Accounted4 Limited

In the beginning Jack Shannon came up from Ashburton to purchase Ted Littler's practice in late 1955. At that time Cambridge had approx. 5,000 residents and many small farm holdings of 50-150 acres. Cambridge Dairy Co, Bruntwood Dairy Co and NZ Dairy Co (at Pukekura) were all established manufacturing Dairy Companies. Accounting practices were a recent phenomenon in Cambridge in the fifties. Most businesses' accounting needs were serviced from Hamilton. Those who provided accounting services at that time were: Ted Littler, Carl Duignan, Roy Lorigan, Ken Allan, Brian Heaslip and Tom Hampshire. Carl Duignan had taken over the oldest secretarial practice in Cambridge from Edgar James who did work for Drainage Boards, Federated Farmers, some farming and business returns. Ted Littler had employed Brian Heaslip who then started his own practice. John Ryan arrived on 1 st July 1955 to join Duignan and Butts. Tom Hampshire was a delightful Englishman, Major Thomas Hampshire DFC ex Royal Flying Corp. The legal profession was represented by Lewis and Jecks, Lundon and Pollock, Garrard and Kingsford (later Garrard and Osmond), Jack Clemow and Phil McDiarmid. Four Banks were in business although ANZ and National Bank were new to Cambridge. The Bank of New South Wales (Westpac) and Bank of New Zealand dated back to the very early years of Cambridge. John Ryan remembers Jack as an outgoing person whose shrewdness gave “added value" to clients, particularly in the contracting field. He was very involved in the professional life of Cambridge and formed close relationships with other professionals. Arthur Baker, Norm Todd, and Jim Ross were close Contracting clients. Jim Wallace (JD) also enjoyed Jack's personality as a client. JD was a director of Farming and Fellmongery Industries. This group of friends provided a large part of Jack's work in the early years of the practice. (Thanks to John Ryan for the above recollections). Time moves on As his practice grew Jack Shannon took on a partner, Bruce Fleming, until 1963 when Bruce left and Graham Wrigley joined Jack to form Shannon and Wrigley. Richard Edge and John Boone (who had worked in the practice since leaving school) became partners in 1973 and 1975 respectively. John Landers joined the practice in 1976 and became a partner in 1982. Grant Calvert joined in 1984 and became a partner in 1990, at the time that Graham Wrigley was retiring. Martyn Steffert joined the firm in 2004, promoted to Associate in 2006, and became a Director in 2007. In 2012 Richard Edge stepped down into a consultancy role as he phases into retirement. Forty-seven years after he joined the firm, John Boone also began his path to retirement in 2014 and remains with the firm in a consultancy position. Also in 2014, David Faville, who had been an Associate, became the youngest Director setting the practice with four Directors. In April 2015, John Landers began his path to retirement but will remain with the firm on a consultancy basis. Kim Antonio also became an Associate of the firm on 1 April 2015. Accounted4 now has three Directors; Grant Calvert, Martyn Steffert and David Faville. Setting the location Jack Shannon started in a now demolished building next to the old Tudor Movie Theatre (now entrance mall to Prince Albert Tavern). About 1956 Jack moved to the Triangle Building above the Framery in Victoria Street. In 1969 the practice moved to a new building in Duke Street (next to the Fire Station). By 1985 the practice had again grown to the extent that a new building was required. Cambridge did not offer buildings of a suitable size to rent. A Lockwood building was constructed on the corner of Duke Street and Hally’s Lane which is the practices present location, albiet with substantial renovations. Tools of the job It was shortly after the relocation in 1985 that Hartley Computers became available to accounting practices. (Those were still the days before personal computers.) The computers were installed in one room and clients work was coded and prepared for input into the computers. Subsequent to that, personal computers became available and this was followed by Banklink software all of which enabled Team Members to process Client Accounts to Partner review stage from their own desk. Valuable team members Over the years the Practice has been fortunate to have had the services of wonderful people. This has enabled the practice to grow and develop. Many fun times have been enjoyed and the Partners and Teams have always supported each other. The future The Profession is continuing to change and develop. International Accounting Standards are now becoming accepted. The proportion of female graduates has been steadily increasing. The business sector is relying more on the services provided by Chartered Accountants with the high standard of Ethics required. The tools of the job continue to develop rapidly, including Cloud Computing technology such as XERO. The “global village” via internet is changing the way things are done.

Address: 30 Duke Street (opposite the Fire Station), Cambridge 3434, New Zealand

Phone: +64 7 827 5192
FAX: +64 7 827 3495