In this episode of Advisory Conversations, Tim Seymour and Deb Halliday are joined by Dublin-based bookkeeper and Xero specialist Lynn Graham to talk about her own journey from hospitality into bookkeeping — and how her practice has evolved over the last decade.

Lynn’s story will be familiar to many bookkeepers and accountants.

You start by doing the work. You build your technical knowledge. You take on clients. You get busier.

But eventually you realise that technology and automation can do much of the heavy lifting — and that creates an opportunity to do something far more valuable with your time.

Talk to your clients.

Lynn shares how embracing cloud accounting and Xero helped her streamline the compliance work and create more space for the conversations that really matter: helping clients understand their numbers, what they mean and what they could do next.

And that transition isn’t simply about adding “advisory” to an already busy workload.

If everything still relies on you, you’ve just created another bottleneck.

Tim, Deb and Lynn talk about building better systems, using technology intelligently and developing the skills and confidence needed to move beyond simply producing the numbers.

They also discuss something that can be overlooked when you’re building a practice — you don’t have to do it alone.

Mentorship, training, community and having other people around you to share experiences, ideas and challenges can make an enormous difference.

Because moving into advisory isn’t about suddenly having all the answers.

It’s about learning to have better conversations, explaining financial information in a way clients actually understand and using the numbers to help them make better decisions.

In this episode:

• Lynn’s journey from hospitality into bookkeeping
• How her practice has evolved over the last decade
• Moving from compliance work towards advisory conversations
• Using Xero, cloud accounting and automation to create capacity
• Why becoming more efficient shouldn’t simply mean taking on more work
• Helping clients understand their numbers without unnecessary jargon
• Avoiding the owner becoming the bottleneck
• The value of mentorship, training and professional community
• Why collaboration matters when you’re building and growing a practice

Technology can process the numbers.

The real opportunity is what you do with the time, information and conversations it creates.

Welcome to Advisory Conversations with Tim Seymour and Deb Halliday.

This podcast is for accounting professionals and financial coaches who are ready to step beyond compliance and into advisory.

Because real advisory isn't about doing more yourself, it's about building something that works without you being the bottleneck.

Hello and welcome to a special edition of Advisory Conversations, where we have a special guest with us today.

Joining myself and Deb is Lynn Graham.

Now, Lynn is a bookkeeper.

She's based in Dublin.

She's been running her own business for over 10 years.

Lynn's a zero advisor and Xero migration specialist and she specializes in implementing and.

And training zero.

So, Lyn, welcome.

Welcome to our podcast.

Thank you so much.

It's a pleasure to be here with you both.

Good.

And, Deb, hello to you as well.

Hiya.

Nice to be here.

Nice to see Lyn as well.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

So, Lyn, we've all known each other for a while now.

Would you like to share how we first came to meet?

Yeah.

So, in the previous membership, you were my mentor, Tim, and I learned so much from you about incorporating advisory and advising my clients as part of my bookkeeping business, which was great.

He gave me a framework to follow and, yeah, we met last year at a conference and it was just.

It was great to meet you in person and to learn so much from all the peers in, in the group, you know.

And, yeah, it's great to see that you're doing it again in the.

In the new form.

And, yeah, I'm delighted to be involved.

Fantastic.

Thank you for saying that, Lyn.

That was very kind of you.

We didn't.

We didn't prime you beforehand either, did we?

So you.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Honestly, no.

You've always been so kind from day one.

And I knew straight away I wanted to work with you.

So thank you.

Thank you for having me again.

Thank you.

That's very kind of you to say.

And.

And actually, Lynn made a really nice comment on my LinkedIn profile.

So everyone can see that's a genuine, genuine thing.

We have actually shared it on our website.

I don't know if you noticed it.

When you were on the website.

I did, I did.

You are on up.

Yeah, no champion.

And as does Deb, because she also is very kind with her time and her knowledge.

So, yeah, people would be mad not to work with you both.

So there you go, there's another plug.

You're very welcome.

Thanks, Lynn.

So.

So, Lynn, we're going to ask you to go back in time.

So before, way before we met you and we were kind of joking about this before Deb, weren't we?

About calling this that this is your life, but adding in business.

So this is your business life, in effect.

And wondered if you'd like to share with us, you know, where you started, how you came to be where you're at now.

Where I started.

Wow.

I actually.

So, yeah, a long time ago.

And I just discovered that, you know, oh, I'm a little bit more introverted.

I'm not the.

