James Lowe — accountant, owner, operator.
I'm a chartered certified accountant (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)) and the founder of Prompt Financial Services. I've been running businesses since 2012 — that's 14+ years of meeting payroll, signing personal guarantees, sweating cashflow, and learning how operating companies actually work.
I started this firm because most accountancy advice is given by people who have only ever been accountants. I think that shows. The good operators I know want a financial partner who has actually been on their side of the table.
Photo to follow
James Lowe ACCA
Three groups, three sectors. Active ownership in all of them.
Prompt Tech Group
Software
Milo Tools Group
Industrial tooling
Prompt Financial Services Ltd
Accountancy & advisory
Each of these is a different business model — software has different working-capital dynamics to industrial tooling, which is different again to professional services. The benefit for our clients is that the patterns we see in their business, we have probably already lived through in one of ours.
Buy-side. Sell-side. Partnership. Walk-away.
I have personally been on every side of an SME deal — and that experience is the single biggest reason clients ask us to handle their M&A.
Both still operating, both integrated, both with the diligence binders to prove it.
A joint-venture structure that needed careful governance, valuation and exit mechanics.
A deal that didn't survive financial diligence. The discipline to walk is the credential.
Built and exited a business in the stationery supplies sector.
A small roster. Senior time. Real numbers.
We turn work away. Most accountancy firms scale by stacking clients on junior staff — partner time becomes a luxury, the relationship gets shallower every year, and the advisory work that's supposed to differentiate them quietly disappears.
We've gone the other direction. We deliberately keep a small client roster so that when you call, you get someone who knows your business, has read the management accounts, and can think with you in real time. The compliance work is done quietly in the background. The advisory is the point.
What that means in practice
- Senior contact — you deal with senior people, not a juniors-with-checklist service.
- Honest opinions — including telling you not to do the deal, not to make the hire, not to take the loan.
- Numbers used as a steering wheel — management accounts review meetings every month with decisions, not commentary.
- Owner-to-owner conversations — we know what running a business actually feels like. We talk to you that way.
What we're not
We're not the cheapest. We're not the biggest. We don't take every client who walks in. If your accountancy needs are pure compliance — file the accounts, file the tax, send me a P60 — there are larger firms who will do that very competently for less than we charge. That's not where we add the value.
If we sound like the right fit, let's talk.
The first conversation is free, honest and short. We'll tell you whether we can help — or who else you should be talking to.