Sheffield’s numbers have added up for a London accountancy firm which has picked the South Yorkshire city to open its first northern office.
Aldgate-based Q Accountants, specialising in providing accounting and taxation services for start-ups and SMEs across the UK, will be opening the office at Acero, the Grade A office development at Sheffield Digital Campus this month (September).
Sheffield impressed the firm’s founders after it was ranked top in research into ‘The 15 best UK cities to start a business in 2019’, prompting a visit by the Q Accountants’ team including founder Farid Gasanov who established the company in 2015.
Co-director Daniel Batham, who will be heading up the northern office, said: “The research by Paymentsense found that the five-year start-up survival rate was 44.9% which was impressive, and we were also attracted by the fact that a large majority of businesses in Sheffield are SMEs which are our target market.
“Sheffield has an amazing creative and digital sector, too, with lots of start-ups and entrepreneurship. We came up to visit and went around the city centre, to Kelham Island and on to Ecclesall Road and there’s a new development on every corner.
“There’s a real buzz about the city right now – it’s the perfect place for us.”
Acero – a Scarborough International Properties and Metro Holdings of Singapore development – is the third building at Sheffield Digital Campus, complementing Electric Works, home to WANdisco, and Ventana House, the HQ of Sky Bet.
In addition to bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, Annual Accounts and Tax Return services, their start-up department also deals with Video Game Tax Credits, R&D Tax Credit and administering Enterprise Investment Schemes – generous tax incentives offered by HMRC, but something, as Q Accountants mention, not many businesses are aware of.
