8th July, 2021, Melanie Harriss
Stephenson Smart accountants opened an office on Oak Street in Fakenham in 1989, with just four members of staff. Now a team of 13, they provide clients with business and tax advice as well as help with VAT and accounting software, and have ATOL specialist qualifications.
The Fakenham office are also supported by qualified professionals across Stephenson Smart’s other five offices whose specialisms include payroll, inheritance tax, probate and estates.
Martyn is the managing partner at Fakenham. As well as managing the team, Martyn advises clients on a wide range of areas, including audit, taxation and corporate accounting. Martyn was one of the first accountants in the country to qualify as an ATOL reporting accountant, which allows him to submit ATOL Accountants’ Reports to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Mike advises a wide range of clients on areas such as audit, taxation, VAT, and corporate accounting. He has a keen interest in cloud accounting and works with new and established businesses to help streamline their business accounting systems and allowing access to real-time accounts information. Mike is also qualified as an ATOL reporting accountant.
Sean joined the firm as a graduate trainee after completing a degree in Economics at Leeds University. He acts for a variety of clients ranging from the audit of corporate pension schemes, charities and advising individuals on taxation.
Marina Watters ACCA
Marina became a fully qualified ACCA accountant in April last year. Marina has a wealth of experience in digital accounting and her specialism is in Xero accounting software. She supports clients with their cloud-based accounting and management accounts.
Laura James MAAT
Laura qualified with AAT over 10 years ago and has been with Stephenson Smart for the past three years. Her favourite part of her job is helping clients to understand their business in real time and enjoys learning about all aspects of how a client’s business operates.
Hannah Allgood MAAT
Hannah is a qualified AAT accountant, starting her accounting qualifications at Cambridge Regional College. She is now working towards her ACCA. Hannah supports a wide variety of clients with their year-end accounts.
Matthew Leverett
Matthew has a BA (Hons) in Audit and Accountancy from Bournemouth University and is now studying towards his ACCA qualification. He supports the managers with preparing clients accounts, reconciliation and bookkeeping.
Allan Nelson
Allan spent many years working in the finance office at Jaeger, which is where he built his knowledge and experience in looking after and reconciling accounts. He works with a variety of clients at Stephenson Smart, supporting them with bookkeeping and year end accounts services.
Carla Andrews
Carla is an AAT qualified accountant who has a defined, part-time role within the team specifically supporting two clients with their bookkeeping and management accounts. Carla is multi-lingual and is also training to be a paramedic.
Richenda McCalla (Chen)
Chen supports the team with her bookkeeping skills, mostly in processing VAT returns for clients. She works with all types of clients, increasingly processing their VAT from their cloud accounting software.
Ethan Keeler
Ethan is currently studying for his level 3 AAT qualification. Ethan is local to Fakenham and completed his A-levels in Maths, Business and Chemistry at the high school 6th form, before starting his apprenticeship at Stephenson Smart.
Patrick Young
Patrick is working towards his ACA qualification. Patrick has a degree in nursing, but quickly realised that accountancy was where his passion lies. He particularly enjoys finding solutions to complicated tax queries and would like to specialise as a tax accountant.
Jo Brown
Jo is the face of Stephenson Smart’s Fakenham office and has been manning reception there for 26 years! As well as being the first port of call for most clients, Jo also provides secretarial support to the accountants.
Photo: Left to right: Laura James, Matthew Leverett, Hannah Allgood, Chen McCalla, Jo Brown, Allan Nelson, Martyn Benstead, Patrick Young, Marina Watters, Ethan Keeler, Mike Rowles and Sean Page.
