High Wycombe-based BCAMS (Business Coaching & Mentoring Services) is owned and operated by Ros and Paul Hodgson. Accountant Ros is a QuickBooks ProAdviser and a regular on the accounting software live circuit.
Paul, meanwhile, has been acting as UK representative for the Australia-based MyBusiness Manager reporting application, which he also uses in his consultancy work as a business adviser.
More recently, Paul Hodgson founded business acquisitions house Investor in SME's and is now turning his attention to accounting and bookkeeping firms.
Firms struggling with Covid and MTD
The ideal targets for accountancy’s latest consolidator are “underperforming” practices with annual fees of £250,000-£500,000 practices, he told AccountingWEB.
“A number of bookkeepers and accountants are getting fed up and MTD is a bridge too far for them. They and their clients might have been adversely affected by Covid and are struggling financially. Or there are firms where they don’t have a succession plan in place,” he said.
Hodgson has already started negotiations with two firms that fit this profile and expects to complete transactions in the next few months. But he is on the lookout for more.
Digital accounting plans
The acquistions will be brought into BCAMS, where the business model will be based on digitising the firms’ accounting processes using cloud systems and supporting them and their clients through the transition to Making Tax Digital.
“Some firms are uncomfortable with the range of accounting apps available. We will be able to help them with evaluations and implementing them with clients,” Hodgson said.
“BCAMS will be the holding company, but we won’t be looking to build it into a marquee name. We’re not really that well known yet,” he said.