I'm not the person to go out selling hotels.

My brother, on the other hand, is a director of one of the largest hotel groups and he brings other hotels into the hotel group.

They become members essentially under the brand, whereas I would be more of a back office person.

And I also found it hard to work, shift work.

So my first job after, after being in the industry for four or five years, I was PA to the chief operations officer of ING Bank.

Within a year of working there, I was transferred to the loans department.

I was the loans officer ING or Dutch Bank, Wholesale bank, if some listeners don't know.

Yeah.

And it kind of opened up my.

My mind to the corporate world.

And then I had my son.

I was.

Yeah, I was 25 when I had my son and I wanted to get a job closer to home so I could spend more time with him and not be, you know, getting the bus into Dublin city centre at half seven in the morning and then not seeing him until seven o' clock at night.

And so I got a job with the Access Group.

Access are huge in the UK again.

I started in that role as PA to one of the directors, the country manager for Ireland.

Then I became office manager with responsibility for accounts.

The Access Group created Access Dimensions and Access Horizons and they were the main sellers of that, obviously in, in Ireland.

And since then they've grown and they've bought loads of companies, lots of different software people, hr, everything.

They're massive now.

But that's.

Yeah, I mean, that's where.

When I started kind of working in accounts, I was responsible for chasing bad debts.

That was a lovely job.

I got to travel over to Colchester and where was it?

Harpenden was the head office and I loved it.

I loved being around all my colleagues and learning all about accounts from there.

God, yeah.

Then I took.

I took some time out, I took some time out to think about, you know, what, what do I really want to do with my life as we do every now and again and My brother actually started his own company.

He had a recovery truck and he was in a partnership with a friend of his and he was a mechanic.

So my brother would bring all of the cars that had broken down to his friend, he'd fix up the cars and Brian would drive them around again.

And he said to, he said to me, you're good at that invoicing, aren't you?

And I said, well, I've, I've done a bit, you know.

And he said, you could do the books for us, couldn't you?

And I said, well, yeah, but I really need to do a course.

So I went off and I did a government funded course on manual and computerized bookkeeping and payroll and I absolutely loved it.

I got a distinction in it and I just thought, wow, this is great, maybe this is what I meant to do.

I can work from home and I can, you know, be in charge of my time and my environment and it was, it was absolutely life changing.

So I put a couple of ads on Gumtree and I connected with fellow bookkeepers and accountants on LinkedIn.

And then I started getting referrals.

And yeah, my business grew.

I became a Zero partner and I was blown away by from, from going from like an old school accounting system, sorry, access, but to zero now, access dimensions.

I'm not dissing it.

It's for larger companies with a lot more complexities and so zero is more for smaller companies.

But anyway, I was blown away by the automatic bank feeds into Xero and being able to reconcile your bank account and having everything up to date.

So I became a Xero certified advisor.

I was a Xero partner and I grew up through the rank state that they put me on the Zero Advisor directory and I got a lot of referrals through there.

Like it's, it's excellent to be listed there by location.

So people would click on, oh, there's Lynn, she's based in Dublin.

So I got quite a lot of clients from there and referrals from accountants and that.

And I have to say it's such a rewarding career to be able to.

What I enjoy most is because I'm not an accountant, I need to explain certain things to myself in planning it and then I can do that with my clients.

I can explain it to them in the same way, you know, and trying, you know, VAT seems like such.

Until you come into this industry, it seems like such a big scary thing to be afraid of.

Whereas if you explain it in a way that says, look, that money does not belong to you, you're essentially tax collector on behalf of Revenue or the hmrc.

So you put it aside and when it's time to do your VAT return, you pay that over to revenue less any VAT that you pay on your expenses.

So it's.

That's, that's exactly like, like, it's very simple.

But if it's not explained in that way, it can be, you know, this, this.

What's the word for something that's very unambiguous?

I don't know.

But you know what I'm trying to say.

It can be.

It can become bigger than it is, basically, and people just avoid it.

And again, with income tax returns, there's no reason to avoid your income tax return.

If you start, you know, if you get organized from the beginning, then, you know, you make life an awful lot easier on yourself and you don't have to procrastinate on.

On final return.

Anyway, sorry, I've rambled on.

That's how I got into it.

Started in hotels and here I am today and I couldn't be happier.

That's amazing.

That's amazing.

Love that.

It's very similar.

Funny enough, I was listening to that.

It's very similar to my own journey.

Really.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I went into.

Did a bookkeeping course and went into it when I was.

