Our Story – Flair Accounting

The Story of Flair

The story of Flair Accounting begins with its founder, Heather Flack. Straight out of school, Heather, aged 17, joined an accounting practice and began her articles. She very quickly understood the power of numbers in business. They tell a very clear story of how a company is run, if it’s healthy and doing well, or if it’s sickly and in bad shape. However, the story is only crystal clear if you have done the hard work to record the numbers accurately. Heather realised that there was suddenly valuable information in her hands – information that she wanted to share with her clients.

Being exceptionally passionate about South Africa as a country, she knew right there and then that she really wanted to help business owners and empower them with brilliant financial information so that they could truly understand what they were doing wrong, and similarly what they were doing right. What tax benefits they could enjoy, and what pitfalls to avoid. The partners of the practice, however, did not necessarily share her enthusiasm, helping people takes time to deep dive into their financial lives, into the processes in their businesses, into the structures of their staffing, and their compliance. And time is money. For most of your traditional accounting practices, only the wealthy can afford and pay those kinds of fees, for that kind of time spent. The focus for a traditional accounting practice is on targets, billing, time sheeting – client charges, client charges, client charges.

Heather also realised that if she really wanted to understand business, and the day-to-day challenges business owners faced, she had to work inside one and figure out operationally how it all worked. She was presented with an opportunity to join a private sector company in Durban, so she packed up her Ford Meteor and her cat and headed for Durban. After 3 years of invaluable service and learning and receiving so many requests from people she’d met out and about to help them do their books, the Galleon that was “HW Accounting Services” embarked on her maiden voyage on 1 March 2003 – that means in March 2023 the business will be 20 years old.

Being the captain of this ship for the last 20 years has taught Heather so much. She has grown immensely as an individual, a woman, a professional, a team-member and a leader. Heather noted, “Our ability to ride the waves that have come our way, has made me immensely proud of the solid foundations built over the years. You see, I realised a while ago that what has been built here is far greater than the individual that is me. I knew that we had to evolve, grow, and morph into something more. And that meant that HW Accounting Services as a name and 20-year-old Close Corporation, would inevitably be no longer. I had these grand plans that 1 March 2023, on our 20th birthday – we were going to have a big party and invite all our amazing clients and supporters and relaunch our new company name, look and feel. However, the universe had other plans!!”

Accolades, nominations, and awards have never been something that the business has chased or pursued. Yet, in July 2022, Heather was contacted by Standard Bank to congratulate the team for being recognised by Standard Bank Top Women and ranked as one of South Africa’s Top Gender Empowerment Companies in the financial sector for 2022/2023.

Heather commented on the Standard Bank recognition by saying, “What a wonderful way to realise that our deep desire to change the world, one business at a time, has been recognised and applauded by our greater stakeholders. This recognition speaks to who we are…something that I value deeply.

I can’t quite tell you exactly how it happened that our culture became so deeply entrenched in all the amazing women who have worked here. How it became a flag that we have all proudly flown so high. But it did. If I had to try and identify what that thing was – I would have to say that we have always subscribed to one common philosophy, and that is that life, and hence business, is about people. Real people, like you and like me. People who want to feel like we are part of their team, who celebrate their victories and commiserate their losses, and don’t start mails to them with the words “Dear Client.” We have always looked for team members to join us who were people’s people, that were good with numbers, rather than numbers people who were ok with people.

The Standard Bank Certification accelerated a huge junction point for the business. Gears were changed, momentum gained, and the 1 March 2023 launch timeline shifted up – we had to stay true to the dream! So welcome to Flair Accounting. A new era has dawned, shining bright on our Galleon, with her spirit, integrity and values that have steered us right for 20 years!”