The partners in 1984 were Mr Dyson, Mr Frederick Sheard, Richard Sheard and Brian Butterworth. Lynne started working at Sheards just after the merge of another accountants practice with Mr Davison, so there was plenty of work for her to do as he was set to retire 12 months after the merge.
In 1988, Fred Sheard and Son moved from their building on Kirkgate, and relocated to Vernon House, 40 New North Road, where they have been ever since. 1989 saw Pat start as an accountant, and a week later, Kevin Winterburn was taken on as an apprentice. 30 years later, Pat is our long-standing accountant, who has many a story to tell! Kevin of course, is now a partner in the practice, alongside Carolyn Atkinson.
The working world has come a long way over the last three decades. Gone are the days of sharing one phone per office, with an IT wizz on hand to type up important documents.
The last 30 years have seen the introduction of the World Wide Web, email communication, mobile phones, digital records and cloud accounting; all of which have revolutionised the way accountancy firms operate.
Influenced by technology, software capability has significantly improved. Quickbooks was first released in 1998 as a desktop accounting software programme, and since then, the job of an accountant has become much more streamlined with the help of a few things like better financial transaction tracking.
This has meant that over time, accountants have been able to rely more and more on automation through technology, freeing up their working time to add value for clients in other crucial ways including internal auditing services and data interpretation to identify weak aspects of a business.
Sheards celebrate this month, as they have a high number of staff who have been with the business over 10 years, which is definitely something to be shouted about! Most of the staff are local too, born and bred in the Huddersfield area. So, we hope you join us in congratulating them on their long-standing service and here's to the next 35 years for the local friendly firm!