When I had my children.

And similar to you, if you can explain things properly and easily to clients, then they understand.

It's when you bombard them with jargon that they, that they don't, you know, they close off and they, they get a glazed look over their face, don't they?

Yeah, yeah.

Really interesting.

Love your journey.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I had a client say to me earlier on, but what about when I, you know, I really need to.

To spend that money on something, and I just said, it's not yours to spend, because she was like, I really struggle with that, you know, and it's like, well, look, you need to have a separate account for your tax and put aside a proportion of that each month so that you're not in that position and be disciplined and not actually spend it.

And, you know, it's just, it's just getting that idea out there and reiterating it over and over.

Yeah, yeah, exactly that.

Thanks.

Thanks, Lynne.

It is fascinating to hear your journey and how you came to end up running your bookkeeping business, et cetera, and what leads you there, because it's that.

It's these stories that people aren't aware of.

This actually really important, what makes us who we are.

And the experience that we've gained behind because people only see us sat there as a, as a, as a bookkeeping practice owner.

Perhaps they don't see all that knowledge and experience that's behind it and where it all comes from and how you use that, you know, to your advantage with what you do with your clients now.

So I think it's, it's really interesting to hear these stories and to understand people's journeys.

I was really.

Do you know what stood out to me?

This is probably.

You're going to say what you want about Tim, but you mentioned you put an ad in Gumtree and it just threw me.

But, and I thought Gumtree.

I remember Gumtree.

I don't.

I don't know if it's around anymore or not, but I thought, yeah, you know, we had to put ads out there, didn't we?

You know, it was.

It was an older school way of finding clients, but, but we found a way to do it.

So it was interesting.

Yeah, I got two, two clients that I had for years that, that I got on there.

And yeah, it's.

It's whatever works.

Yeah.

Yeah, I, I just, just throws me back.

I, I can remember taking on a client through, through Gumtree and I think I was with them for about six years until I sold the practice.

In fact, I think I even.

Well, I know.

I don't think I even went there and used their premises as my office for a year while I was trying to work.

The location should be for my office to move into.

So.

So yeah, that's interesting that it came through Gumtree as well.

So.

It's funny what comes back to you, isn't it, when you hear someone talking about these things.

So.

So, Lyn, tell us what, what you've kind of told us up to, up to your, your bookkeeping business and what you do now.

And you, you've sort of explained how much you love 0.

What should all business owners use?

0.

Is that, is that how strongly you feel about it?

Well, I, obviously I'm biased because I love Xero, but there are other cloud accounting softwares out there that do similar things, but I've tried them and this is the one that I prefer to use.

And also in Ireland, there are a limited number of softwares that are actually built for the Irish FAST system.

And Xero are actually improving that at the moment.

And it's not fully there yet, but they are improving it to make it a lot easier rather than having to connect an API to get it on or to download it to Excel and manipulate it the way we need it.

So it really, really depends.

But yes, 100% 0 anything else I've tried just doesn't have the same functionality.

And in the last while the advancements in Xero, like if I, I no longer need to use another software to process the purchases, I just upload it to the purchases inbox and everything.

Like I go in and the supplier has been chosen, the amount, the nominal code, the date, it's all correct and I just click, yep, approve.

That's it, it's done and it's brilliant.

And then even the auto reconciliation of the bank, it saves business owners a massive amount of time and if I can help business owners set it up from the start, create the bank rules.

So much of the work is done for you, you know, and what's helpful for bookkeepers and accountants is that it gives us more time then to provide advisory to talk about the figures, to be able to, you know, spend more time looking at the numbers, you know, doing your cash flow forecast, your budget for next year.

Otherwise you're just stuck in the weeds and you can't, you don't have the time for it.

That's why bookkeepers never really kind of got into that.

They're just too busy and you're constantly, you were constantly playing catch up and looking at like figures that were a month old or longer that are, you know, sometimes if you're in a fast paced business, those numbers are no longer relevant.

And so that's why the Instant bank feed helps you to make more data driven decisions for your business.

And I think that's, that's the most important thing, you know, because if you're making decisions based on last month or two or three months ago, the last quarter, sure, you don't know, things change all the time and it's important that everything is up to date and keep going with it, you know, that's my two cents.

I couldn't agree more.

You kind of took the words of my next question out of my mouth with that, so fantastic.

No, I'm really pleased you did because it shows that the natural way of thinking is to deliver better outcomes for your clients.

