re an individual) and value the advice we can give to you, we’ll work together brilliantly. Our advice is of limited value if you’re the sort of person who leaves everything until the last minute or who doesn’t take advice in the first place.
Clients who need daily conversations with the most senior accountant about the minutiae, probably won’t love how we work - since our fees are based on how long we spend on our work. In small accounting firms where the owner does everything, they might be a lot more available to you for these daily chats - but of course won’t then be able to attend their tax update course they’d been hoping to be at.
If you’re someone who loves to develop their business and respects a good conversation with their chosen advisor, you’re likely to be just our sort of client!
Who shouldn’t choose us?
We don’t do audits - although we do look after the accounting for companies who require audits, then assist the third party auditors with that stage of the process.
We don’t tend to look after voluntary organisations or charities. Mainly because we chose right from the beginning to only work in areas that we do a lot of work in. Added to this, many of these organisations need far more hand-holding in areas that aren’t necessarily accounting (form filling, insurance applications, annual reports) than we are able to offer.
We’re not cheap. And we mean this in the proper definition of cheap (the Oxford English Dictionary has this as low in price, poor quality and of little value). We do offer really good value services and are proud of the advice our clients can get for what they pay to us. Our fees are fair and represent the excellent work that we do. In many cases, we are lower priced than our competitors because of how efficient we are as a firm.
If your sole criterion when choosing a firm is price, we might not win that comparison. But we will likely win on value - our advice can save clients money, a fair amount of the time!
In which industries do we specialise?
Specialisations are fairly limited in accountancy. Most accountants will know that they shouldn’t work for (say) solicitors, GPs or Academies without the requisite training. Otherwise, most businesses don’t require the accountant to have a specialism. Manufacturing businesses work differently to retail ones - and consultancies are different still. With the number of clients who work with us, we tend to have a solid experience in most businesses.
Our advice would be, to ask an accountant how many clients they have that are relevant to your business. You can make your decision based upon this information. We’d say that if your needs from your accountant are limited (just tax calculations, for example), you might not worry too much about whether they specialise in your business area. If you are a business that relies on borrowing, or are particularly entrepreneurial, you will need your accountant to be more switched on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Are you too large a firm for me?
Q: We’re a large business. Is Jarvis & Co able to cope with our needs?
Q: I like a monthly meeting with my accountant. Are you able to offer this?
Q: My bookkeeping is a bag of receipts. Will you take this work on?
A: There’s pretty much no chance that this is the case. If you have a tax return that has two entries on it, we’re absolutely happy to help you and will do an excellent job. No client is more or less “important” than another.
A: We’re fortunate that our firm is of a size that we don’t have to chase for every bit of work that comes in. This doesn’t mean to say we’re overly choosy and we’re never arrogant in our approach, but where something isn’t really what we excel at (or can cope with, in terms of capacity), we’ll let you know - and we’ll probably refer you to another firm, too.
A: It’s all about expectations and us making sure we can meet them, so if you have any specific requirements, make sure to mention those when you get in touch!
A: Absolutely! But we always like to let clients know that if this bag were to become something a little more organised before we received it, our fees would be a lot lower! This is always our preference - if we can reduce our fees with your help, we will do.