About us
About Lodge Accountants, a Bristol practice
A small accountancy practice in Bristol, looking after more than 200 businesses and the people who run them. Here is who we are, what we do, and what we leave to other people.
The practice
Who we are
Lodge Accountants is run by Paul Gatehouse, formerly of Deloitte. We are based in Yate, on the north-east side of Bristol, and have been advising local businesses for 15 years.
We are deliberately small. That means you deal with a small team who know your business rather than being passed down a chain, and it means we know your business rather than your file reference. It also means we take on a limited number of new clients each year, which we would rather do than grow into somewhere you cannot get hold of anyone.
- 200+businesses and individuals
- 2ways to meet: in Yate, or at your business
- 15years advising Bristol businesses
- 1working day to reply, every time
The people
Who you will be dealing with
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Paul Gatehouse
Partner in charge
- In the profession since 1978
Paul has worked in the profession since September 1978. He began his career with a national firm in Bristol and stayed with it through a series of mergers and takeovers, working for Binder Hamlyn, Touche Ross and Deloitte. He left Deloitte as a senior manager in the Business Service Group, and set up Lodge Accountants in November 2011.
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Ann Woodcock
Secretarial, pensions and payroll, including CIS
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Jo Hulin
Accounts and VAT
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Jo Ball
Anti-money laundering (AML) supervisor and accounts
Our promises
How we work
Three things shape how we deal with clients, and they are the same three things on every page of this site because we would rather be judged on them.
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Fixed fees
The fee is agreed in writing before the work starts and it does not change afterwards. If something comes up that we did not anticipate, we tell you what it will cost before we do it.
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A named contact
You have one named contact who knows your business. Not a team inbox.
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A quick reply
We reply within one working day, and we do not charge for the phone call where you ask whether something is a good idea.
Who we work for
The clients
Our clients are mostly small businesses across Bristol and the surrounding towns: trades, shops, consultants, landlords and a good number of contractors working under CIS. Turnover ranges from a few thousand to a couple of million. Very few of them find accounts interesting, which is rather the point of employing us.
The variety is the part we like. One client might sell lessons, stock and services out of the same premises, with three different trading questions running at once. Another has expenses that need thinking about rather than looking up. After 15 years there is not much we have not seen, and when something genuinely is new we will tell you that too rather than bluffing.
- Trades
- Shops
- Consultants
- Landlords
- Contractors
- Hairdressers
- Golf professionals
- Professional investigators
Straight talking
What we do not do
We are not a large firm and we do not pretend to be one. We do not carry out statutory audits, we do not give regulated investment or pension advice, and we do not take on complex international structures. If you need any of those, we will say so early and point you towards someone in Bristol who does that work properly.
Saying no to the occasional piece of work is part of how we keep the promises above. A practice this size cannot be good at everything, and the ones that claim to be usually are not.
We will point you elsewhere for
- Statutory audits
- Regulated investment or pension advice
- Complex international structures
Find us
Where we are
Our office is at Unit 6, Armstrong Business Park, Yate Road, Yate, Bristol, BS37 5AA. If you would rather meet in person, we can arrange to meet you in Yate, or Paul will come to you at your business. We see clients across Bristol and out into North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, and a good deal of the work happens by email and video call, so distance matters less than it used to.
Professional details
Lodge (Downend) Associates Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 07840691. Registered office Unit 6, Armstrong Business Park, Yate Road, Yate, Bristol BS37 5AA. We hold professional indemnity insurance.
Free first meeting
Come and meet us
The first meeting is free and there is no obligation at the end of it. We reply within one working day.
