Who runs this practice
Small by design, started by someone who was the client.
I’m Jonathan Dennis. I founded JLD Accounting after a long stretch in-house, running finance for businesses I cared about. For most of that career my accountant was the same archetype: a stranger at the end of a quarterly invoice, useful when called, never integrated, never quite on the same side of the table.
I think most owner-managed business owners get that version too, and I think it’s the wrong one. The work isn’t hard. The accounts get filed, the VAT gets done, the tax gets paid. What’s missing is the relationship.
Why JLD exists
Before JLD I spent years as the in-house finance person at small UK businesses. The job is the usual mix: month-end close, cash-flow forecasts, VAT, payroll, talking to the bank, sitting next to the founder on the days the numbers don’t look good.
Through all of that, the firm we paid for accountancy advice was almost always reachable and almost never reached. They handled the year end, sent a bill, and waited for the next year end. I don’t blame them: six-minute units and a hundred clients per partner force every relationship into the same shape.
What I wanted, sitting in those roles, was an accountant on the team. Someone who’d notice the things I missed because I was too close to the business, who’d catch the structural mistake before it became a tax bill, who’d reply the same day instead of three weeks later.
So I built one. A small client list, deliberately. Modern infrastructure, deliberately. Direct-message access to me, deliberately. We take on four new clients a month, because four is what we can onboard without anyone existing feeling the difference.
What we believe
A small client list is the product
We don't compete on price or on speed. We compete on the proposition that you know your accountant, your accountant knows your business, and the relationship gets better every year. That only works at a deliberately small size.
Plan tax before it is owed
Year-end planning that happens after the year has ended is a forensic exercise, not a tax-saving one. The right time to optimise is before the period closes. We schedule it in, and we send the prompt.
No surprise bills
No hourly mark-ups for the question you asked in passing. Your fee is quoted for your business and agreed in writing before any work starts, and anything outside the scope is quoted the same way.
Reply the same day
The pain that drove the practice into existence was waiting weeks for a reply to a one-line question. So we don't. Direct-message access through the portal, a same-business-day reply, every time.
Where we work
St Albans, Hertfordshire
We're based here. Local clients can meet in person when there's reason to; most of the work happens through the portal.
Remote across the UK
Most clients are onboarded entirely remotely: document upload, identity check, bank-feed connection, Direct Debit setup. The portal is the practice.
Supervised by HMRC
The practice is directly supervised by HMRC for anti-money-laundering purposes. Compliance is part of how we operate, not an afterthought.
If that resonates, send a short message
A line or two about what you’re working on is the easiest way to start. We’ll tell you whether we’re a fit, honestly. About one in three conversations ends with us recommending someone else.