Our Story

What’s wrong with accountants?

According to Xero 70% of small business owners would not recommend their accountant, and 27% of them are actively looking to for a new one. That’s a big problem and something we’re trying our best to change.

Accounting is not rocket science, especially for small businesses. We believe that passionately at PennyBooks and our fundamental goal is to make things as simple as possible.

We see our service as a user experience right from the start. We’ve worked hard to make PennyBooks easy to switch to, and easy to join. Onboarding is smooth and as painless as possible for our busy clients.

Once you’re set up we explain how we’ll work together, and then we stick to our promises. Ask us a question and you can trust us to get back to you. You can rely on us.

About us

Our Founders

Brendon and James both started out at big 4 accountancy firms where they learned their trade. Six years of wearing suits was long enough and they jumped ship. They knuckled down and got some good experience working in some real companies.

Brendon swapped small town Taranaki (NZ) for London life, and six years later they were working together in the finance team at Universal Music Group.

Although they had managed to ditch the suits, they were both yearning for a project of their own. No corporate hierarchies, and an opportunity to use their skills to partner with small businesses and help them solve their accounting headache.

There is a big gap in the market for reasonably priced, straight talking, no nonsense accounting for small businesses and start ups – a service which so many of you out there need. PennyBooks is addressing that head on, one start-up at a time.

Finally – ignore what you’ve heard, accountants have personality too! They are looking to inject that into the PennyBooks culture where they can.

Brendon Dallas

Laid back but ultra focussed. Brendon’s our chief problem solver and process builder. A true perfectionist, he’ll have a process around it before you know it.

He trained at KPMG. Then Financial Controller of a FinTech start up in Auckland for a few years, before taking a Finance Director role at Universal Music. Brendon’s father built a successful accounting firm back in NZ - so it’s in the blood.

Brendon is a big believer in simple is beautiful. He works hard to remove the pain points for PennyBooks clients where he can. Hopefully you’ll find things are working smoothly – you can thank Brendon.

Brendon
James

James Watson

Focusing on the client relationship and advisory side of things. James will be making sure our clients are happy - he’s borderline obsessed with it.

He trained at PwC in London, moved into the M&A Due Diligence team as a manager, then Finance Director in a different division at Universal Music. His father’s also an accountant, who said accountants aren’t imaginative?

We’re very aware the client journey begins on that first call, and James has plenty of client experience under his belt to help make that journey a good one.

Don't just take our word for it ..

Since we've been working with PennyBooks they have improved and automated our accounting resulting in significant time and cost savings. For an ecommerce business like OPUMO it's imperative that we remove manual processes and fully streamline and integrate our systems, our bank's systems and accounting and reporting software and this is something that the team at PennyBooks did quickly and efficiently. Deadlines are met on time and the team are great to deal with. We simply can't recommend them highly enough.
Harry Beattie- Director
Opumo
To say that Pennybooks offer an invaluable service is an understatement. Their knowledge, professionalism and willingness to explain everything every step of the way gives me utter confidence that they’re the best at what they do.
Kat - Director
Scorpio James
A welcome change from my old accountants. Reliable and friendly, and always available when you need help. Using the last tech to keep costs down I feel the accounts side of things is now no longer a chore and can be done quickly and efficiently. Highly Recommend
George Chesterton - Director
Finn Studio
Pennybooks has given us the personalised financial support necessary to be able to grow our business with confidence
Rosanna Wollenberg – Director
Otiumberg
Like many small businesses, myself and my business partner are spinning a lot of plates and so we needed some guidance on implementing new systems to help us with our cash flow. Brendan really helped us see the wood from the trees. He looked into the various accounting products on the market to suit our business, has set them up and is now very patiently training us on how to use them. We now feel so much more confident and comfortable with the financials of our company and get can on and grow the business knowing that Brendan has our back
Patti Patrick - Director
Obbard