So many people ask us…. What are we about? Who are we and what do we do differently to other Accounting Practices.

 

The Story of HW Accounting begins with its founder Heather Flack. Straight out of school, Heather aged 17, joined an accounting practice and began her articles. She very quickly realized the power of financial numbers. They tell a very clear story of how a company is run, if it’s healthy and doing well, or if it’s sickly and in bad shape. The story, however, is only crystal clear, if you have done the hard work to record it accurately. Heather realized that there was suddenly powerful information in her hands – information that she wanted to share with her clients.

 

She knew right there and then that she really wanted to HELP business owners and empower them with brilliant financial information so that they could truly understand what they were doing wrong, and similarly what they were doing right. What tax benefits they could enjoy, and what pitfalls to avoid.

 

The partners of the practice, however, did not necessarily share her enthusiasm… helping people takes time… in order to deep dive into their financial lives, into the processes in their businesses, into the structures of their staffing, and their compliance. For most of your traditional accounting practices, only the very rich of the rich could afford and pay these kinds of fees, for that kind of time spent. The focus was on targets, billing, time sheeting – client charge, client charge, client charge….

 

The people who needed that help the most were the small to medium businesses… those people couldn’t get her help… She learned a lot working in Practice, and for that, she will always be truly grateful. One of the most important things Heather learned was that this picture below – was exactly who she DIDN’T want to be.

HW Accounting Services

Heather also realized that if she really wanted to UNDERSTAND business and the day to day challenges they faced – She had to work inside one and figure out operationally how it all worked.

 

She was presented with an opportunity to join a private sector company in Durban, so she packed up her Ford Meteor, and her cat and headed for Durban. After 3 years of invaluable service and receiving so many requests from friends or people she’d met out and about to help them do their books – in March 2003 – HW Accounting Services was born… 17 years later, HW Accounting is still here, breaking the old traditional accounting practice mould with a 10 women strong team, bringing a personal touch to the stiff and highfalutin accounting industry.