SOLUTIONS | SUCCESSION | GROWTH
About Us
Secure Growth for Accountancy Firms
AP invests in accountancy firms for growth, providing succession planning for owners and ensuring continuity of service for clients. Unlike traditional consolidators, AP maintains continuity of local practices and a strong client focus.
AP creates infrastructure solutions for member firms, in areas such as HR, IT, marketing and other central functions, while leaving the local firms to manage the business.
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The AP Difference
AP is creating a group of independent accountancy firms, managed by local managing partners, maintaining the values of professional advice and service which our members have developed over many years.
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A Changing Profession
There are about 35,000 accountancy firms in the UK, so it’s a very fragmented profession. The industry is changing fast, given new technology such as digital tax and cloud services; and the development of new sectors such as corporate finance advice. Like many professions, it’s tough to recruit and retain talent and ensure business succession.
AP helps owners who want to see their business thrive, but find it difficult to meet the challenges alone. And we work with those who wish to retire to ensure that the practice continues, that staff retain their jobs and that clients are looked after.
We believe that investing in people and ensuring that clients are well looked after is not just the right thing to do; it makes very good business sense.
AP is backed by investors with extensive experience in successful business acquisition, integration and growth.
Solutions
AP firms benefit from central support in areas where collective resources make commercial sense. These include:
HR
Recruitment, training and development, succession planning​
Support with HR processes and best practices
IT security and service
IT audit, secure cloud servicing and ongoing support
Marketing
Client database support, business development best practices, newsletter content
Integration
M&A and integration support including due diligence, systems integration, premises management, staff and client communications
Succession
Recruiting, developing and retaining the next generation is hard for all businesses. It’s especially tough for smaller firms, where the owners often lack both the time and HR skills required.
Being part of AP can help a lot, with dedicated resources for Talent development, and a much stronger employment proposition as a national firm.
Investing in the next generation is key to our plans, and it’s vital for local management since it means that they know they can eventually retire with the business in safe hands
Your Future
If you decide to work with AP, you’ll find that we are very flexible in agreeing a plan that works for your business and for you personally. It could involve you continuing to work for many years with our support and investment; or you might prefer to plan an immediate retirement. So long as there is a smooth transition for your clients and your business, we are fine with that.
It would be fair to say that we hope you will want to stay involved - perhaps part time - for some time, but ultimately it’s up to you and we will work with you to achieve the plan we’ve agreed.
Contact Us
Interested in Discussing the future growth and succession of your accountancy practice?
Please get in touch for a no obligation discussion with our principals.
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