Would you do it all over again Niall?

That was the question I recently posed to Niall O’Riordan, our “officially” retired ex-Partner who turned 80 years young earlier this year.

Despite his “officially” retired status, Niall still looks after his own small list of clients and is in the office most days apart from his “course day” every Monday on the fairways of a local golf club.

Niall’s enthusiasm and energy knows no bounds and he is held in great affection by the Quintas team as can be seen by the regular string of visitors knocking on his office door and the subsequent sound of laughter that quickly follows.

I recently took the opportunity to sit down with Niall to chat with him about his career in practice which spans 45 years and counting, having set up his own firm in 1973 along with his life-long friend Liam McGinn.

Niall started at a time when computers were still a generation away. Accounts were done manually and those responsible for preparing them were experts in the art of double entry debits and credits. 

Niall had 20 years of practice under his belt before he bought his first computer. Emails and the world wide web soon followed. Niall claims to have been a “Doubting Thomas” in the early days and spent time double checking and triple checking spreadsheet totals to ensure the computer was doing things right.

Communication with clients has changed dramatically over the course of Niall’s career. In the early years all communication was by letter, phone or in person at a meeting. As the years passed various new communication tools came along, some of which like the fax have all but come and gone in that period. Most of the communication now is by means of email with many forms of standard communication such as tax updates being sent by text message directly to smartphones. Despite all the advancements in technology, Niall remains a firm believer in the benefit of a face to face meeting and never misses the chance to meet a client for a coffee and a chat.   

Dealings with Revenue have also changed significantly over the years. The requirements on the taxpayer and the tax advisor are a lot more stringent now than they were at any stage of Niall’s career. In Niall’s early years in practice, returns were in paper format and were hand delivered to the local tax office.  It was up to Revenue to issue an assessment of tax due based on the information submitted. If the practitioner didn’t agree with the assessment or like the look of the bottom line you had the opportunity to appeal the assessment and to attend the appeal in person along with your client. The current tax system places all the responsibility on the tax payer under the self-assessment model. Revenue audits didn’t exist until more recent times.

The level of regulation and scrutiny faced by practitioners is something that Niall feels has increased hugely over the last number of years, a change which he believes is not for the better. Whilst Niall acknowledges that some level of regulation is necessary, excessive regulation is unwelcome and does nothing but increases costs for practitioners, a cost which is ultimately passed on to the client. Unfortunately, the bar seems to keep rising and Niall is concerned as to where it will end.

Niall has seen big changes in trainee accountants joining practice in modern times compared to those who would have joined in his early years. Niall’s early recruits joined straight from second level education however a third level degree is now a basic requirement with many also having additional post graduate qualifications.

Confidence is another differentiating factor for the class of 2018. Niall describes them as well educated and well-travelled with most having built up significant periods of work experience despite their tender years.

While many things have changed some things remain constant and will never go out of fashion according to Niall. The correlation between hard work and success in 2018 is no different to what it was 45 years ago when Niall started out in practice. 

When pressed as to whether he would do it all again if he was starting from where we are today, Niall admits that he would have strong reservations which I can understand.

Knowing Niall, I have a feeling that after some careful consideration he would roll up the sleeves and set about looking after his clients to the best of his ability as he has done for the last 45 years.