MYOB has unveiled the winners of its 2020 Partner Awards, with Giles - Liew Chartered Accountants Limited, 3rd Arm Admin and Waikato resident Jennie Kingma of JK Business Systems Limited announced as the New Zealand winners.
Pivoting to an online format for what is now the 12th year of the awards, the honours celebrate excellence within the bookkeeping and accounting community across three categories: Accounting Practice of the year, Bookkeeping Practice of the year and Certified Consultant of the year.
Nominations for this year's MYOB Partner Awards were reviewed by a judging panel including MYOB's chief sales and support officer, Daniel West, who says it was "the passion of the award candidates that shone through, with many of those nominated stretching their services to support their clients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic".
“The recipients of the 2020 MYOB Partner Awards set a scene of business advisors who unequivocally care for their clients and the development of their team, to best serve businesses in what has been a challenging year," he says.
"Their expertise and shared knowledge will continue to guide business health as we navigate our way through economic recovery. We're proud to celebrate their outstanding contribution."
The Accounting Practice of the Year was awarded to Giles - Liew Chartered Accountants Limited to recognise the exceptional support the practice offered to their clients during challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, using wide-ranging tactics to not only protect business survival, but also drive growth.
This included not only expanding their advisory offering with the development of two new service lines, but also their focus on educating business owners with blog articles and social media campaigns providing up-to-date advice to ensure businesses were considering all options available to them.
3rd Arm Admin were named The Bookkeeping Practice of The Year- their third consecutive award for the practice with their managing director, Sue Inkersell also awarded Bookkeeper of the Year in 2018 and 2019.
Despite the additional workload supporting their clients with wage subsidy requirements, the 3rd Arm Admin team implemented weekly Zoom meetings with clients and their accountant with an aim to reassure and support business owners.
On top of this, 3rd Arm Admin launched Business Continuity Planning, Cashflow Management sessions and worked alongside community organisations to provide education and support to the local business community, establishing themselves as trusted advisors during the pandemic.
The Certified Consultant of the Year award recognises a business advisor whose expertise effectively drove revenue growth and significantly contributed their firm's success in 2020.
Owner and director of JK Business Systems Limited, Jennie Kingma, pragmatically lead her team throughout the challenges of the COVID-19 19 pandemic providing upskilling opportunities to ensure they were best positioned to serve the ever-changing needs of their clients.
With an increase in support requests from their existing client base and a 300% increase on phone support sales the team were quick to ensure that they were functional and fully informed to offer exceptional business advise and payroll expertise.
With a focus on supporting business survival and staff employment Jennie saw the need to make payroll as simple as possible for businesses'; Jennie and her team focused in on payroll to educate and support businesses to meet their obligations.