Leeds · Established 2004
We look after the books, the filings and the tax for around three hundred owner-managed businesses across Yorkshire. Fixed fees agreed up front, a named accountant who picks up the phone, and advice you can act on before the year is already over.
01 — The firm
Ruth Hartley and Ben Vance left a large national practice in 2004 because they were tired of clients being handed to whoever was free that week. Twenty-one years later the firm has fourteen chartered staff — and every client still has one named accountant who knows their business.
We work almost entirely with owner-managed companies turning over between £250k and £15m: builders, agencies, clinics, manufacturers, restaurants, consultancies. Businesses where the person who owns it is also the person answering the phone at seven in the morning.
Our fees are fixed and agreed before any work starts. If something changes mid-year we will tell you what it costs before we do it. Nobody at this firm has ever sent a client a surprise invoice, and nobody ever will.
02 — Services
Most clients take the full package. You can also take any single piece of it — plenty of businesses use us purely for tax, or purely for payroll.
Weekly or monthly bookkeeping on Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, with management accounts that arrive by the tenth working day — early enough to actually change what you do that month.
Statutory accounts prepared, agreed with you in a meeting rather than an email, and filed at Companies House well before the deadline. No January panic.
Planning done in advance, not archaeology done in arrears. We review your position each autumn while there is still time to do something about it.
Payroll run on time every time, plus the advisory work that owner-managers actually need — buying a business, selling one, or working out whether the next hire is affordable.
03 — Sectors
Good accounting is generic. Good advice is not. These are the industries where we already know the margins, the seasonality and the traps.
CIS deductions, retentions, long-term contracts and the cashflow gaps they create.
Project profitability, freelancer status, IR35 and revenue recognition on retainers.
Partial exemption for VAT, associate arrangements, and partnership tax for practices.
Stock valuation, capital allowances on plant, and R&D claims that survive scrutiny.
Till reconciliation, tronc schemes, seasonal cashflow and multi-site reporting.
Incorporation decisions, SDLT, furnished holiday lets and Section 24 interest relief.
04 — Clients
“We came to Hartley & Vance after two years of filing late and paying penalties. Everything has been early since. Ruth spotted an R&D claim our old accountant never mentioned — it covered four years of their fees in one go.”
“What I actually wanted was someone to tell me, in plain English, whether I could afford to hire two more people. I got an answer with numbers behind it in a week. That is not the experience I had with my previous firm.”
“Three sites, forty staff, and payroll has not been wrong once in six years. The management accounts land on the ninth of the month and I plan the whole business around them.”
05 — People
You are introduced to your named accountant at the first meeting, and that is who you keep. Partners are available to every client, not just the largest ones.
Founding Partner · Audit & Assurance
Twenty-eight years in practice, the last twenty-one of them here. Ruth leads the year-end and advisory work and still takes on new clients herself.
Founding Partner · Tax
Chartered tax adviser handling the firm’s planning work — profit extraction, R&D claims, incorporations and exits.
Director · Client Services
Runs the bookkeeping and management accounts team, and the one who will get your reporting cycle down from six weeks to ten days.
Manager · Payroll & Compliance
Handles payroll, auto-enrolment and every filing deadline in the building. Nothing has been late on her watch.
06 — Questions
Forty-five minutes, in our office or over a call. Bring last year’s accounts if you have them.
Request a consultation07 — Contact
Tell us a little about the business and we will come back to you within one working day with a time, and an idea of what we would charge.
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