Episode 76 FS360 Podcast - Toowoomba Office

FS360 Podcast – Episode 76

A “holistic approach” is what Compass Business Accountants’ Mark Callaghan hopes to bring to the Mulcahy & Co Toowoomba office.

Speaking on the FS360 Podcast with Gavin Nash, Callaghan discussed his new partnership with Mulcahy & Co and the company’s newest accounting partner, Eamon Sullivan.

Prior to joining Mulcahy & Co, Callaghan was a partner in a firm along with three others, working with 35 staff. He stepped away from that in 2016 to form Compass Business Accountants.

“Thankfully my whole team of 12 came with me to Compass. We decided there just to specialise in small business and self-managed super funds,” Callaghan said.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of my clients for a long time as well, so we brought our clients with us. Some of those clients for over 20 years.

“For some time now I’ve been giving some thought to my own succession, my kids are finishing school and uni.

“It’s a tough decision because I don’t necessarily want to stop what I do because I still enjoy what I do, but I guess I just wanted to set something in motion to allow more time outside of work to do other things … that’s hard to do when you’re a sole practitioner.

“When I had the Mulcahy proposal put to me and I could see the opportunity to no longer run the practice, that was fairly attractive.”

Sullivan heads up the Toowoomba office and works closely with Callaghan to continue forming strong relationships with clients.

With Mulcahy & Co offering a 360 financial security service to clients, Sullivan said it would benefit businesses in Toowoomba as well as staff members.

“I think some of the potential benefits are more around Mark’s holistic approach, but obviously some clients will have their existing financial planners and mortgage brokers which we’re happy to work with,” he said.

“If people don’t have access to that mortgage broker or that financial planner, we can say ‘we’ve got someone internally who you’d able to talk to’ and help them effectively achieve their financial security.

“From a staff point of view, you learn more about (not) just the accounting side because you’re exposed to more things … from a personal development point of view, the staff get a bit more knowledge about things that you’re not normally exposed to.”

The first steps have been taken to further enhance relationships with clients, something the pair will continue to work through.

“Eamon and I have been meeting with our clients progressively which has been great because Eamon’s been able to meet them face-to-face,” Callaghan said.

“We’ve done a road trip … the plan is we’re going to keep doing more of that, get around our clients, meet them face-to-face and get to know what they want from us as well.”