The Experts

I would have liked to have been a footballer, or to be more precise ‘a ball-playing centre half like Rio Ferdinand or Bobby Moore’

Richard works with a small number of clients in developing their own strategic plans, often involving succession planning, finance raising, mergers and acquisitions. This normally requires attendance at board meetings, which enables him to build a full understanding of the business and the management team.

My superpower would be flight.

As a Partner John thrives on dealing with people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are engaged in raising the profile and bringing employment into the area, he enjoys being a sounding board for clients ideas and helping them to achieve their ambitions.

If I wasn’t an accountant I would own a Cornish beachside cafe.

Lisa acts for owner-managed and growing businesses across a broad range of industry sectors delivering proactive and timely advice by building a close working relationship based on good communication.

My favourite film is anything from the American Pie franchise, (I’m sorry I can’t help it!)…

Steve specialises in assisting owner-managed and growing businesses in a broad range of industry sectors including manufacturing, engineering, and retail.

My favourite word is Antidisestablishmentarianism (BlackAdder III)

Andrew is responsible for non-audit accounts production and a full range of financial back-office financial support.

My passion is Rugby eg watching and playing….occasionally.

Ian looks to build a close working relationship with his clients, providing sound, proactive business advice together with ensuring his clients fulfil their statutory compliance requirements. Ian also assists clients with the preparation of timely management information and offering advice to clients on their financial potential.

My passion is my children and my family

Amanda works closely with the Partners and colleagues to ensure owner-managed businesses are given the support they need, tailoring the approach to each client depending on their specific needs and requests. Amanda believes that understanding each client and their values is key to maintaining a good client relationship and providing the best results.

My favourite film is “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” – Jaws

Adam is responsible for growing and managing the commercial service offering in the Staffordshire region. Adam has a varied portfolio of clients including agricultural, manufacturing, retail and engineering businesses.

If I wasn’t an accountant, I would have been a midwife

Stacy is part of our Evolve team working across multiple offices, her role involves providing owner-managed businesses with not only compliance services but day-to-day support for their finance function to ensure timely and accurate information is available. She believes that in order to provide a proactive and cost-effective service, understanding the business and the people behind it is crucial.

My passions are playing squash and spending time with my young family

Phil works with a mixture of owner-managed businesses, property landlords, partnerships and sole traders dealing with personal tax compliance matters such as completion of self-assessment tax returns and completion of P11d forms.  He and his team also provide tax advice on income extraction forms for limited companies, capital gains tax and inheritance tax.

My passion is supporting the mighty Port Vale FC

Andrew is responsible for the delivery of the compliance services within the Private Client Department in our Stoke-on-Trent office.

I love watching motorsports especially motorcycle racing

John joined Dains in 1988 and has worked in most areas of accountancy. John’s current role is the completion of tax returns and accounts for our commercial clients where he has built great working relationships.

My passion is split between sports and travelling

Joe has experience in working with a variety of clients from different business sectors and providing tax advice in areas such as research and development tax credits.  He works closely with the audit and commercial services teams to provide a coordinated approach to tax compliance.

My passion is cars, I loved watching Knight Rider as a boy and my interest in cars hasn’t waned

Mo works with growing, ambitious and entrepreneurial businesses, providing all levels of support from management accounts, forecasting and budgeting to strategic advisory support, assisting with crucial insights on the financial performance and position with advice to help the business achieve its ambitions. He loves working with businesses to understand the challenges they face and working out how best to help them achieve their goals and aspirations, working as an extension of your finance team providing a valuable support mechanism to help you focus on what you do best – growing and operating your business.

Mo’s passion is providing insights into the performance of the business to support and shape business decisions through automation and technology and providing real-time and robust information to support the business and advise clients at every stage of their development. He works with a wide range of businesses across a range of sectors and enjoys the breadth of experience that brings to the relationship.

My passions are my dog and playing golf!

Since completing a week’s work experience at Dains as a schoolboy in 2010, Mat decided accountancy was the pathway for him. Through 4 years of auditing, Mat has used almost every accounting package out there and believes cloud accounting is the future. Driven by the passion of owner-managed businesses and a coffee in hand, Mat will work with you to ensure you take your business to where you want it to be.

My favourite superhero is the Hulk

Alan started with Dains in 2012, but since he started to use Xero in 2014 he made it his goal to expand his knowledge and understanding of cloud accounting and the ecosystem that comes with it! Alan maintains software certifications to ensure he can assist both clients and colleagues alike with any queries or problems they may have no matter how complex.

Alan has experience with assisting a wide range of clients in all industries with a broad range of cloud accounting software platforms. Not just this, but Alan also assists with integrations with clients websites including various bolt-on software’s. Alan prides himself on his problem-solving capabilities and always enjoys a new challenge!

I am fascinated by Crime Scene Investigation.

Laura started her accounting career with Dains back in 2012 as an apprentice within Commercial Services. Over the years Laura has put her hand to most area’s of accounting such as compliance, payroll, tax returns etc, but soon realised that cloud accounting was the route she wanted to pursue. By obtaining and maintaining various software certifications, Laura can see how cloud accounting software can transform the efficiency of your bookkeeping, streamline your finances and provide real-time information on your numbers.

Laura has experience working with a large number of businesses on converting and integrating them onto a wide range of cloud accounting software platforms in many different industries. The innovation of cloud accounting has allowed her to advise businesses further by collating and interpreting data to create meaningful insights into how the business is truly performing.

My passion is dancing, interior design & cooking (not all at once!)

Since starting Dains in 2018, Jessica has spent time expanding her knowledge on a range of cloud accounting software platforms. Jessica really enjoys learning more about the platforms and maintains software certifications to guarantee the best service when engaging with and helping clients with queries they may have.

With help from the Cloud Accounting team, Jessica has experience with specifically targeting common problem areas and helps address these areas with clients during informative sessions. Jessica is passionate about working with clients to make their internal processes more efficient by embracing the software’s capabilities and ultimately producing clean data on which informed decisions can be based upon.

My passion is Luton Town Football Club and anything with an engine!

Tom started in the world of accountancy, just as Making Tax Digital for VAT was becoming slightly more than a rumour. As a result, cloud accounting is almost all he’s ever known. Tom has achieved certifications in a mammoth range of cloud accounting software platforms and is passionate to maintain the certifications by continuing to gain a further detailed working knowledge of the software platforms and their connected apps & systems.

Tom has attended various accounting software conferences which have given him the exposure to speak first hand to many software and app developers about the needs of clients, and how the software systems can cater to those needs.

I would have been in a band.   I love all types of music: pop, rock, classical and choral.  I play the piano and church organ – modern music on a church organ is great!

Ann has specialised in taxation for over 20 years, advising companies and shareholders on a range of issues including business structures, transaction planning, research and development tax reliefs and remuneration planning.