Sell your accountancy practice in Manchester

We have our own delivery team in Manchester, and we buy practices across Greater Manchester directly and in confidence.

Manchester and the wider North West have a large community of independent accountancy firms serving the region’s SMEs, and Manchester is also one of our own delivery bases. If you own a practice in Greater Manchester and another decade of compliance change and staffing pressure has you thinking about what comes next, we buy directly, confidentially and on your timeline.

Why sell to us directly?

When you sell to us, the people you talk to are the people who decide. Your practice is kept away from the wider market, you pay no broker commission, and the timetable follows yours. Our broker vs direct guide sets out both routes.

Practice Group has people in Manchester as well as London, Ballymena and Pretoria. For a Manchester sale, that means the team taking on the work is close by. There is capacity nearby to take compliance production off your team while the handover settles, which is the point at which client service is most at risk. If you want to test that capacity before you sell anything, our white-label back office does the same work for firms that are staying independent.

Why does a Manchester delivery base matter to a seller?

What does the handover look like?

We agree the timetable with you. A phased handover is the usual shape, and it runs in four stages.

1Before completionConfidential call, an indicative range, light-touch due diligence, then heads of terms.
2The first weeksWe learn the workflow and meet the team. Clients receive the same service as before.
3The following monthsProduction work starts to move across, and reporting and systems are tidied up.
4Your step-downA fast exit or a gradual reduction, at the pace agreed in heads of terms.

Where in the North West do you buy?

Across Greater Manchester — the city centre, Salford, Stockport, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Trafford, Tameside and Wigan — and out into Cheshire, Warrington, Merseyside and Lancashire.

What kind of practice are you looking for?

Buyers in the UK, ourselves included, price a practice as a multiple of its gross recurring fees (GRF). Profit is set aside because an owner’s own pay distorts it. For general practice, our valuation guide gives a range of broadly 0.8× to 1.2× GRF; weaker firms fall below it and high-quality fee blocks reach 1.3× or more. Fit matters to us as much as size. We buy limited company and sole practitioner firms, and we are flexible on service mix, software and how involved you want to stay.

Our promise as a buyer

Keep your team in place through the handover
Move compliance production to our Manchester team while things settle
Tidy reporting and systems at a pace your team can manage
Treat the sale as confidential from the first conversation

Greater Manchester owners at any stage of planning an exit can book a private first call with us.

Book a call about your Manchester practice

The founders take the call themselves, and what you tell us stays between you and us.

Book a confidential call

Andy Jackson, co-founder

Helpful guides

Succession planningRead →Outsourcing your back officeRead →When is the right time to sell?Read →