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ESG Diligence: The Key To Sustainable M&A Transactions
AAB / Our Team / Hannah Stocks
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Meet the Audit & Assurance team
A range of clients, including manufacturers, charities, and solicitors.
Audit work. Communicating with clients. Answering queries. Leading an audit team.
Not for Profit. Industrial.
Hannah Stocks is a Senior Manager within our Audit team. Having been with us since 2015, Hannah joined us as a summer placement, she returned as a Graduate the following year. With a mixed portfolio of clients, Hannah specialises in the Not-for-Profit sector (primarily charities and pension schemes).
She is responsible for much of the client communication, as well as organising and leading meetings. Hannah oversees an audit team, which includes reviewing their work and ensuring the team understand the work they’re doing whilst learning and developing.
Alongside this, Hannah is also a coach for two individuals to assist with their personal and professional development and is a member of the Industrial Sector team.
“I believe I provide a professional but personable service. I enjoy getting to know clients and building good relationships – this is hugely important to me.
I am happy to discuss any queries or issues that clients may be going through. I will always provide a response that is to the best of my knowledge and provide help and support to the best of my ability. I can also appreciate when a topic or query needs more specialist knowledge so will bring in specialist team members when required. Fortunately, we have plenty of those in the Leeds office and across AAB!”
“An ideal relationship with a client is one that is honest, reliable, and based on mutual respect. An honest relationship is important for so many reasons, not limited to the fact that it enables you to have those difficult conversations when needed.
You need to be able to rely on the client to, for example, commit to the timescales agreed in advance and provide prompt responses, and naturally, they expect the same from me as their accountant/auditor. Clients also expect value for money, particularly in such difficult economic times. They want support, guidance, and a high-quality service – all of which we are only too glad to provide!”
“One of my favourite things about my work is seeing a range of different businesses within different industries, learning how they operate and the different challenges they face. I also love working with the same clients year after year as this allows you to build a good relationship with the client.
I also really appreciate that we have a very people-centric culture, so I work with a great team of people, of all levels. We have an open-plan office so everyone works together. We’re always happy to assist queries and ensure individuals feel comfortable with their work as well as learning on the job.”
“Since COVID, we have moved and developed different pieces of software that enable us to work efficiently remotely, e.g. CaseWare, Inflo, etc. We do, however, tailor our audit approach to our clients’ preferences, and there are benefits to both working remotely as well as on-site. It’s important to ensure we maintain a good communication level between the team and the client and ensure that the agreed logistics work best for both parties. I think this gives flexibility to both the client and us, and helps to produce more efficient working which both sides enjoy.”
“There are always changes to regulations to keep on top of and we learn how to respond to these as an audit team e.g., tailoring our audit approach and audit testing whilst ensuring we’re still working efficiently. Working within a specialist area such as Not-for-Profit also presents many challenges that are often out of the client’s control; they are hugely impacted by the external environment and their survival depends on their quick and sensible response to these external factors. I think this presents us the challenge of ensuring they’re getting value for money with our services as well as providing value advice to how they respond to the ongoing challenges faced.”
“I think there are many learning opportunities that will come with the different specialisms and knowledge that we now have access to, and I’m looking forward to seeing how else we can help my clients and being exposed to such areas that I perhaps don’t have previous experience with.
In becoming part of AAB, we’ve been exposed to a whole different market and level of competition. The perks of this include the opportunity to work with and exchange knowledge and ideas with so many new people – I particularly enjoyed attending the Accelerate conference earlier in the year in Edinburgh and meeting more members of the team! – as well as the opportunity to expand into other areas and continue growing.
We’re seeing different types of clients approach us – we’re working with larger companies and can deal with more complex areas, all whilst maintaining a focus on the people within our firm and the value we place on people and our culture.”
“One of the AAB Group Values is that collaboration is our superpower, and I have truly found this to be in action. I have, on several occasions, reached out to team members across the group for assistance on an audit – we’ve done a lot of cross-office working to help capacity which means we can deliver a service at the time a client wishes and to a good standard. There are also times when I’ve reached out to specialists across the group on a variety of topics, and everyone is always happy to have an initial call to explain the details or any complicated areas. This again helps provide a detailed useful response to clients and offer the best service possible.
“I think I offer a personable approach; people feel like they can talk to me about anything, whether that be inside or outside of work. Having joined as a Graduate myself I am very understanding of the stresses of how much there is to learn alongside exams, so I’m always happy to spend the time training team members and will always listen if anyone wishes to confide in me. I will also always ensure the team I have working for me feel supported as well as appreciated.”
“Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t seem to like auditors! We have a bad (and I think, unfair) reputation for questioning clients’ work and being annoying. Sometimes we’re put in a small room far away from the finance team, but it’s important that people understand that we want to work with clients, not against them! Ultimately, we can really help businesses to add value as well, which is something that often gets forgotten.”