Head for numbers: Accountant’s trek from suburbs to city empire

From a small suburban office in Clayfield 35 years ago to an accounting empire that boasts seven offices across the country, Paul Vincent is surprised by his firm’s success.

Paul Vincent with Jonathan Dooley, who grew their firm from small office in Clayfield to a major outfit employing 250 people.

Paul Vincent has always been a bean counter on a mission.

From a small suburban office in Clayfield in 1989 to an accounting empire that boasts seven offices across the country – including a three-storey HQ in heart of the Brisbane CBD – Mr Vincent admits the success of his eponymous firm has exceeded his own ambitions.

Mr Vincent said his initial ambition was to build a firm with 100 staff, ten partners and occupy one floor of a city building. Fast forward to 2024 and Vincents actually has 250 staff, including 50 partners all working across its seven offices and its Brisbane HQ.

Mr Vincent decided to hang up his own shingle after wrapping up a 10-year career at KPMG, one of Big Four accounting firms. He was particularly interested in pursuing untapped markets the Big Four were not pursuing at the time, including forensic accounting – a field Vincents is now synonymous with. Forensic accountants combine accounting, auditing and investigative skills to ascertain economic damages, possible fraud and other issues for court cases.

“I could quite easily still be in Clayfield with seven staff, but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as exciting,” Mr Vincent said. “I quite like the challenge of doing something different and always being pushed. It makes your heart beat faster.”

He credits much of his success from an unlikely partnership with Jonathan Dooley, who was only 23 years old at the time and had worked under Mr Vincent during the 1980s.

“In the early 1990s, Jon was trying to save some money for an overseas trip, so he was working for me at night preparing economic loss reports,” Mr Vincent said.

Bean counter on a mission Paul Vincent

“He saw the commercial opportunity of what we were doing and with a handshake, we solidified a long-term partnership that I believe has been one of my greatest business decisions.” Together the men formed Vincents Litigation Support which focused solely on forensic accounting. “Jon ran the forensic personal injury practice and, initially I continued to run my tax practice, which sat outside the partnership but after about 18 months the forensic work was double the size of the traditional accounting practice,” he said.

“Jon needed more support so I decided to sell the majority of my accounting practice and moved full-time into the forensic accounting partnership with him.” Once established, Vincents quickly gained a significant market share, completing the majority of personal injury economic loss reports in the state, and went on to trailblaze best practise forensic accounting.

Mr Vincent conceded it would be a challenge to build the same business today.

“Although there are parts of this business that could be replicated, there are also areas of our business that it would be very difficult to create today, as the market has matured over the past 35 years,” he said. “Our forensic and litigation division is an example of an area where we pioneered work for accountants, and as a result, over time we have developed a significant presence in the market. If we had been entering a more mature market with greater competition, it would have been more difficult to get to the size that we have.”

He said many of the challenges the business faced in the 1990’s are still challenges today. “One of our greatest challenges is securing the right talent for our business needs at that point in time,” Mr Vincent said. Workplace flexibility, which was not a concern 35 years ago, meant a successful business was no longer confined to a CBD tower. “The notion that you must be working in the office to be able to be productive is a thing of the past,” he said. “Having an agile workplace and offering flexibility to our people is now the norm. If Covid-19 taught us anything, it is that we can still maintain a healthy, growing business while catering for individual’s needs.” He said right now the accounting sector was facing an increasingly tight labour market with his firm focused on retaining and rewarding people. Mr Vincent said the growth of insolvency work also had provided opportunities for specialist firms.

Paul Vincent with Jonathan Dooley

“In the late 1980s, there were a few big firms who performed a range of work, including audit, tax, insolvency and consulting,” he said. “As these firms have become global giants, there has been a significant shift in who performs insolvency work. Once controlled by large, multi-disciplined firms, insolvency work is now predominantly performed by specialist insolvency firms. We believe that by retaining our insolvency business within the firm, as well as expanding our offerings, we can offer diverse skills and expertise to better service our clients.” He said he knew his firm had reached expertise status when it started to support cases being argued in the High Court. The firm made a strategic decision to move from Clayfield to an office in Brisbane CBD, bringing it closer to the courts and law firms they worked with. “For me, growth has always been about choosing the right team,” he said.

“This approach has not only meant our team can pursue their unique interest areas, just as I did 35 years ago, but it’s also allowed us to expand into a wide range of non-accounting offerings – like economics, data analytics and workforce advisory.”

With this year marking the 35th anniversary for the firm, Mr Vincent, now 67, has no thoughts of retirement. “I don’t think the retirement age makes much sense anymore, as long as I have value to add and can help support the company’s growth, I want to stay involved,” he said.