DANIEL J HILLIER

Financial Services > Accountants and Auditors

With a weakness for good coffee, where else would I set up an accounting firm? Oxford Street, Bulimba (of course!). Home to some of the better coffee shops in Brisbane. But how did I end up here? Lets go back a bit…

I grew up on the Gold Coast and moved to Brisbane in 1992 when I started university. Attending QUT, I completed a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Business (majoring in accounting). Although I had a couple of bookkeeping and insurance related jobs while studying, I wasn’t too sure what I should do after graduating. I know! I’ll become an accountant!

Naturally, this was against the advice of friends and relatives. An accountant? How boring, they said. But although that’s a common view, the reality is a lot different. Accounting isn’t about adding up boxes of receipts or data entering invoices. Today, accounting is more concerned with assisting people make important decisions about their business, their investments, estate planning and tax minimization. What could be more interesting?

I had attended an interview with Craig Offenhauser, from Offenhauser & Co (which later became DKM). Accountants must have been in high demand and they must have been desperate as he offered me a job. It was great place to start. There were some very smart, very professional people there and I learned a lot. The clients were also very interesting, with a mixture of medium to large businesses and media celebrities. Most of my clients were involved in retail, investments and logistics, with a sprinkling of some foreign tax matters.

It was during this period that I completed the CA program to become a Chartered Accountant. This is a two year course that is recognized as one of the toughest postgraduate, accounting courses in the world. It covered advanced topics in taxation, audit, management reporting and financial accounting.

After a few years at Offenhauser & Co, I was curious to see what else was out there, and I started working with Bentleys, who are one of the biggest firms in Brisbane and part of an international network. Not only was it a good place to work, but as a side benefit, they were also sponsors of the QLD Reds. This often meant free tickets! Bentleys have a large number of rural clients and here I mostly prepared accounts for primary producers and smaller mining businesses.

Around 2005, an old work colleague started floating the idea of going into partnership in our own accounting firm. Why not? I’m adventurous enough to give anything a try. And it was here that I really learnt what was involved in running a business. Not only was I doing the accounting work for clients, but there was marketing, staffing issues, procedures, software, leases, office fitouts, computers, billings and finances etc etc to worry about. But with some luck and some hard work, things worked out well. Over a period of five years, we built the business up to a reasonable size with two offices and over 3,000 clients. We also set up a few associated businesses in finance and financial planning.

In addition to some large logistics, wholesaling and mining contracting businesses that we supplied accounting, taxation and business consulting services to, we also became a magnet for new startup businesses. And this became a very enjoyable part of the job. People that are looking to start their own business are usually very optimistic and enthusiastic. And that enthusiasm is contagious. I find new businesses fun to work with as it is an opportunity to use a wide range of skills. Initially, there are discussions on the best way to structure the business. Then discussions about accounting systems and processes, marketing, websites and e-commerce, financing, business planning, service delivery, and risk minimization. Its great to see that a lot of these businesses are still doing well.

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