We help our clients have an easier business for life.

Name: Sharon McClafferty
Item: Roberts & Cowling
Rating: 5
Author: Sharon McClafferty

We leverage our strong relationships with our clients to create spectacular results.

2019 Nominations

Partner of the Year
Fast Growing Firm of the Year

Tax

Business tax is hard and getting more complex every year.

Business Structures

Having the right trading structure is so important to your success map.

Business Coaching

Yes, it’s possible to have a thing for your accountant, when you get the results we do.

Cloud Accounting

We are passionate advocates of cloud accounting (internet browser based accounting) and all the opportunities it represents.

What Do You Need Help With?

I'd like to pay less tax

I'd like to increase profits

I'd like to scale my business for growth

What Our Clients Said

See what some of our awesome clients think about Roberts & Cowling

...it is without hesitation and with complete confidence that I can highly recommend David on his services...

Congratulations David!
Great to hear that you and your firm is doing great works that’s gaining international recognition in your professional arena!
It’s such a privilege to be asked to write a testimonial for you even though we have yet to really kick off our project. But really thank you for taking us on and providing such excellent advises and directions.
Haha….I’m not good with words…but it is without hesitation and with complete confidence that I can highly recommend David on his services. He’s knowledgeable, someone who thinks outside the box for his clients and also to think from the shoes of his clients! We have had experiences with other accountants but none of them is
like him…who would go the extra mile for his client! Thank You David and your team!

Alice Quek Property Developer

As a result of improvements that R&C has assisted me make, my net profit has increased 114%.

I first interacted with Ben when I was in a partnership that was far from optimal. Ben was a sounding board for my exit and how to manage that effectively. Following that exit I went out on my own and now run a national medical distribution business. The support that I received from Roberts & Cowling was fantastic to the point where they are a considerable part to my business. Ben is the CFO and Roberts & Cowling are responsible for all sales, purchases and stock control. This role is vital and without the confidence in them I could not continue to aggressively grow my business.

I was meeting with Ben a few years ago as part of our annual review and asked him what
he thought was holding me back. He drew a structure diagram of different roles in a typical business and it was quickly apparent that the issue was that I was doing too many roles and was involved in far more detail than was required in a lot of areas in my business. It was then that I made Ben and R&C responsible for their roles and I was to have little involvement. As a result of not being involved in so much and the improvements that R&C has assisted me make, my net profit has increased 114%.
Roberts & Cowling is a key partner in my business, but they do far more than just the tax returns and bookkeeping. The business now utilises the following services:
– Monthly board meetings
– Cash flow projections
– Budgets
– Quarterly strategy days
Ben is a key part to my business in that he can help me analyse things to maximise my returns, he is such a valuable resource to my business that any supplier meeting in Australia or overseas he is requested to attend.
As part of my previous business we had the typical accountant that was seen once a year. I remember complaining about the $2,500 annual fee. In the last three years, I have spent in excess of $300,000 with R&C but this would have to be one of the best investments I have made.

David Fenech Director - Medical Supplies

This year we are now on track for our largest year from a revenue and profit perspective.

Roberts & Cowling is such an integrated part of our business. Ben sits on the board and is the CFO in our company. R & C provides bookkeeping, fortnightly finance meetings, monthly budget and cash flow updates, annual strategic retreat and the annual reports. Ben is constantly used as a sounding board for new ideas and is also commonly a speaker at our quarterly whole of business meeting in which we fly all representatives around the country to our Brisbane office. There have been some up and downs and I am not sure without guidance from Roberts & Cowling that we would have made it through. This year we are now on track for our largest year from a revenue and profit perspective.

Michael Software Distribution

3 reasons clients choose us to manage their financial wellbeing

Knowledgeable

We see our clients more than once per annum. We see our clients at least quarterly and in many instances we meet with our Virtual CFO clients monthly. This provides our clients an accounting service with the opportunity to ask questions and gain a greater appreciation of the day to day decisions that impact on tax.

Roberts & Cowling - Business and Business Growth Timing

Integral to our clients business and their growth

We meet with our clients to go through their end of year income tax returns and financials. This provides an important opportunity for our clients to gain a real understanding of the work we did and what we did and what we implemented to save them tax (as well as how much tax was saved). We believe that some business owners get the impression they are paying too much tax because they don’t have a strong relationship with their accountant and their accountant isn’t communicate appropriately with them. We believe your business tax return cannot be explained in a letter or email.

Roberts & Cowling - Small Business Ideas

Provide solutions with out of the box thinking

We advocate tax planning. Tax planning for most small businesses should be an integral part of the calendar. We like planning for our clients in April and May of each year, before the end of financial year. This allows us to put in place strategies before the end of the financial year that wouldn’t be possible afterwards. We always guarantee to our clients that we find tax savings that are at least double our fees in doing this work. It makes the investment decision in doing a tax plan easy!