And so that's, that's what you're saying by, by using automation to your advantage, you're able to have more time free to be able to deal with your clients and their problems and solve their problems for them.

And that comes from having conversations, doesn't it, with them.

So that's how I see it anyway.

Obviously, yes, you've got the patterns in the numbers you've got the insights that you've talked about.

But the next step from that is through conversation with them.

Would you, would you agree with that?

No.

Yeah, 100%.

And I think a lot of people are afraid that bookkeepers are becoming obsolete, that, you know, they're not.

Their jobs are being made easier and they're there to help their clients because they're closer to the books.

Your accountant sees it at the end of the year and that's it, you know, unless you pay them extra or advisory.

But if you're, if you work with your bookkeeper and your accountant to be able to get more from your numbers, to understand it more in real time and not after the fact.

And I think that's, that's the value that bookkeepers and accountants can bring now that they've got AI to help speed up the processing.

Yeah, absolutely.

And so do you.

So you mentioned that you quite like setting up your clients in Xero and stuff.

Do you do that and then continue taking care of their Xero or do you set them up and then give them the option to look after Xero?

How do you tend to work with your clients in that way?

It really depends.

I mean, I've.

I've set up Xero for a number of companies where I go in and I migrate them across from, say, Sage, it's usually Sage onto Xero, complete the migration and then train them on how to use it, them and their staff.

Normally, if they have an accounts team that are actually doing that and then they can, you know, pay for an ongoing support each month where they can just call, call me or email me with questions on have I done this right or not?

And then sometimes I migrate clients to Xero and.

Or set them up from the beginning and then I take the ongoing bookkeeping as a monthly retainer.

Then going forward, it really depends on what they need.

But yeah, I do a bit of everything, really.

I love the training element.

I love showing people how to do it and how to make their life easier.

And you see the light bulbs going off and they're like, wow.

And I love that.

I just love that effect, like, you know, So I think it's important that business owners learn as much as they can themselves to, to do that, you know.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that.

Too many times the.

The business owner thinks the bookkeeper should just do the books, look after the numbers, send them to hmrc.

Actually, the bookkeeper can do so much more.

Yeah.

It's not just data entry.

Yeah, yeah.

And they can.

They spot the patterns.

So you've got the insights, they've got, you know, suggestions now suggest best practice.

Maybe, you know, different processes would make them more efficient, how to use their numbers and the data.

It's really the rewarding part of the work, I would say.

Yeah.

And I'd like to think of myself as a partner with business owners, not, you know, a paid bookkeeper that's just doing data entry and, you know, you know, it's a partnership and you kind of share your knowledge and help them grow their business and.

Because that's what we're interested in, you know, and I love to have chats with my clients about business development and what was the latest book you read?

And you know, and it's brilliant.

That's.

That's what it's all about.

It's all about connection, you know.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

We.

We're funny, aren't we?

We're.

Yeah, we love the numbers, but we also love the business side of it and the business development.

And that's what we have in common.

Common with, with business owners, isn't it?

Yeah.

Because otherwise they wouldn't have gone into business, you know.

Exactly.

And I really believe that the type of person who goes into business by themselves, they've, you know, it's a huge risk, you know, it is.

And it's.

Now, it's still risky having a job, but it's.

You have to have a certain type of mentality, whereas, yeah, I can do this.

It's not easy.

And if you lean on your network and the people around you, you know, it's so much, it's so much easier.

And your bookkeeper can be part of that network to support you, to grow.

And so I just, it's.

There's, there's always a lovely community.

I mean, you both have been wonderful to me, you know, and supporting me and my business, like, it's, it's just brilliant to connect and to have chats and catch up and, you know, share ideas, share things that we've learned, you know, it's.

I think it's important for business owners to, to acknowledge the courage that they've had to set up in business and the fact that it's not, not easy, but it can be made easier by leaning on your network, you know, so.

It's really interesting that you say that because I've always felt that running the business, especially if you're.

Whether you've got a team or not, to be honest with you, running a business is a lonely place.

It can be a lonely place.

Place.

Sometimes your family don't understand the issues that you have.

Sometimes your friends don't understand because they may be employees.

Unless you've got other people that are running businesses around you, it's very difficult to find somewhere where you can talk to people and have conversations that make sense and solve similar problems.

And that's why I set up Crosses and Coffee.

Lynn, in the first place.

Going back four and a half years ago, Crossings and Coffee, which is a weekly online session, was for business owners.

It wasn't actually for accounting and bookkeeping practice owners at the time.

