At Accounting North we are YOUR BUSINESS COMPASS and we will guide you in the right direction for your specific business needs. As a group of chartered accountants we have been providing business and accounting services to our clients for 25+ years. You’ll find us in Albany, on the North Shore of Auckland. Come and see us for a free, no obligation meeting. In addition to standard business services, we endeavour to work with our clients to:
Enabling our clients to achieve their goals by providing insight and direction based on accurate, relevant and usable financial information
Nurturing a valued team in a flexible environment where work and family life are balanced
Accounting North Limited can be held up as an example of a family run business, starting out small and growing in size as the years progressed.
In 1989 Kevin Covacich set up Covacich & Co, Chartered Accountants from his home in Forrest Hill, Auckland. Support staff included his wife Maureen and another staff Accountant.
Client relationships developed and as the client base grew it was time to find independent office space. Initially this was found in Glenfield, Auckland in 1993 where Kevin and Maureen Covacich worked alongside three Accounting staff.
In 1999, Covacich & Co had outgrown their office space in Glenfield and moved into their current premised in Albany, Auckland, rebranding as Accounting North Limited.
The client base continued to grow and in July 2004 Kevin’s son-in-law, Stephen Johnson became the second partner of Accounting North Limited. Kevin’s vision of keeping the business in the family had become reality. Accounting North operated as a 2-partner business until Kevin's retirement in July 2018 when Stephen became the sole owner.
Kevin considers being able to run his own practice without compromising his values as being his career highlight. Other highlights include working with some very talented clients and guiding them in the creation of a very successful business.
Currently Accounting North is a team compromising Stephen Johnson as CA and Director, Gill Goodinson and Kathleen Turner as Accountants and Tracey Johnson and Maree Cutfield as Office Administrators.
The philosophy and values of Accounting North seek to nurture and support their staff as well as their clients. One highlight for the staff is the “Accounting North Pamper Day”. The female staff visit a spa for a day of pampering while Stephen holds the fort and answers the phones for the day. A treat at the end of the busy season!
We all know what a compass is and have more than likely used one as a child on various school activities, orienteering, tramping etc.
In our current day to day lives we would probably survive the day without needing to pull out our trusted compass. However, when we go somewhere new, we refer to our road map or turn on our GPS/NavMan to get directions from how to go from A to B. Not using these devices will mean that it will either take us much longer to get to a certain place or that we’ll get hopelessly lost and arrive rather late!
At Accounting North, we are YOUR BUSINESS COMPASS and we will guide you in the right direction for your specific business needs. Without our advice you may well reach the same point eventually, but it will take longer and you’ll travel a long, windy and frustrating path to get there
Stephen Johnson: B.Com, Dip Com, C.A – Director. 25+ years’ Chartered Accountancy experience.
Gill Goodinson: Accountant. 14 years’ commercial experience and 15 years’ Chartered Accountancy experience.
Kathleen Turner: Accountant. 15 years' Accountancy experience.
Tracey Johnson: Office Administrator
Maree Cutfield: Office Administrator
Partner Profile: Stephen Johnson
Qualifications: CA, BCom – Double Major in Accounting and Finance, Post Graduate Diploma in Finance.
Stephen initially started his Accounting career as a graduate in the Tax Division of Arthur Andersen in 1993. After 2 ½ years, he broadened his Accounting experience by moving onto the Business Services Division at Gosling Chapman whilst still maintaining a tax focus. He became a Manager at Gosling Chapman in 1999. Stephen then did a short stint back at Arthur Andersen for 18 months until the opportunity arose to join Accounting North Ltd in April 2002. Stephen became a Partner and joint owner of Accounting North in July 2004. In 2018 he became the sole owner of Accounting North after Kevin Covacich's retirement.
Over the years Stephen’s Accounting experience has led to him to develop broad business experience across many areas. Specifically, Stephen has developed experience in the areas of tax, asset protection and assisting clients to improve their business.
And of course there is life outside Accounting North. Most of this time is spent with his wife Tracey and son James. One of his favourite times in the weekend is quiet time with the Cryptic crossword. He also tries to keep fit through running. For Stephen, an ideal holiday would be time away spent watching Test Cricket or going to the Australian Tennis Open.
Through all of this experience comes many high points (and of course some low points). But career highlights for Stephen include assisting clients with the eventual sale of their businesses, and seeing the fruition of all his clients’ hard work and dreams.
To be effective, we believe that professional relationships need to be based on mutual trust, mutual support, mutual respect and mutual integrity.
As a result we only work with clients who share our belief in the importance of these four factors.
Our Commitment To You
We are confident in offering you services in line with your expectations. With that in mind, our service to you has a number of commitments which include:
• To hold all personal, business, taxation and finance information about you and your business in the strictest of confidence
• Deliver friendly, courteous and outstanding service. You will be respected and not taken for granted.
• To advise you of when you will have the work finalised and presented to you. To discuss the progress of your business and advise you of any recommendations.
• Operate on the principle that a problem isn’t solved, or a piece of work isn’t finished, until you are 100% delighted. We totally believe that your perception of our performance is always the reality. For that, and other reasons, your feedback is critical to our continuing to innovate and improve
• Refer our contacts to you where we believe they could benefit from your products and services
• Our prices will rarely, if ever, be the cheapest on the market. Our services will be of exceptional quality and designed to add significantly to your net financial worth
• To return calls, emails and requests for information from you within 24 hours of receiving it
• We are not just bean counters. We are truly experienced in business improvement matters. Not only have we built a successful business from scratch, but we have also witnessed the numerous successes and sometimes failures of the businesses we serve. We are totally committed to sharing that experience with you. We expect you to communicate with us frequently too.
Your Commitment To Us
We understand that you will do everything in your power to:
• Maintain the high standards of integrity, honesty and openness that we rightly expect from each other
• To notify us of any issues, discrepancies or grievances you may have as soon as they arise so that we have the chance to rectify them immediately
• To provide us any relevant requested information in a timely manner. To present all records provided to us to the best of your ability.
• Listen to any advice we offer. We acknowledge your absolute right to reject it
• To pay our fees within or before our payment terms
• To provide us with the source records and documents needed to enable us to meet IRD and other governing bodies deadlines in an efficient, stress free, timely manner
• Refer contacts to us where you believe they could benefit from our help
