58 women IN BUSINESS
Lawson Avery Limited
Jennifer Martin
DIRECTOR / CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT
New look for long-standing accounting firm Jennifer is Lawson Avery’s cloud-based specialist and is responsible for products such as Xero, Figured, Hubdoc, Paysauce, Cash Manager Focus, Spotlight “We are finding more Reporting, Workflow Max and and more clients are MYOB Essentials.
Jennifer Martin and colleague, Brett Wooffindin, mean business in their accounting firm, Lawson Avery, at the commercial end of Cole Street in Masterton.
Masterton born, she schooled in the town before heading to Wellington to attend University. Good with numbers, accounting was always in her sights.
Jennifer bought into the business in April this year and is excited when she talks of her plans for the accounting practice.
After graduating, she worked in Lower Hutt for two years and then moved back to Masterton to be closer to family.
They have just transitioned to be a 100% cloudbased practice – very timely due to the covid-19 pandemic. Lawson Avery now has two partners and seven staff. Most of their staff are qualified accountants and a number have considerable experience in the industry. Jennifer gained a BCA in Accounting, Economics and Commercial Law from Victoria University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2011.
also very keen to use better software so they can focus on working ‘on the business’ rather than ‘in the business’.
Jennifer has three children, a seven-year-old and six-year-old twins, so the focus on being family-friendly and having a flexible workplace is important. Co-parenting with her exhusband, Jennifer manages her workload by working some long days and then short ones, enabling her to do the school and parenting commitments. She is a member of the Board of Trustees at St Patrick’s School and plays netball when time allows.
She also does most of the Software Training and Conversions for clients.
Software set-up and training is very important to ensure the client’s data is correct and meaningful. Because of this, they offer free set-ups and training for the clients. Lawson Avery is transitioning to a paperless office, hopefully by the end of 2020. The decision to become paperless is aligned with many of the firm’s goals, one being a flexible
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Call us on 06 377 5085 11 Cole Street, Masterton PO Box 145, Masterton (Temporarily in the Tranzit building, 316 Queen Street, late September 2020 to 1 April 2021).
workplace so staff can work from home, if required. “We are finding more and more clients are also very keen to use better software so they can focus on working ‘on the business’ rather than ‘in the business’. Using good technology not only saves time and cost, but also enables us to provide financial data in a timely manner. The firm has purchased the building and will be shortly completing some renovations. What should be completed by the end of the financial year is a new fit-for-purpose building which will allow them to operate much better with current technology requirements. They will be working from the Tranzit building during this process. The practice has around a 60 per cent rural client base. Established in 1909, Jennifer is the first female partner.