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Why Turbo Power Systems chose Haines Watts

There's been a seismic shift in the conversations surrounding audit over the past few years. Businesses now demand greater commercial insights, more in-depth understanding, and better analysis of the risks and opportunities in their financial systems and operations.

When Charles Rendell, Chief Financial Officer at Turbo Power Systems approached Haines Watts, there was a definitive need for a trusted audit partner to deliver on all of the above.

Turbo Power Systems (TPS) is a leading CleanTech company that manufacturers ultra-efficient power conversion systems for its global customers. Employing over 165 staff, the company designs and manufactures everything in-house at their 55,000sq ft facility in Gateshead, shipping products to customers all over the world.

Having grown revenue by 33% last year, the company is looking to drive further growth and innovation, whilst pushing into new markets.

When Turbo Power Systems came to review its auditor, there was a need for a firm that would take the time to understand its needs and ambitions.

“We were looking for someone who would understand what we do. We wanted a company that was attuned to what our needs were in terms of timing, in terms of length of audit, and in terms of the quality of the staff we were going to have doing the audit.”

Charles Rendell

Chief Financial Officer

Turbo Power Systems

Charles said, “I think one of the things that we always worry about is that auditors turn up, sit in a room, and don’t have any interaction with us, which is what sort of thing we found in the past.”

“We were looking for someone who would understand what we do,” Charles said. “We wanted a company that was attuned to what our needs were in terms of timing, in terms of length of audit, and in terms of the quality of the staff we were going to have doing the audit.”

Charles isn’t alone. The need for better commercial value and better insights is something that is being recognised across the business landscape.

“Businesses generally look at audit as a necessary evil,” he explains. “If we didn’t have to do one, would we? It would all depend on what our circumstances are. So, when we are talking to our auditors, we are always trying to get insight into what our problems are going to be for the next year, how we should be treating things further forward.”

Charles added, “That was one of the good things about our relationship with yourselves, we felt free to ask you questions. We felt free to open ourselves up and talk about some of the issues that we thought we would be facing in the next year so that we could get that sorted out in advance.”

The reality is businesses require quality interaction with their auditors if they are to really benefit from the process. That includes significant involvement at partner level. With bigger audit firms, this is often a limiting factor.

“They have a standard audit, and that’s what they do,” Charles explains. “They have not got people who can make decisions, they have got many review processes and they just take a long time.”

When working with Haines Watts, this couldn’t have been more different. “You actually listened to what we thought our risks were,” Charles said.

“The whole way the transfer of information for us to yourselves worked well. The systems that you’ve got in place were easy to use and the staff we dealt with were friendly and knew what they were talking about,” he added.

“It went a lot quicker and a lot smoother than I even imagined it could,” Charles said. “I feel as though any sort of problem that we have, we could phone somebody at Haines Watts and get an easy-to-understand, professional answer.”