Financial & admin support

“Chrissie came highly recommended and lived up to expectations! She created a spreadsheet for me where I can easily keep track of my incomings and outgoings. Most importantly she took the hard work out of filling in my tax return and provided me with concise guidance about the information I needed to provide. I’ve been more pleased than I could ever have expected.”
SW, counsellor, East London

“Chrissie Elgar has quickly become an invaluable part of our team. She provides a professional, reliable and well-organised bookkeeping service, all in a timely and refreshingly amicable manner. Working with Chrissie is like getting a much needed breath of fresh air, as she quickly ‘hit the ground running’ and did an excellent job of improving our systems and continues to get the job done to a very high standard. Without reservation, I highly recommend her services! She is an absolute pleasure to work with.”
NW, FPC, London

“Chrissie is not just an accountant. She is an educator. She has left me equipped to prepare for my next tax return with confidence. I recommend her services unreservedly.”
Charlotte Mann, dyslexia consultant, London

“It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Chrissie. She has taken the pain and the stress out of doing my accounts and forecasting, and throughout, has done so with grace, humour and patience. if you are needing support with the financial side of your business or just generally, someone to take away the worry and stress of your admin – Chrissie is the woman for you! It’s such a relief to be able to hand it all over to her, and to then use my time to focus on the work that I am trained to do instead. Don’t struggle on your own anymore – contact Chrissie!”
Emma Light, psychotherapist, London

“Chrissie came highly recommended to me and I’m delighted I contacted her! I am a freelance photographer and this is the first time I have been self employed. As exciting as that prospect was, setting up accounts, paying my own national insurance contributions and submitting an end of year tax return was completely alien to me, and something I was absolutely dreading having to do. However, after meeting with Chrissie for the first time, I found my stress and anxiety starting to evaporate. Chrissie was not only friendly and patient, but also very knowledgeable, and she gently guided me through the process of meeting the necessary requirements by HMRC – explaining things in a language that made sense. I immediately knew that I was going to be in safe hands! The end result is that she has produced a great set of accounts which are accurate and simple to understand and she has also completed my end of year tax return (early), which has allowed me to get on and focus on developing the photography side of my work. I have found Chrissie to not only be an incredibly efficient and professional accountant, but also a warm and approachable person who I would have no hesitation in recommending to others. ”
Nefise Hussein, photographer, London

“For me, doing my accounts is like going to the dentist – I’d rather be almost anywhere else. Fortunately, Chrissie takes the pain out of the process. She’s delightful to deal with, she works fast and accurately, and she gives me complete confidence that the numbers are taken care of while I get on with running my business. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her services to other busy freelancers.”
Lucy Greeves, writer & copywriter, London

“Being self-employed, the thought of having to sort out my business expenses for the last tax year filled me with dread…. I really didn’t want to face it again! I was so pleased to hand over a pile of receipts and invoices to Chrissie and a few days later received a beautifully presented spreadsheet with an analysis of my expenditure.  Not only am I delighted with the results, but also relieved that I don’t have to do them myself.”
Dr. Lara Zibarras, Arbonne consultant, London

“Chrissie offers precisely what I need to make the accounting side of being self-employed bearable – and, in the future, enjoyable!   She has been extraordinarily patient, responsive and flexible – willing to set up a system that makes sense to me as well as to accountancy and tax professionals.   I’ve really appreciated her professionalism – and her humour.   I am happy to recommend her without reservation.“
L, psychotherapist, North London

“With Chrissie’s skilful and patient input, for the first time in 8 years I submitted my tax return early!  Chrissie worked magic on my accounts, tailor made me a spreadsheet to suit my business needs and gave just the right amount of encouragement and gentle reminders to push me into action. I now actually enjoy entering my figures onto my spreadsheet at the end of a working week, never thought I would say that….thanks so much Chrissie for revamping my accounts and taking the sting out of tax returns.”
Niki D, psychotherapist, London

“We run an events company based in central London and have called on Chrissie when we’ve had questions regarding the administrative side of running the business, e.g. how to register staff on HMRC’s RTI system. She is extremely professional, competent and patient in dealing with all of our requests and I would highly recommend her.”
Carl Silverstone, director, events company

 

Project management

“Chrissie spent several weeks helping us on the implementation of group reporting. Within a few days we were able to confirm the dates of her visit and scope of the work. Once at the office in Saumur, she adapted swiftly to our company activity, management data and accounting system, and pinpointed our needs within a short time. Probably her biggest quality was her flexibility (as a freelancer), not to mention her financial knowledge, and these helped us migrate to the new system with success. The project included team training so we all learned equally and grew new capabilities throughout the process. We will definitely work together again if the occasion arises in the future!”
Juliette Monmousseau, deputy managing director, Bouvet-Ladubay, Saumur, France

Office reorganisation / home decluttering

“I work from home in Italy and was not at all sure how much Chrissie would be able to help me, since my paperwork mess was years in the making, plus a lot of my correspondence is in Italian and I have a number of different roles, all of which generate slightly different types of paperwork headaches.  How wrong was I?!!

To begin with Chrissie has the type of personality perfectly suited to what she does.  Chrissie quietly, confidently, tactfully and with good humour just got on with it all.  At the start, Chrissie established what it was that I wanted her to achieve while she was here.  She listened attentively as I explained a little of what I do, asked a few questions, made a couple of notes and then dispassionately asked me to give her everything on my desk.  Gulp!  Chrissie sensed my hesitation and assuaged my fears as I reluctantly handed it all over. Within minutes I literally felt like a load had been lifted from my shoulders.  Chrissie remembered everything and, over the next two days, quietly and efficiently worked her way through all my paperwork, separating it into subjects, keeping what is necessary and throwing out loads of old and no longer relevant paperwork, as well as preparing accounts for me and making space in my filing cabinets and giving me great suggestions for how to manage my paperwork in the future.   Chrissie is a living, breathing miracle worker!  I don’t know if it is because Chrissie speaks French that the Italian wasn’t a stumbling block, or if accounting and office paperwork is the same the whole world over, or if Chrissie works in some other dimension where everything is understood, but she left me feeling, for the first time in years, that I was on top of things and could carry on.

Chrissie’s service is practical therapy. She gives you peace of mind as well as an organised office.  I cannot recommend her service highly enough.  The best money I spent in years….”
Claire Castell, Montecarlo, Italy

“Chrissie is a marvel, a saint, a real live Mary Poppins.  Somewhere in the day I started humming and singing – really I did – I was so happy to see the horrible, horrible piles and stodges disappearing as if by magic.  Well, not magic really – Chrissie working steadily and cheerfully and positively. Anyone would think she enjoyed doing this! She didn’t push me and she didn’t let me get distracted or feel fainthearted. She kept encouraging me in a totally friendly non-patronising way, which made me view each challenge as an opportunity to get free. She had brilliant ideas and great questions to help me unstick where I usually get stuck and kept all the tasks in hand so I didn’t even get stuck in one room, until everything has a place and everything is in it!

I have a few paltry tasks left, which I can do on my own and feel able to, and inspired to do them soon.  And if I can’t I’m going to call her again. I’m a new woman!”
Sue Rickards, London