Accounting firm businessDEPOT is joining forces with cloud bookkeeper All That Counts and will both share an office in Burbank, Sydney.
As part of the deal, Lielette Calleja (second from left) of All That Counts becomes a three-way joint director of the businessDEPOT along with existing directors Rebecca Mihalic (right) and Simone Murad. A separate businessDEPOT operation in Brisbane is not part of the deal.
BusinessDepot said the merger made sense as “an obvious next step” to bolster its bookkeeping and advisory services as it sought to expand.
“Lielette is well known in the Sydney business community and is someone we know, like and trust to deliver bookkeeping and business services in line with the businessDEPOT way,” Ms Mihalic said.
She said these days, bookkeepers did a lot more than just process financial transactions and reconcile bank accounts — they were accounting technicians who ensured the foundational data was accurate and were often best at implementing new systems.
Ms Calleja said the decision to go with businessDEPOT was the best one she and her team could have made.
“We’d been thinking about joining them for some time, and the fact that businessDEPOT has a powerful multi-service offering, led by specialist professionals, made my decision quite simple,” she said.
“I am excited to be joining businessDEPOT as a director in Sydney and I’m confident that this merger will benefit our clients significantly.”
BusinessDEPOT managing director John Knight, also pictured, said Ms Calleja would be a good fit with the firm’s clients.
“Lielette has a proven track record of helping business owners with all the usual must-do bookkeeping services like payroll, ATO lodgements and BAS, as well as the should-do stuff like management reporting,” he said.
At the same time, businessDEPOT announced a joint venture with accountants the Macro Group and Inspire to form the Boutique Accounting Project, which aims to showcase the industry to aspiring accountants.
It will hold a series of Accounting Pathways events to demonstrate the “exciting opportunities” possible outside the traditional path of the big four firms.
Mr Knight said it was time to do something about the low numbers of students who now opt to study accounting.
“We asked ourselves what we could do right now to help address the industry shortage and running a series of events to start the conversation felt like a good way to go about it,” he said.
The first Accounting Pathways event will feature speakers sharing real-life stories of how they found their place in the industry.
You are not authorised to post comments.
Comments will undergo moderation before they get published.