Stevens & Willey
Chartered Certified AccountantsAccounting Services
We are a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants with over 60 years of experience working with businesses, sole traders, and individuals.
Taxation Experts
Within our team we have many years of experience covering all the key areas of taxation. We are here to support and guide you through the maelstrom.
Payroll Experts
We offer expert payroll services to make sure your employees are paid on time and the correct amount every payday.
Business Support
We offer many services to support your business, whether that is advice for starting up, financing and business growth, through to business disposal or succession planning.
About Us
Established in 1955, we currently have five partners and over twenty employees working together towards our aim of providing a prompt, reliable, friendly and, above all, a value for money service to our many clients.
For most of the firm’s life it has operated from a single office in Barnstaple, a policy designed to concentrate our resources in one place, thereby providing a pool of expertise and knowledge to meet our clients’ requirements. We do now have a satellite office in South Molton to service clients in that area, which we opened in 2018.
We serve a wide variety of clients from private individuals to limited companies with multi million pound turnovers, many of whom have been dealing with Stevens & Willey for decades.
Whilst we are a solid and long established firm, we actively embrace changes and improvements in information technology and are continually looking for ways to improve the efficiency and quality of the service we offer to our clients.
Our History
Stevens & Willey was established in 1955, making it years in the business. Thank you to all our clients and colleagues (past and present) for helping to make us the firm we are today.
Stevens & Willey was founded by Cyril Stevens and John Willey on 1 September 1955 and whilst Cyril retired a number of years ago, John carried on as a part time consultant to the firm for some 15 years after his formal retirement as a partner in 1989 and only put away his calculator whilst in his 84th year, to coincide with the firm’s 50th anniversary!
The firm started its business life working out of two rooms off Barnstaple High Street, before moving to Litchdon Street in 1961 as the firm expanded, and then relocating again in 1995 to the current premises at Grenville House, 9 Boutport Street, Barnstaple. Just a stones throw from the Green Lanes shopping centre in the heart of the town, the current building offers plenty of space to accommodate the firm’s increasing staff numbers and has ample public car parking space nearby.
With the exception of the founder members, all Partners have first served their apprenticeship as employees, thus providing the firm with continuity and stability. Seven of those partners (David Pitick, Brian Howe, Terry Chaplin, David Stubbs, Philip Kelland, Dave Holmes and Nick Beaumont) have since retired, and those currently at the helm are Helen Mansford, Ian Mansford, Amanda Hicks, Andrew Kennard and Jo Wilson.
Obviously, not all the employees go on to become partners, but many have been part of our working ‘family’ for a very large part of their lives. Mary, Les, Jan and Jackie of our current staff have all been with us for more than 20 years, and previous long serving staff include Clarice Willey and Judith Chapman, who notched up 70 years between them, whilst John Knill completed 42 years before he retired.
We believe that we provide a happy, friendly and professional environment for our staff and also our clients, which has been the cornerstone of our development strategy. We feel privileged to have served our loyal client base over such a long period, which has resulted in our providing ongoing services to not only the original individuals, but also to their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. The strong personal relationship built up with many of our clients, and our sustained investment in Information Technology, has meant that a move away from North Devon does not necessarily bring our services to an end. We are proud to continue to act for a large number of clients who now reside in other parts of the world, including some as far away as Australia.
The firm has a long and rich history, experiencing many changes throughout more than six decades. Throughout that time, however, there has been a consistent aim to provide a sound, friendly and professional accountancy and taxation service to its many clients. Looking forward into the future, that aim remains unchanged.
The Team
Stevens and Willey have a fantastic team of professional and friendly staff who are here to help and guide you.
Partners
Amanda Hicks FCCA
Amanda, although not Devon born and bred, has spent the majority of her life living in Devon, the vast majority of which being in the north of the county. Amanda has been working in finance since leaving school and has a wide experience of both industry and practice accounting. She joined Stevens & Willey and qualified as a Certified Accountant in 2001 and was promoted to partner in October 2007.
Ian Mansford
Ian trained with a local firm of accountants, before going on to work for two of the top ten national accountancy firms, he came to work for the firm in 1998 and became a partner in April 2002.
Helen Mansford BA(Hons) FCCA FCA
Helen is Barnstaple born and bred. After graduating from Exeter University with a BA (Hons) in Accountancy, she trained with a local firm of accountants and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1992. After joining Stevens & Willey in 1993, Helen became a partner in 1998.
Jo Wilson BA
After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BA in Business Administration, Jo has worked in both practice and industry accounting before joining the firm in 2004 and was promoted to partner in 2021.
Andrew Kennard FCCA
Andrew lives just over the border in North Cornwall but has been with Stevens & Willey for a large proportion of his working life, having fully qualified through ACCA as a Certified Accountant in 2008 with the firm. Following completion of his A-Levels Andrew by-passed the University life and started employment with a local accountancy firm. This provided him with the initial training and insight required to progress forwards into the partnership role which he now occupies. Andrew has gained wide-ranging experience in numerous aspects of the profession relating to sole traders, partnerships, charities and limited companies and is familiar with a number of different software packages. He enjoys helping both businesses and individuals overcome short-term difficulties to gain long-term benefits.
Managers
Paul Honeywill
Rory Blackmore
Arron Kearney BA
Mary Webber ATT
Debbie Scoins FCCA
Simon Osment FCA
Accounts Team
Jackie Toms
Clare Pearce
Jemma Sach MAAT
Justin Reincke
Payroll
Joanne Williams
Emma Stevens
Kirsteen Sutton
Administration
Jan Holsman
Les Eastman
Debbie Petherbridge
Heather Moore
Laura Sanders
Technology
Tom Boon
Our Services
We are here to support businesses through preparation of regular management accounts, and offer a range of services with our expertise in the following fields.
Full Accounting Services
We undertake the preparation of accounts for all types of organisations, from small sole traders, partnerships, voluntary groups, and charitable bodies through to large, limited companies.
We are experienced in working from incomplete records or the many fully reconciled computerised bookkeeping systems now available and not just QuickBooks.
Taxation Services
Using our taxation expertise, we can guide you through the increasingly complex world of tax. We offer a “Tax Minimisation” review to make sure you pay your fair share and no more.
We also offer a full support service to deal with HMRC Tax investigations and enquiries, and provide fee protection optional insurance to cover our fees for dealing with this work.
Payroll Services
We offer a fully integrated payroll service where we use the details supplied by you, about your monthly and/or weekly payroll, and we will promptly produce payslips via a password protected online portal and deal with all PAYE reporting and Auto Enrolment Pension reporting requirement. In addition, we can provide bank transfer schedules to enable net wages and salary payments to be made directly from your bank account to your employees.
New to QuickBooks or need a refresher?
Attend our free 90 min expert sessions and get up and running with QuickBooks in no time. During our expert sessions you’ll learn how to connect your bank, create invoices and record payments, add and manage your customers and suppliers, and stay organised by using receipt capture.
Testimonials
Our clients’ opinions are what matter, see what they have to say about our services.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, please get in contact with us.