Liquid celebrates 5 years in the cloud!

Liquid Accounts this week celebrated it’s 5^th birthday after having provided market-leading online accounting software since 2005.

Since being formed by 3 of the current directors, Matt Holmes, Lisa Kendrick and Jon Wright, Liquid has experienced expansion, gained investment and won a variety of industry-recognised awards. Having started out with 3 members of staff, Liquid now employs 16 people with 3 Non-Executive Directors, to support the business in its rapid growth and development.

After originally focussing the award-winning online accounting software at small local businesses, Liquid now has a much wider client base with international clients, such as StarSupply Renewables in Switzerland, as well as numerous businesses of ranging sizes within the UK.

Liquid’s first award was the Yorkshire Forward-sponsored Best Application of Internet Technology award at the Yorkshire Digital Awards 2008. Liquid beat competition from major local businesses such as Yorkshire Building Society to win and start a steady flow of awards throughout 2008 and 2009.

Liquid’s major award win came later in 2008, when we won the industry-recognised Software Satisfaction Award for the best web-based accounting software, beating competition from big-names such as Sage, Access and Pegasus. Liquid then came runner-up in the Best Small Business Accounting Software category at the SSA’s in 2009.

Also in 2009, Liquid’s MD, Matt Holmes, became Chair of the Special Interests Group for Cloud Computing for the Business Application Software Developers Association (BASDA). Since the appointment, Matt has been booked to speak at high-profile industry events across Europe using his expert knowledge of Cloud Computing and Cloud Accounting to explain the benefits for business. Having spoken at the CompTIA ‘EU IT Services and Support Executive Forum’ in France, Matt has also presented alongside representatives from firms such as Microsoft at technology events throughout the UK.

In February 2010, Liquid raised equity investment worth £770,000 to help with marketing and expansion over the coming years. Liquid raised the funding by selling an 18% stake to a syndicate of prominent local business angels, with a further 12% being match-funded by the Government’s flagship fund for women-led businesses, The Aspire Fund.

Richard Doyle, Technology Entrepreneur, Angel Investor and now Chair of Liquid, said:

‘I was introduced to the team at Liquid Accounts through my work with Connect Yorkshire and was immediately impressed. Since conception in 2005, they have developed a superb, extensive, yet easy to use ‘on-line’ accounting solution with 3438 programmes and over 1 million lines of code. Pre-investment they have already managed to attract hundreds of customers, and over 150 accountancy and bookkeeping practices, and win several high-profile awards’.

‘The use of software over the internet using a web browser (Software as a Service or SaaS as the industry prefers to call it) is undoubtedly the way forward as it offers users many benefits over the conventional ‘on-premise’ alternative with the large purchase and installation costs and the very tangible and intangible costs of support, backups and upgrades’.

‘With the Liquid Accounts solution all a user needs is a web browser and from as little as £20 per month users have a comprehensive accounting system that truly competes with the big brands. It actually is technology utopia in that users can access it anytime, anywhere, 24 x 7. Users also never again need to worry about an upgrade or backup as this is all done automatically on the resilient host servers.’

In March this year, following on from the substantial investment, Liquid underwent a complete company-wide re-brand with a new brand identity and website to strengthen the company’s position as market-leader. By working alongside Leeds-based Fantastic Media, Liquid created a fresh and updated company image, which maintained the characteristics of the old branding.

Speaking about Liquid’s first five years, Liquid MD, Matt Holmes, said:

“It has been a roller-coaster journey, however we are definitely in the right place at the right time to be leading the way in Cloud Computing. Microsoft has just announced that it’s putting the majority of it’s development into the cloud and big names like Coca Cola are moving their internal systems online.”

“We are the only UK online accounting software provider to have gained major equity investment so far and we offer many benefits, advantages and cost-savings for our clients:  we have the most functionality and flexibility, which makes us extremely cost-effective, the most secure login procedure and as far as we know, we’re the only company to be entirely based, developed, stored and supported in the UK.”

“And on top of all that we include a free Client Manager module for all accountants and bookkeepers, allowing them to work with you on your bookkeeping and tax, and help you improve your financial controls and performance.”

After becoming an official sponsor of Techmesh in April, Liquid is currently looking for new partners as part of our Accredited Partner Programme. For further information on how to become a partner of Liquid Accounts, contact our Director of Strategic Partnerships, Richard Holmes, by emailing richard.holmes@liquidaccounts.net or visit the Partners page on our website.