About Us

Ridgefield Consulting is an independent firm of Chartered Accountants based in Oxford and Henley-on-Thames

We understand it must be difficult when choosing the right accountant to use when there is an abundance of options available both locally and nationally.

We hope this page helps you find out a bit more about us and what makes us different, but we also invite you to get in touch for an introductory call where you can discuss your needs and concerns with one of our accountants, receive a fully bespoke, no-obligation quote, and see for yourself if we’re the type of accountants you’d like to work with.

Our Core Principles

Whilst tax and accounting are not often considered to be exciting disciplines, our team are nonetheless truly passionate about what they do because we are motivated by three core principles:

Encouraging entrepreneurship. The economy could not survive without the self-employed. Our wide range of tax and accounting services are built around enabling clients to pick and choose the support they require.

Facilitating research and development. Our expertise in R&D tax credits, SEIS/EIS, EMI share schemes and innovation business grants means we naturally understand what it is that start-ups and scale-ups need from business partnerships.

Providing tax clarity. Finding the right answers by yourself can be difficult when the UK tax system and rules are so convoluted. Our tax advice and tax planning services aim to help you find the best solutions for your personal circumstances.

Why Choose Us

There are a lot of good accountants out there, but they may not be right for you. We’ll be a great partner for those of you looking for:

A commercially minded team. Time is money, but doing things efficiently means getting the job done right too. We balance all of this, and what’s more, our fingers are always on the pulse when it comes to spotting opportunities where you can save on tax.

A fair and reasonable quality service. We don’t believe in charging by the minute (and believe us, many accountants still do!) We’ve always got time to answer your questions over the phone or by email, but we’ll also let you know when you require a separate consultation. Any additional work will be quoted for separately, and only started on with your agreement. You’ll never receive unexpected extra fees added onto your bill.

People who can be flexible. Whether you need us to put our foot on the gas on getting paperwork to you so you can secure your mortgage to helping you apply for that business grant by the tight deadlines, we’re on your side when it comes to your priorities. Or, if you need to slow down and take stock, we can help by producing management accounts to help you understand your business performance or sitting down with you to discuss tax planning strategies for your future.

How It All Began

Simon Thomas is the Managing Director and Founder of Ridgefield Consulting. He has a longstanding background in tax and accounting, starting with his father, Brian Thomas, who is a Chartered Accountant.

Simon trained in London, at one of the Big4 – EY, where he gained expert knowledge and experience. However, it was always clear from the start that Simon’s entrepreneurial spirit would take him away from the City and build up his own legacy.

Humble Origins

Ridgefield Consulting is named after Simon’s family home. Like many other entrepreneurs, the business first started out at Simon’s kitchen table. Simon has experienced first-hand all the challenges that comes with raising capital for a start-up, including the arduous process of applying for bank loans. In the end, it was a family investment and Simon started growing the business through slowly acquiring retired accountants’ businesses. The rest however is very much down to hard work and elbow grease.

Where We Are Today

Ridgefield Consulting has moved on substantially since Simon’s kitchen in 2010 and has an established office space in Botley, conveniently located just on the outskirts of central Oxford and easily accessible whether you’re travelling into us from the train station, the city centre, or the A34.

We’re still a family run business. Simons’ father, Brian, remains an active Director of Compliance and continues to mentor the junior members of the team. Our family values naturally feed into our team culture, and we feel incredibly privileged to have the people that we do all strive to realise the company’s goals and build its reputation.

In April 2021, Simon further expanded the business by acquiring a sister practice in Henley – Kench & Co. The two offices has allowed the business to further serve the Oxfordshire area.

Where We Want To Be

Our success is no longer defined by turnover figures or client portfolio numbers. Instead, we measure ourselves against staff retention, client retention, our reputation and ability to demonstrate how we’re unique amongst our competitors.

