Jonathan, The Crafty Cheese Man Limited

“The work they do now gives me at least a day each week back, leaving me to get on with running and growing my business. ”

Jonathan Pearcey is the man behind the aptly named cheese business, The Crafty Cheese Man.

His personal mission in life is to discover, taste, learn about and distribute the best cheese that Britain has to offer to the North West of the country. And he’s doing a great job of it! In Manchester he’s renowned as the city’s foremost cheese expert.

His business model is based on offering up speciality and artisan cheeses to Manchester’s top restaurants and beyond. Throughout the lockdown he pivoted his offering and delivered his outstanding goods to people's doors.

Jonathan’s business was going from strength to strength, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to juggle the paperwork.

“On a busy day we can do 45 deliveries. It was taking two and a half hours to write out the invoices by hand. I still had to input them onto the system later. There was so much duplication.

“Ian’s office is just above mine and I thought it was time I had a chat with him. He took the time to help me and made recommendations even before I became a client of his.

“Ian introduced me to Xero accounting software. This simple change has saved me hours of my life. Now the rest of the team can create invoices and it’s so much faster. Not only can I go away without worrying, it also gives my team more responsibility and enables them to grow and develop within the business.

“Walling Accountants manage all my book-keeping too. Ian set up a payroll system which is basically a hub that runs itself and sends digital wage slips to the team.

“I use a tool called Dext which tracks, reads and stores my receipts and invoices on the go. And it integrates straight into Xero. It’s a complete game changer!

“From the first conversation with Ian, I could see he was genuinely interested and excited to help me grow my business. This was a big part of the reason I wanted him to work with us.

“I’ve built a relationship with Ian and the difference he’s made to the business is huge.

“I’m not good at bookkeeping and I don’t like doing it. I used to get stressed knowing that I was behind with it and that it was stacking up. I was always chasing people for money which was time consuming but now that’s all done for me.

“I trust Ian and his team which is invaluable and the work they do now gives me at least a day each week back, leaving me to get on with running and growing my business. And doing the bit I love – selling cheese!