A Naas Accountant has been named ‘Accountant of the Year’.
Eilis Quinlan, Principal of Quinlan & Co, was honoured with the award by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
The ACCA is the Global body for professional Accountants all over the world, with 12,000 members in Ireland alone.
The Minister for Finance Pascal Donohue attended the awards and termed “Accountants as the gatekeepers of our economy”. He added that “Accountancy is the language of business and it has evolved hugely to meet the needs of our economy”.
Speaking on the presentation of her award, Eilis Quinlan said “My mother said that I had a huge talent for doing everything upside down and inside out. I was playing my Cello and driving around Dublin on a Honda 50 when I was 18 and married at 19. We were busy farming and busy keeping horses but then the dreaded recession of the 80’s hit and we needed to do something to get us out of a hole. The ACCA allowed me in in the 80’s as I hadn’t been to University and I will be forever grateful to them for this. I studied at night, three nights a week, and my Husband Paddy minded our children;he only missed one night and that was due to Punchestown!”. “ Paddy this award is for you!!”
“Einstein said “It’s a miracle that curiosity survived formal education” but at the ACCA I received the very best formal education and training, which laid the groundwork for my career. I absolutely love my job”.
“I am so delighted and honoured to win Accountant of the Year and thank you so very much”.
This is the second industry award Eilis has received in just a week; her firm, Quinlan & Co won the ‘Best Small Practice of the Year’ at the Irish Accountancy Awards at the Mansion House last week. The awards, organised by the Irish Accountancy Awards, are in recognition of Accountancy firms all over the country who provide the highest quality service to their clients, while proving demonstrable benefits by significantly adding value, and creating competitive advantage for them at the same time.
Eilis says “Its been a wonderful week, one that I will always remember and cherish. It is always an honour to be recognised by one’s peers and I am so delighted that the strides we have made at Quinlan & Co. have been noticed in the Accountancy profession. I pride myself and my company on working diligently for our clients, we always strive to create value for them and are rewarded by years, and often decades, of loyal custom. We are constantly evolving and examining the services we offer to clients in our practice, so as to ensure continuing standards of excellence. Accountancy is a varied, valuable and hugely vibrant profession and these awards reflect this”.
“I truly thank my wonderful hard working team at Quinlan & Co., “.
The forward thinking firm recently developed a free App which is packed with information, tips and valuable advice on tax deadlines, as well as a mileage tracker and the ability to capture and input accounts and bank data whilst on the move, and from the convenience and comfort of a mobile phone.
“We developed the Quinlan & Co App that really turns a mobile phone into a mobile office. It is free to download from iTunes and Google Playstore and it is an invaluable tool. It integrates with various Apps, including a cloud based accounts package. Updated in ‘real time’, the Quinlan & Co App will give you tax tables, deadlines and foreign currency information at literally the click of a switch. Most SME’S wouldn’t have the benefit of being able to access an App from their Accountants, so we are so proud to be able to provide this tool for our clients”.
Established in 1992, Quinlan & Co. specialises in Audit, Tax Planning, Insolvency and Corporate Recovery.
“We cater for companies and individuals, big and small; nobody is too small for us. People are sometimes reluctant to hire a professional Accountant, fearing the financial outlay without any real benefit, other than compliance with regulation ,but they are often surprised to learn that as well as all the routine Accountancy services we provide, we also offer Commercial Mediation, Insolvency Services and Company Secretarial Services, whereby we look after new business name registrations, change of business address and file first Annual Returns, for the extremely competitive price of just €50 per individual service. We strive to remove the fear around tax issues, it’s a very real fear for a lot of people and once they let us figure it out, much of the stress goes”.
“I get huge job satisfaction from sorting out clients’ tax affairs; what is a big thing for them is often a simple task for us and like everything else, things are generally never as bad as they feared. This is one of my favourite aspects of my job, a job I absolutely love”.
“My motto is “It’s not how much you make that really matters, it’s how much of that you keep”. “There is just no point in overpaying tax. We make the process as seamless as we can, ensuring you pay the correct amount of tax, but are rewarded financially for your hard work. That’s what business is all about; keeping both the tax man and the business owner happy and on track”.
Keeping client finances on track is just one part of Eilis’s work, she is also constantly looking at ways to improve her practice and upskill staff.
“I am so proud to be an ACCA ( Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Gold approved training practice and we feel lucky to be able to offer a support framework to students; this also helps the practise as we have a steady flow of driven and educated students looking to join us. We are very focused on professional development. One of the supports we offer is financial, which does help to ease the pressure and additional stress on students. I provide a study package, whereby I pay their college fees, membership fees and exam fees and facilitate paid study leave. It’s a win win for all of us. By the time students pass their final exams they have at least three years practise experience”.
“We have a wonderful team of committed people here at Quinlan & Co, all of whom have contributed in their own way to our ongoing success, and to the practice being shortlisted for these two important awards. Any business depends on the enthusiasm, dedication and interest of its team and I am so grateful that Quinlan &Co has a super committed team who are unstinting in their support”.