Qube Talk: Meet the Team Behind Qube Accountants
Service Charge Accounting Insights for Managing Agents
Welcome to Qube Talk, the podcast where we talk about all things service charge accounting.
In this first episode, hosts Ray Armand and CJ Ralfe introduce themselves, share the story behind Qube Accountants, and explain why they are passionate about helping managing agents improve their service charge accounting processes.
They discuss their backgrounds as Chartered Accountants, how two sisters based in different countries came together to build a specialist service charge accounting business, and why systems, processes and education are so important when it comes to delivering an efficient service to managing agents.
Introducing Qube Talk
Ray Armand: Welcome to Qube Talk, where we talk all things service charge accounting insights. I’m one of your hosts, Ray Armand, and I’ve got CJ Ralfe here with me.
We’re really excited to be starting this podcast.
The idea came to me one Sunday while I was out running. We get asked so many questions and have so many conversations with different managing agents that I thought a podcast would be a great opportunity to discuss some of the key issues that regularly come up.
Our aim is to share our knowledge and experience and hopefully make life a little easier for people working within the property management and service charge industry.
We thought we would use this first episode to give you some context about who we are, our backgrounds and why we started Qube Accountants.
CJ, I’m going to start with you. Would you like to share a little about your background?
Meet CJ Ralfe
CJ Ralfe: Absolutely.
As you can probably tell from our accents, Ray and I are both originally from South Africa. I’m still based in South Africa, while Ray is based in the UK.
I completed my training articles through Deloitte and then moved into a position within a manufacturing business.
It had quite a shallow management structure, which meant I received excellent exposure and reported directly to the Finance Director.
The business was a large national company and one of the biggest pork distributors and manufacturers in the country.
I worked there for a number of years after getting married.
When we decided to start a family, I had to make some decisions about where my career could go. To progress further within the company, I would have needed to relocate to Johannesburg or Pretoria, which wasn’t practical for us.
I therefore decided to start doing some of my own accounting and consulting work.
At the same time, my husband and I were growing our farming business. My contribution was very much on the financial side rather than the farming itself!
Over the years, we grew and diversified the business. We also own two tractor dealerships, including one in the town where we live and another in Pietermaritzburg.
During this period, I built up my own accounting client base and carried out the type of work you would expect from a small accounting practice.
As our own businesses grew, however, I eventually transferred those clients to a former colleague so that I could free up more of my time.
I also completed independent review work through a larger accounting practice. Because the practice could not both prepare and independently review the same accounts, I carried out the independent reviews.
That gave me exposure to a broad range of businesses and different areas of accounting.
Meet Ray Armand
Ray Armand: CJ and I are actually sisters, which is something we probably should have mentioned earlier!
CJ is my big sister, and we bring quite different skills and personalities to Qube, which is one of the reasons working together works so well.
My own career also began in South Africa.
I started my training contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Cape Town.
My husband was a professional rugby player for just over a decade. We had been together since school, and when he was offered the opportunity to play rugby for Exeter Chiefs, we moved to the UK.
I then moved to Deloitte in London, where I completed my training contract.
Like CJ, I later started a family and realised that I didn’t necessarily see myself climbing the corporate ladder within one of the large accounting firms.
I had previously spent some time lecturing at the University of Cape Town as an assistant lecturer. After leaving Deloitte in the UK, I spent a couple of years teaching AAT accounting qualifications and became a programme lead for one of the organisations delivering the qualification.
Eventually, I realised that what I really loved was going into businesses, understanding how they worked and helping them make improvements.
That led me to start an accounting practice called Root to Growth Accounting.
Root to Growth is a more traditional accounting practice working with trading businesses. We provide services including bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, CIS, management accounts, cash-flow forecasting and broader finance department and financial director support.
How Qube Accountants Began
While growing Root to Growth, I had always been interested in acquiring other accounting practices because I had ambitious plans for growth.
At the same time, I had always wanted to find an opportunity for CJ and me to work together.
Then an opportunity came along.
We discovered an accounting practice that specialised entirely in service charge accounts and was considering selling.
As soon as I heard about the opportunity, I called CJ.
I could immediately see how service charge accounting could work for us.
It would allow us to bring together our accounting experience and complementary skills while focusing on an area that does not rely heavily on UK-specific tax knowledge.
We entered negotiations with the practice.
There were three partners involved, and one of them was particularly keen to sell. We spent several months discussing the potential acquisition, but eventually the other partners decided that they didn’t want to proceed with the sale.
We were disappointed, but the experience had opened our eyes to the opportunities within service charge accounting.
I liked the industry, the work and the type of team and business we could potentially build around it.
So, quietly in the background, I started building a service charge accounting offering myself.
Initially, it operated as a division of Root to Growth.
As it began to grow, I knew I wanted CJ involved.
Interestingly, the original practice later approached us again and said they were ready to sell.
We entered another round of conversations and negotiations.
CJ became involved again because I knew I didn’t want to acquire the practice without her.
Then, once again, the deal fell through.
Two Sisters Building a Specialist Service Charge Accounting Business
Around the same time, CJ and I were finally able to see each other in person after several years apart because of COVID.
CJ hadn’t even met some of my younger children yet.
We were both travelling to Cape Town when the practice owner contacted us again about potentially selling.