How we work with our clients to achieve results

STEP

ASSESS

During the assess stage of our client lifecycle we take the time to understand what our clients want to achieve both in business and personally. We get a solid understanding of the clients current wealth position and also what obligations they have with other stakeholders such as banks. We like our clients to set their 5 year Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

STEP

PLAN

The plan stage is critical to long term growth of any business. Through-out the planning stage we work with our clients to understand how their dreams identified during the “Assess” stage are achieved.
Together we identify what the steps are along the way and also identify how those dreams can be protected from internal and external risks or threats.

STEP

INNOVATE

Through innovation real competitive advantage can be achieved. This is where we work with our clients to identify how business and accounting systems can be improved. We also identify how tax can be saved in innovative ways.
Other innovations can include new lending products that restructure the way clients hold their debt.

STEP

GROW

Business growth is a key ingredient of accelerated wealth creation. The “Assess”, “Plan” and “Innovate” stages set the business up to thrive.
Through the growth phase, we work to help our clients maximise their revenue and profit which in turn means that wealth will be maximised.

STEP

LIVE

We assist people achieve financial retirement. This doesn’t necessarily mean retirement altogether, more that we help our clients create a financial situation where they choose how they spend their time rather than being slaves to their business.
We help our clients build a legacy that meant the benefits of their labours can outlast themselves. Our partnership with our clients is designed to give our clients the most important thing- choice!

Download the 5 Step Success Guide

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Some helpful articles from our blog

Check out some of the recent stories from our blog that our editors selected for you

Ready to build a better business for life?

If you’re in the Brisbane area we are conveniently located near ‘The Gabba’ on Logan Rd with free on-site parking. Just get in touch and arrange a time to come in for a coffee and a chat about how we can help you build a better business for life

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Accounting Brisbane

R&C are first and foremost Brisbane Accountants. While we have clients all over Australia (and even in New York, Hong Kong, Christmas Island and New Zealand), South East Queensland and Brisbane is also home for the vast majority of our clients.
We have some fantastic accounting clients in a wide variety of locations in Brisbane. Some of the most interesting places we have clients in Brisbane and South East Queensland are:

Brisbane CBD
It would be impossible to execute accounting Brisbane without having clients in the CBD. Interestingly, we have found a significant shift away from small/ medium business being headquartered in the CBD (which can be seen in some of the commercial property vacancy rates). Some of our clients located in the CBD have included dentists, doctors, landscape architects, financial planners, restaurants, cafes and retail.

Brisbane Markets
We have clients that operate out of the Brisbane Markets and have experience with much of the industries that call it home, from fruit brokers to transport. The Brisbane Markets are a hive of activity but also come with a unique set of challenges. Typically business inside the markets are based on low margin, high volume transactions. This can provide interesting challenges around cashflow shortages, market risk and business valuations. We love visiting the markets to see our clients and witnessing the amazing way the markets operate.

Fortitude Valley
Fortitude Valley may actually be one of the hottest locations in Brisbane for businesses. We have a great number of accounting clients, in a wide range of industries, who love our accounting services. Some of the industries we work with in “The Valley” include:

Architects
Software
Real Estate
Gyms
Commercial Property
Property Development
Engineers
Information Technology

The benefit of Fortitude Valley is its proximity to the CBD while maintaining fantastic access. With our office being so close by, it makes sense that we have a fantastic feel for business here.

Kilcoy
Located an hour and a half north of Brisbane, Kilcoy is a small regional town with a fantastic small business base. We often visit Kilcoy and our clients. The industry in Kilcoy is amazingly varied for a relatively small place and is represented by the types of clients we have here. We work for dairy farms, laundromats, cafes and transport companies, all out of Kilcoy. It’s an excellent place to visit accounting clients and get an appreciation for where some of the relaxed business culture comes from with regional locations so close and impressive within such a short distance from Brisbane.

West End
West End has come of age in a huge way in the last decade. Business has really moved in here and is thriving. Café’s, architects, gyms, builders all work prominently out of West End. The charm of West End is that it hasn’t yet lost its alternative feel and has quite a lot of synergies to Fortitude Valley. Its easy to see why West End will continue to be a hub for enterprise in the long term.

Woolloongabba
Being based in “The Gabba” for our entire life, R&C has watched the Gabba evolve from poor suburban cousin to a metropolis that will thrive in years to come. Business is really starting to pick up through wonderful new developments, the reactivation of the end of Logan Road and Stones Corner and the realisation that Woolloongabba represents value in regard to its access and proximity to the CBD. Our clients in the Gabba include industries such as medical equipment distribution, real estate, legal and financial planning.

We help our clients have an easier business for life.

2019 Nominations

Tax

Business Structures

Business Coaching

Cloud Accounting

What Do You Need Help With?

What Our Clients Said

...it is without hesitation and with complete confidence that I can highly recommend David on his services...

As a result of improvements that R&C has assisted me make, my net profit has increased 114%.

This year we are now on track for our largest year from a revenue and profit perspective.

3 reasons clients choose us to manage their financial wellbeing

Knowledgeable

Integral to our clients business and their growth

Provide solutions with out of the box thinking

How we work with our clients to achieve results

ASSESS

PLAN

INNOVATE

GROW

LIVE

Some helpful articles from our blog

Ready to build a better business for life?

Accounting Brisbane

Let's have a chat about how we can help you grow a better business for life.