Not your average practice

The intricacies of the accounting landscape as described by KG Tan & Co PAC.

K.G. Tan & Co. PAC’s principal describes how the intricacies of legal, accounting, tax and management consultation combine to form a learning culture.

The accountancy profession has long been associated with dry, humourless pencil-pushers ploughing through client tax returns, and has been the subject of myriad clichés and gentle jokes aligning the profession with all things conservative. While some of these clichés are necessarily true – it is a virtue that a good accountant possesses a keen eye for fine detail and enjoys masterful numeracy – many are more dying stereotypes than clichés.

Imagine an accountancy practice with a brightly lit and colourful reception, more akin to a young, dynamic infocomm start-up; one that speaks of its clients as business partners, understands their businesses and makes a point of creating symbiosis within its clientele. K.G. Tan & Co. PAC is one such practice.

K.G. Tan & Co. PAC’s, eponymous founding director (“KG” to his friends) long ago broke the mould of the typical accountant. After a successful career with one of the “Big Four” international accountancy firms, followed by a stint with a major organisation as CFO, KG mustered the courage that few can – he went solo… well almost. KG started his practice with his cousin in a serviced office. Despite the challenges of starting out, they were fortunate to be presented with more opportunities even amidst post-2009 crisis.

From strength to strength is an understatement. K.G. Tan & Co. PAC - which offers an atypically broad range of corporate services, including audit, tax, accounting, transaction and advisory services - has grown to 40 staff since 2006, a tremendous growth rate in a highly competitive industry of some 600 firms, and a rise to prominence that sees the firm ranked 24th on Singapore Business Review’s list, the youngest among the 25 Largest Accounting Firms in Singapore, having started only seven years ago.

In 2011 K.G. Tan & Co. PAC was admitted to the Alliott Group, a legal, accounting and management consultancy alliance that includes 180 members and spans 80 countries. Admission to the Group is rigorous, however, once a member, the benefits in terms of branding, the global network and knowledge sharing is massive. Being part of the Alliott Group also enables K.G. Tan & Co. PAC to provide a platform to assist its clients in globalising their businesses. “One excellent example involved our assistance in providing professional services to global brand Mango when it established a presence in Singapore.”

Another major factor spurring K.G. Tan & Co. PAC’s greater than 30% annual growth since inception is the firm’s development of a groundbreaking, proprietary practice management solution. KG places enormous focus on innovation and it is this in-house technology that has allowed the practice to expand its pipeline in a manner that would have otherwise not been possible.

“We believe that we are the only accounting firm to develop a web-based practice management application that automates the entire workflow of our operation and integrates fully with our accounting, payroll, administrative and CRM functions.” This application is currently being adopted by 28 accounting firms, supported by the IDA’s push for collaboration between accountancy firms and IT vendors.

IT may be the spine of K.G. Tan & Co. PAC but the heart is its people. “Our practice is imbibed with a learning culture rather than a training culture – our people are naturally placed at the centre of the firm, it is quite a flat culture which is unusual in this profession. We could never lose our belief and foundations and if you want to run a successful business, you have to put your people first – and select people that will put their clients first.”

“Our practice is imbibed with a learning culture rather than a training culture. We could never lose our belief.”  

Author: Simon Hyett, Contributing Editor