It felt as though everything was lining up.
We tried once more to get the acquisition over the line, but ultimately it didn’t happen.
By that point, however, something much more important had become clear.
We really enjoyed working together.
As sisters, we understand each other extremely well, but we also bring very different skills to the business.
There aren’t many people in the world who can put me in my place, but my big sister is definitely one of them!
So we decided to stop waiting for the acquisition and build the business ourselves.
That was really the beginning of Qube Accountants as we know it today.
Why Qube Accountants Focuses on Service Charge Accounting
One of the things we quickly realised was how much we enjoyed working with managing agents.
Service charge year ends can become a frustrating and time-consuming process.
Without an efficient system, something that should be relatively straightforward can turn into months of back-and-forth communication and dozens of emails between the managing agent and accountant.
We didn’t want Qube Accountants to simply prepare a set of service charge accounts and move on.
We wanted to help managing agents improve the process behind those accounts.
That means identifying bottlenecks, improving systems and finding ways to make the entire service charge accounting process more efficient.
Instead of a process generating 40 or 50 emails over several months, our aim is to help managing agents move towards a much more streamlined process involving fewer emails and a significantly shorter turnaround.
That is something we genuinely enjoy working on with our clients.
Building Better Systems for Service Charge Accounts
CJ Ralfe: One of the things I’ve really enjoyed is seeing what we’ve built over the last couple of years.
We’ve developed a robust system that enables us to provide a high level of service while also giving us the ability to grow.
Sometimes, as accounting firms become larger, they can become less efficient.
What we’ve tried to do differently at Qube is create systems and processes that can scale with us.
That means maintaining the quality and efficiency of our service as the business continues to grow.
Creating a Consistent Client Experience
Ray Armand: There are now around six people who consistently work within the Qube team, including a combination of employed and subcontracted team members.
One of the ideas that has influenced how we have built Qube comes from the business book The E-Myth.
The basic principle is simple.
Imagine starting a business as one person and delivering an incredible five-star client experience.
What happens when you have 100 clients?
Or 1,000 clients?
How do you ensure every single client continues to receive that same high-quality experience?
The answer is systems and processes.
That is something we have focused heavily on at Qube Accountants.
We want an amazing team culture and great people, but we also want clear systems around how our service charge accounting work is delivered.
We have mapped our processes in detail and created supporting resources, including video guidance, so our team has a clear framework to follow.
This helps us deliver a consistent service while following recognised industry guidance and good practice.
Service Charge Accounting, Compliance and Good Practice
Our systems have been designed around the requirements and good practice relevant to service charge accounts, including consideration of ICAEW TECH 03/11.
For managing agents, getting the service charge accounting process right is important.
Issues can potentially escalate and, in some cases, disputes may ultimately reach a tribunal.
That is why we want our processes to consider the different issues that can arise and ensure they are dealt with consistently.
Whenever we encounter a new issue, we look at whether a process or system can be developed to address it for future developments as well.
Rather than repeatedly solving the same problem from scratch, we aim to learn from it and build that knowledge into the way we work.
Working With Managing Agents Across the UK
Qube Accountants is now around two years into its journey, and we are excited about where the business is going.
We currently work with a range of managing agents and continue to onboard new clients.
This gives us exposure to the different challenges faced by property management companies and their accounts teams.
One of the areas we are particularly passionate about is education within the service charge and property management industry.
Recruiting qualified and experienced people into bookkeeping, accounting and finance teams can be challenging for managing agents.
We therefore want to do more than simply provide a year-end accounting service.
We want to help strengthen the people and processes operating throughout the year.
Helping Managing Agents Improve Their Finance Processes
Education is a major part of what we want Qube to contribute to the industry.
Through podcasts, webinars, training sessions and useful resources, we want to share information that helps managing agents and their internal finance teams improve their knowledge.
Better processes throughout the year can lead to better financial information.
And better financial information makes the service charge year-end process much easier.
As CJ explains, there is also a clear benefit for us as service charge accountants.
The better the quality of the accounting work completed throughout the year, the better the quality of the information available when it is time to prepare and present the year-end service charge accounts.
Ultimately, everybody benefits from stronger processes.
What’s Next on Qube Talk?
We hope you enjoyed hearing more about our backgrounds, how Qube Accountants began and why we are so passionate about improving the service charge accounting process for managing agents.
In the next episode, we’ll be discussing the top seven mistakes we see managing agents make when dealing with service charge accounts.
We’ll look at some of the common issues we encounter and begin exploring how managing agents can avoid them.
Future episodes will take deeper dives into these and other important areas of service charge accounting, property management finance, compliance and financial processes.
If you work within a managing agent, property management company or accounts team and want clearer, more efficient service charge accounting processes, make sure you follow Qube Talk for future episodes.
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Why Not Get in Touch With the Team at Qube Accountants?
If you are a managing agent looking for support with your service charge accounts, or you would simply like to explore ways to make your year-end accounting processes more efficient, why not speak to the team at Qube Accountants?
We specialise in working with managing agents and understand the unique challenges involved in service charge accounting.
Whether you need support preparing service charge accounts, improving the information supplied at year end or creating more efficient processes between your property management and finance teams, we would be happy to have a conversation.
Get in touch with the Qube Accountants team today to find out how we can support your managing agent business.
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