It was originally just for business owners.

Whoever wanted to come came and as we moved forward, we built up this and Deb became part of it as well.

But we built up this lovely community that we all actually still probably support each other.

Now if, if, if the need was there, I think we could reach out to anyone that used to turn up to those and they would jump on a call and we could have a chat and help each other along.

And that's what it was for.

And it was only after that I transitioned it to support accountancy and bookkeeping practices because I wanted to niche and, and obviously have conversations with the people that I'm serving and, and guiding and mentoring like yourself.

That it did, it went down that road.

But it's interesting you say that because it just reminds me.

So it gave me an opportunity to bring that up.

So I'm not going to miss the opportunity.

Now I'm going to share on the, on the screen that you can join our Crosses of Coffee sessions through our Facebook community, which is called Advisory Teams.

So if you go onto Facebook, search for advisory Teams, you can join the Facebook group and then you'll get access to all of our crosswords coffee sessions, which are really interesting.

We have lots of conversations that support accounting and bookkeeping practice owners.

We'd love to hear about your journeys like Lynn's been sharing hers, so just thought I'd use that opportunity to bring that up.

Lyn, what's next for Lynn and what's next for you and your business?

What are your plans moving forward?

I'm actually thinking of creating like a mentorship for other bookkeepers who, or, or even like people who are currently employed in accounts roles that want to become self employed, that want to escape the rat race.

I'm going off on a tangent now, so stop me if I'm.

If it's too much.

I recently had to get the bus in and out of Dublin city centre and my God, it just Brought me back to those days of commuting and like the freezing cold mornings or the wet mornings, not being able to leave your desk until the day was finished.

Finished because you're, you're, you know, you're exchanging time for money and the boss is telling you what to do.

And I just feel that they're especially for moms with children who want to be at home, who don't want it like even if their, their child is in a crash or play school, that they're able to pick them up and bring them home, work while they're away or you know, work early in the morning, fit work around their lifestyle and their family.

And there's just so many people who are just content with the 9 to 5 mentality.

Switch off.

And it's great in one way if you are employed, you get to switch off and you go home and that's it.

You don't think of work until the next day when you open your laptop, your emails, when you get into work.

And there's a lot to be said for that, especially as business owners because we tend to never switch off.

We're always worrying about where, where the next client is coming from or should we, you know, invest in more software and things like that.

But I would love to help more people become self employed and be successful.

You know, set, set up the right systems from the beginning.

I do love to train.

I'm a qualified trainer and I want to create training programs for people.

I think lifelong learning is hugely important.

And yeah, so that's, I mean that's, it's all here, Tim.

It's, it's, it's coming, it's going.

But for now don't worry.

That's, that's part of what we do with you, isn't it?

We'll help you with that.

But, but your, your passion has, has just come out massively while you explain that, that, that was really interesting to hear.

Do you agree with that, Deb?

I think it sounds really exciting.

Yeah.

And you're so well suited for it.

So yeah, you can really see the passion.

Yeah, yeah.

Really look forward to watching your journey with that.

And, and if anyone wants to reach out to Lynn, the best place is to pop onto LinkedIn and in the search bar just type in Lynn Graham Bookkeeping and you'll see Lynn's smiling face there and you'll be able to connect and maybe drop her a message.

Whether you're a business owner looking to, to, for someone to help with bookkeeping, whether you want to learn more about Xero, then speak to Lynn and whether perhaps now you're even considering starting out your own bookkeeping business or your early stage bookkeeper.

Reach out to Lyn and have a chat and see where you can, where you can get some help.

I know for a fact that Lynn will be able to help you, so.

So I recommend you do that and see where the conversation takes you.

I've got two mantras, haven't I, Deb?

Now?

Cause I.

You always say my mantra is take one step at a time.

And that's still that.

It's definitely still that.

My other mantra is have a conversation.

Because without conversations we can't move forward.

And, and sharing knowledge and, and different ideas and different perspectives for me is what, what, what sort of where life should be the way life should be.

Because we can all help each other out here and that's what we intend to do.

And so, Lynne, I think you'll be fantastic at what your plans are for the future.

And we wish you all the best of luck with that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming on with us and joining us today.

It's been a pleasure having you here.

It's been a pleasure to be here.

Thank you.

And thank you both for all of your help and guidance.

You're welcome.

Thanks, Deb.

Absolute pleasure.

Thanks for listening to advisory conversations with Tim Seymour and Deb Halliday.

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