August 2018 marked our latest financial year end, and if you’ve worked with us over the last couple of years you won’t be surprised to know that our accounts and returns were finalised and submitted less than a month after year end (giving plenty of time to plan for the inevitable tax bill!).
But we firmly believe that business must stand for more than just profits and tax bills. That’s why we joined the B Corporation movement back in August 2017 as a start-up company – the values of the movement reflected our beliefs and the way we wanted KFA to operate.
When it comes to running our business we consider people, our community and our environment equally as important as the financials.
Kung Fu Accounting exists to enable, enhance and enrich the lives of everyone we work with. To achieve that we must make particular choices about how we use our key resources, after we’ve met all our commitments to our clients of course!
Everyone has the power to make a positive difference, however small, through their actions and choices. Business is no different.
We’re using our business as a force for good, and here are the key social and environmental impact highlights from the 2017/18 year, along with our targets for next year.
2017/18 Social impact
Responsible banking;
We bank with Triodos, who are also part of the B Corporation movement; we have our current account and a tax savings account with them. It would be quite difficult to run our business without a bank account, and banking with Triodos reflects our values far better than the alternatives.
Volunteering;
We gave 115 hours to various projects last year, ranging from litter picks to providing technical accounting advice for free to start-ups and socially-minded businesses.
Next year the target is to give at least 100 hours per member of the team (full time equivalent) to projects which benefit our community.
Donations;
As a business we’re committed to giving at least 1% of turnover to charity each year. Our intention is that these donations will have a positive social or environmental impact, enabling the recipients to continue to make positive differences in their chosen areas.
That target was exceeded for 2017/18, just; 1.03% of turnover was donated to The Family Haven.
You may also remember that Scott had his hair cut off in the summer and donated it to the Little Princess Trust.
Then there was The Great Sock Amnesty this time last year, during which we collected 77 items of clothing (mostly pairs of thick socks) for Gloucester City Mission.
2018/19 target;
We’re working towards a target of donating at least 2.5% of turnover to support organisations with positive social and environmental aims.
As for other donations, Scott can’t grow his hair quickly enough to give 12 inches of ponytail again this year, but we’re organising another collection for the homeless charity very soon – this time for hats and scarves. Look out for the posts on social media for more information.
2017/18 Environmental impact
Printing;
Accountants and paperwork go hand-in-hand. Usually. But not here!
Last year we printed on 7 (that’s right, seven) pieces of paper. And only because HMRC and Companies House required us to send something in hard copy.
Our target for 2018/19 is to print nothing at all; fingers crossed the authorities will allow that to happen.
Energy usage;
Our IT kit is all Energy Star compliant, and we turn everything off at the end of the day (no standby modes here!). Low energy lighting and thermostatically controlled heating also reduce our energy usage, so we’re very energy-efficient. And during the winter we’ll put on a jumper before turning the heating on anyway!
For the first half of the 2017/18 year the company operated from home-office and co-working spaces. These were powered by 100% renewable energy.
But as time passed there became a need for a dedicated office space, so Kung Fu Accounting moved into Inchbrook Mill in February. We have no direct control over the energy supply here but our landlord shares our attitude to renewables.
However, as this was a new supply into our office development British Gas completed the installation and tied the landlord into a fixed term contract. As soon as that expires we’ll be asking to switch suppliers.
Our target is to get 100% of our energy from renewables, and we’ll be working with the landlord to achieve that as soon as possible.
Spending on stationery;
£10. We needed a few very large envelopes to return some records to a couple of clients, and we couldn’t find anything big enough in our stocks. But that’s all we spent on stationery last year.
Next year we hope to spend nothing.
Conclusion
It’s been a great year, and the figures reported above show the impact our company has made in the wider community and for the environment. But there is plenty more to do and that’s why we’ve set challenging targets for 2018/19 and beyond – starting with finalising our full certification with the B Corporation movement.
But we also know that without our clients we wouldn’t be able to do any of these things.
Every day we’re grateful for those we work with and the work we do, partly because we’ve enjoyed getting to know all these amazing businesses, but also because it means we’ve been able to do all the extra things outlined in our impact summary.
This, in turn, has enabled, enhanced and enriched us.
So thank you to all our fantastic clients for working with us – without you none of this would have been possible!
