About Beany

I was working in a local accountant’s office in 2013, looking at the file rooms filled with paper, the shiny Boardroom table, receptionists and flowers - and the clients being charged $2,500 for a set of accounts they did not understand.  Xero was on the scene and making our lives a lot easier to process accounts - but we were still charging the same amount as for the past 20 years.  In fact, we were still doing things essentially the same way as when I qualified in 1989. Accountants were also using scare tactics to keep their clients welded to the practice (“We’re the only ones who can understand your complex business, we know someone at the IRD and will keep you safe, if you leave us, well, we’re not sure what will happen.”​

It dawned on me that technology was leaping past the accounting profession and we could use it to cut costs for business owners.  Having been a small business owner myself, I knew about the pressures and anxiety of being one.  I had experienced the sweaty fear of not being able to pay bills and the euphoria of doing well.  I don’t just understand small business, I can feel it.​

I was also fascinated by Sir Paul Callaghan and his message of improved prosperity for NZ - I wanted to be a part of that!  By cutting fees and helping business owners make better decisions, I wanted to make my contribution to the NZ economy.​

How low could we make the fee whilst retaining a super high-quality service with all the questions answered, a great team of professionals and a desire to inform and educate about finances?  There was only one way to go - develop technology to do a lot of the heavy lifting in producing financial information - after all, it’s all digital information, literally. ​

My path intersected with John Curtis, fresh out of 12 years with Weta Digital, looking for a project. Together we brainstormed, coded, talked, and argued - and 6 months later we had our first iteration of Beany.  We invited 20 businesses to come into workshops to try and ‘break’ the software - 17 of them became Beany clients and we were off!​

The first accountant we took on was Jenny Marklew, an experienced accountant with a gift for helping people understand what's possible. She is a mother of five from Papamoa, and started to build the accounting team under her. 10 years on and Jenny is still a core part of our team.​

A true Beany accountant is empathetic and wants to make a difference. Our accountants go above and beyond to provide service. We talk about kindness internally a lot and how hard things can be for you running your business and how we can use our skills to help your business grow. One of the first things we did was set up a helpline that's manned by accountants and financial whizzes, and it's completely free so that you, our client, can learn and get help and support whenever you want.​