Carolyn
Young

WHO I HELP

Hotel clients – from standalone properties to large hotel groups and from management companies to owners and holding companies.

HOW I HELP

First point of contact for comprehensive outsourced hotel accounting service. Client P&L production. Balance sheet reconciliation. VAT preparation. Accounts payable and receivable. Ad hoc troubleshooting and real-time reporting.

SECTORS/SUPPORT

Payroll and VAT teams.

“The satisfaction in knowing you have made a client’s life easier is very pleasant.”

Carolyn Young is an Assistant Financial Controller in our Hotels team. Based in our Glasgow office, Carolyn is an experienced, fully-qualified management accountant. She specialises in all aspects of hotel accounts preparation and interrogation. Her role involves being the first port of call for her clients, producing client P&L, VAT preparation, and more. She also maintains excellent lines of communication with her clients, and is always there to answer any queries they may have.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MUTUAL TRUST

“For me, the ideal client relationship is one that is first and foremost built on mutual trust. The client needs to be able to trust us with their information and that we will report this back to them in a timely manner. We, in turn, need to trust that the client can give us what we require in order to do our jobs. Trust is something that in the first instance takes a certain degree of faith but once established is the ideal tool for a long and sustainable professional relationship.”

ALWAYS AT THE OTHER END OF THE PHONE

“Clients can expect a high degree of technical and interpersonal expertise. They can expect me to always be at the other end of the phone or respond to an email to answer any queries they have, however big or small – there are never any stupid questions! If I cannot answer their query right away, they can expect me to seek out the answer from one of our many other specialists in the firm.”

THE SATISFACTION OF HELPING CLIENTS

“The most satisfying aspect of working with clients is when we can present to them our own bespoke accounting schedules and processes, providing them with ways of reporting and recording that they have never considered before, and they embrace them and in turn their accounts production becomes smoother and more efficient. The satisfaction in knowing you have made a client’s life easier is very pleasant. When it comes to working with my colleagues, it’s rather the same, when we all work together and bouncing ideas off each other to produce the best possible ways of working and then implementing it, that is very satisfying indeed.”

STRIKING THE RIGHT BALANCE

“I think we strike the balance between the virtual and more ‘hands-on’ routes to working with clients just right in our department. Not a day goes by when we don’t have direct involvement with our clients; reporting directly to them or answering direct questions. Hotels, by their nature, are very hands-on places so this hands-on approach is mutually beneficial. By the same token, our virtual offerings of real-time information that our clients can access from anywhere without having to come directly to us also helps, as it allows them more time to focus on their own customers. I think the balance of providing up-to-date virtual information supplemented by ad hoc, hands-on work is the perfect approach.”

A ROBUST DEPARTMENT

“The greatest challenge is not really a challenge as such, it is more of a reality of the sector we work in, which is that in hotels, no two days are the same – there will always be something new and different you haven’t come across before. However, the nature of the work we do means the department is robust enough to deal with pretty much anything that comes our way – no matter how obscure it may seem!”

CONTINUAL GROWTH

“What excites me most about the future for myself and for AAB is the continued growth. When I joined the department there were only six of us working from a small bank of desks. Now, there are nearly 60 of us taking over a whole floor! I have seen every change and every leap in the department over the past eight years and it’s exciting to see this growth bring about new opportunities and new streamlined ways of working that allow us to provide a consistently better product for our clients.”

NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR PEOPLE

“One of our AAB Group values is that nothing is more important than our people. I believe this is key to the firm and the recent developments have shown this. If you show people they are trusted and invested in, given the right kit to do their work and trusted to execute the work you give them then they will go above and beyond for you. A motivated and happy workforce is essential in both the long and short term and both attracts and retains other motivated and happy people.”

HIGHLY ORGANISED & PERSONABLE

“Through my many years of direct client-facing and client-accountable roles, I am proactive and focused on delivering the highest standard of output to my clients. With a background in arts project management, I am highly organised and can distil complex accounting processes down into easily understood concepts for presentation to all manner of stakeholders. I believe I am personable and able to deliver my work with a sense of humour.

A SAFE PAIR OF HANDS

“The biggest compliment I can receive is when I am told that my ways of working and the content I produce has made my clients’ lives easier and less fraught; this lets me know I have done a good job. It’s always nice to know that someone thinks of you as a safe pair of hands!”

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

“One aspect of the perception of accountants that I would change if I could is that accountants are purely concerned with the bottom line; that we are always chasing pennies and missing the more personal aspect of the role we undertake. This is just not true, I always try and approach each of my clients in a subjective manner and look beyond the numbers and try and gain an understanding of what they are trying to achieve as a business. Another one is that accountants don’t have a sense of humour and are aloof. I try to make myself as approachable as possible so that my colleagues know that they can ask me anything.”