I was working in a local accountant’s office in 2013, looking at the file rooms filled with paper, the shiny Boardroom table, receptionists and flowers - and the clients being charged £1,500 for a set of accounts they did not understand. Xero was on the scene and making our lives a lot easier to process accounts - but we were still charging the same amount as for the past 20 years. In fact, we were still doing things essentially the same way as when I qualified in 1989. Accountants were also using scare tactics to keep their clients welded to the practice (“We’re the only ones who can understand your complex business, we know someone at HMRC and will keep you safe, if you leave us, well, we’re not sure what will happen.”)

​It dawned on me that technology was leaping past the accounting profession and we could use it to cut costs for business owners. Having been a small business owner myself, I knew about the pressures and anxiety of being one. I had experienced the sweaty​