You’re not giving anything up in quality and process. In fact, the process, despite it being the first year, ran more quickly than it had run within the last five years.
Jason Limbert, CEO of Home Decor
Moving from a Big Four auditor to Shorts gave Home Decor a faster, more focused audit with no drop in quality. The business first worked with Shorts on a prior transaction, covering investment and tax structuring advice. The service it received made Shorts the obvious choice when it reviewed its audit, accounting and tax arrangements.
Its previous auditor had served it well, but the firm’s scale brought extra review layers, ever-longer disclosures and a stop-start timetable. With Shorts, the first-year audit ran in a single focused block, the finance team could plan around it, and the accounts carried only the disclosures that mattered. Day to day, Home Decor gets specialist support on VAT, company secretarial and group matters from people who respond quickly and give clear, practical answers.
Read Case Study in full below where we talk to Jason Limbert CEO, and Danielle Marsh, FD of Home Decor.
From a single transaction to a trusted adviser
Our relationship with Shorts began when we were exploring options around our investors, which turned into a complex process involving multiple jurisdictions and stakeholders. Along the way, Shorts gave us sound funding, structuring and tax advice, with the quality of work providing excellent value for money compared to other quotes we had obtained.
It ultimately supported the decision to make a move, and it became the obvious choice of where to go because of the service we’d received through that process.
That experience gave us confidence. When we looked again at who should handle our audit, accounting and tax, Shorts felt like a better fit for a business of our size, and everything since has continued in the same way.
When one size fits all stopped fitting
We had always had a good service from our previous auditor. We had looked at moving before, but it had never felt like the right time. Over the years, though, the firm’s scale began to show. Each audit passed through more review layers, including an extra panel for retail clients, and completion took longer as a result.
That disclosure got more and more detailed every year over the last four or five years.
Our accounts also had to carry more and more detail on going concern. With Shorts, the forecasts are reviewed properly in the background, and the accounts say what they need to say.
A faster audit, even in year one
We told Shorts from the outset that we wanted the audit team on site for a set period, getting everything done in one go. Since the move to remote working, our audits had become fragmented: a couple of days of fieldwork, then weeks of silence, then a fresh round of requests.
We wanted the team out here for a week, two, three weeks, whatever, and get it all done in that period of time … it helps my team plan. They’ve got a day job.
Danielle Marsh, FD of Home Decor
This time the work ran in a single block. Our finance team could plan their day jobs around it, and both of us were far less involved than in previous years. Despite being a first-year audit, it was quicker than any of the last five. Our previous auditor was never inefficient, and we always had good teams, so perhaps the more local, more personal approach made the difference.
No more stop-start service
With a large firm, clients with hard reporting dates, such as listed companies, come first. Teams get pulled away, and when they return, ground is covered again. In some years that pushed us close to our statutory deadlines, which was a real frustration.
It came down to the wire some years where we struggled to achieve statutory deadlines … which was a frustration for sure.
At Shorts we are a significant client rather than near the bottom of the list, and we have not seen that. Our team hasn’t had to keep coming to us with unexpected requests, as they did in recent years, and nothing has had to be gone over twice.
Specialist support, without the 25-page report
As a small to medium-sized business, we don’t have experts in every field, so we need advice we can call on. One concern about leaving a large firm is whether a smaller one will have the specialists when you need them, but we haven’t found that to be an issue. Whatever we have needed, from VAT and group restructuring to SIC codes on a confirmation statement, Shorts has picked it up straight away.
Just as important, the advice is practical. We get a clear summary of what to do and why, the work gets done quickly, and we move on.
Cut to the chase, just tell us what we need to do and why we need to do it in a summarised fashion. And we get that.
People with time to build relationships
Our finance team is long-standing, and they struck up a relationship with the Shorts audit team very quickly. The team was friendly, efficient and approachable, and that reflects a culture where people have time to do the job properly.
In a first-year audit, some requests were new to us or came in a different format. Rather than insisting, the team talked it through with us, checked back with Katie Watson and worked with what we already had. It was never just a tick-box exercise.
Some organisations focus on relationship building, the experience, and investing time to build knowledge, not just repeat, repeat, repeat. And that’s what we see with Shorts.
Our advice to anyone thinking of making the move
If you’re weighing up a move from a large firm to a regional practice, our experience is that the quality stays the same and the service gets more personal. Here is what we would tell anyone thinking about it:
- Don’t assume you’re trading down. We gave up nothing in quality or process, and our first-year audit ran faster than any in the previous five years.
- Say how you want the audit to run. We asked for the team on site for one focused period, and it let our finance team plan around their day jobs.
- Check the specialist support. VAT, tax, group restructuring, private client and company secretarial help have all been there whenever we needed them.
- Look at the people. A team with time to build a relationship works with you, rather than working through a checklist.
- Expect straight answers. You get a clear summary of what to do and why, not a 25-page report.
In our experience, you’re not giving up anything in quality of process by moving to a smaller, more local firm than one of the Big Four.
About Home Decor
Home Decor GB Ltd designs, manufactures, distributes and installs fitted and contemporary bedroom furniture, including hinged and sliding wardrobe systems with bespoke interiors.
Founded in England in 1975 as Acmetrack, the business has manufactured in Sheffield for over 50 years and describes itself as the UK market leader in fitted wardrobes. It supplies leading brands through retail, distribution, new-build and online channels, and is a member of Made in Britain.
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