1. What is your role at Access2Funding?
Business Development Executive for the North East.
2. What does Access2Funding do?
As the UK’s fastest growing tax relief specialist, Access2Funding is committed to helping businesses identify research and development (R&D) within their projects. From engineering and manufacturing firms to printing and automotive, innovation can take place in any sector, and if a business is seeking an advancement within their industry or changing the way they do things they may well be eligible for R&D tax relief. R&D tax credits were introduced in 2000 by HMRC to incentivise innovation, and result in a reduction in corporation tax or a cash payment for companies.
3. What gets you out of bed in a morning?
Besides a strong coffee, what gets me out of bed in the morning is the thought of helping businesses in the North East to realise the innovation they may well be undertaking in their everyday projects. It is so rewarding to hear positive feedback from clients who didn’t even know they were eligible for R&D tax credits and have now been able to reinvest into their business using the money they receive from HMRC. Even more so during the difficult times we have all experienced due to Covid-19.
4. What makes Access2Funding different?
Having successfully claimed back £32m for businesses in 2020, Access2Funding’s highly qualified team possess an expert eye when it comes to uncovering R&D within a business and conducting reports for HMRC. What’s more, our 100% success rate is testament to this – enabling clients to secure funds they are entitled to that will help their business prosper.
With a professional team of chartered tax advisers, knowledgeable sector specialists and R&D experts, businesses can rest assured that their claims are maximised, thorough and risk-free.
5. What are the businesses greatest strengths?
Innovation is key to our business and workplace culture. As R&D tax specialists, we encourage and promote innovation within all industries that our clients or prospects work in. In addition, we work closely with a number of partners and ‘introducers’ who bring some
fantastic opportunities our way in the form of innovative businesses that may not currently be taking advantage of the HMRC’s research and development (R&D) tax credits scheme. These fresh opportunities can enable us as a company to delve into exciting new sectors, work alongside clients to assist them with identifying R&D within their business, and ultimately, grow and diversify our business.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, not only did we submit over 650 claims, returning more than £22m back to UK businesses, we adapted an agile and hybrid approach to the way we operated quadrupling our internal workforce, building out the core team to now include national Tax Specialists, Chartered Accountants, sector & industry level experts and an in-house marketing team. This allows for a stricter and more robust way of working to ensure quality checks and claim submissions are maximised to the highest potential.
Not only do we have great client relationships, but we also take pride in our employees and invest a great deal into staff development and well-being through our innovation-friendly culture and we believe that this is a testament to the level of service that we are able to offer our clients.
6. What are your primary markets / sectors?
Headquartered in the North West, but with offices all over the UK, every region has sectors that are more prevalent, however, the sectors we work in, but are not limited to, include: construction, manufacturing and engineering, food production, architectural design, print and signage, software, hospitality, commercial plumbing and joinery, electrical engineering and breweries.
7. Do you have growth plans for the future?
Now eight years in business, the company has gone through some significant infrastructural changes in more recent years and continues to grow. Access2Funding has grown from a team of 16 to 86 in the last year, with a recruitment plan to reach 120 employees by April 2022. We are now trading nationwide and have expanded the team into Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Recruitment has included a number of experts to strengthen the workforce, including regional tax specialists and an in-house marketing team. We turned over £1.9 million in 2020 with a 163% increase into 2021 and a projected increase of 794% in 2022.