We have strong aspirations to grow as a business and as a unified team to be able to deliver more tailored services to our clients and expand our presence across Oxfordshire. In particular, we hope to foster meaningful relationships with businesses in the local science parks such as The Oxford Science Park and Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. We are dedicated to supporting the innovation community through our R&D tax credit service and other Innovation Funding services.

Our Core Principles

Whilst tax and accounting are not often considered to be exciting disciplines, our team are nonetheless truly passionate about what they do because we are motivated by three core principles:

Encouraging entrepreneurship. The economy could not survive without the self-employed. Our wide range of tax and accounting services are built around enabling clients to pick and choose the support they require.

Facilitating research and development. Our expertise in R&D tax credits, SEIS/EIS, EMI share schemes and innovation business grants means we naturally understand what it is that start-ups and scale-ups need from business partnerships.

Providing tax clarity. Finding the right answers by yourself can be difficult when the UK tax system and rules are so convoluted. Our tax advice and tax planning services aim to help you find the best solutions for your personal circumstances.

Why Choose Us

There are a lot of good accountants out there, but they may not be right for you. We’ll be a great partner for those of you looking for:

A commercially minded team. Time is money, but doing things efficiently means getting the job done right too. We balance all of this, and what’s more, our fingers are always on the pulse when it comes to spotting opportunities where you can save on tax.

A fair and reasonable quality service. We don’t believe in charging by the minute (and believe us, many accountants still do!) We’ve always got time to answer your questions over the phone or by email, but we’ll also let you know when you require a separate consultation. Any additional work will be quoted for separately, and only started on with your agreement. You’ll never receive unexpected extra fees added onto your bill.

People who can be flexible. Whether you need us to put our foot on the gas on getting paperwork to you so you can secure your mortgage to helping you apply for that business grant by the tight deadlines, we’re on your side when it comes to your priorities. Or, if you need to slow down and take stock, we can help by producing management accounts to help you understand your business performance or sitting down with you to discuss tax planning strategies for your future.

How It All Began

Simon Thomas is the Managing Director and Founder of Ridgefield Consulting. He has a longstanding background in tax and accounting, starting with his father, Brian Thomas, who is a Chartered Accountant.

Simon trained in London, at one of the Big4 – EY, where he gained expert knowledge and experience. However, it was always clear from the start that Simon’s entrepreneurial spirit would take him away from the City and build up his own legacy.

Humble Origins

Ridgefield Consulting is named after Simon’s family home. Like many other entrepreneurs, the business first started out at Simon’s kitchen table. Simon has experienced first-hand all the challenges that comes with raising capital for a start-up, including the arduous process of applying for bank loans. In the end, it was a family investment and Simon started growing the business through slowly acquiring retired accountants’ businesses. The rest however is very much down to hard work and elbow grease.

Where We Are Today

Ridgefield Consulting has moved on substantially since Simon’s kitchen in 2010 and has an established office space in Botley, conveniently located just on the outskirts of central Oxford and easily accessible whether you’re travelling into us from the train station, the city centre, or the A34.

We’re still a family run business. Simons’ father, Brian, remains an active Director of Compliance and continues to mentor the junior members of the team. Our family values naturally feed into our team culture, and we feel incredibly privileged to have the people that we do all strive to realise the company’s goals and build its reputation.

In April 2021, Simon further expanded the business by acquiring a sister practice in Henley – Kench & Co. The two offices has allowed the business to further serve the Oxfordshire area.

Where We Want To Be

Our success is no longer defined by turnover figures or client portfolio numbers. Instead, we measure ourselves against staff retention, client retention, our reputation and ability to demonstrate how we’re unique amongst our competitors.

We have strong aspirations to grow as a business and as a unified team to be able to deliver more tailored services to our clients and expand our presence across Oxfordshire. In particular, we hope to foster meaningful relationships with businesses in the local science parks such as The Oxford Science Park and Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. We are dedicated to supporting the innovation community through our R&D tax credit service and other Innovation Funding services.

A huge thank you to our clients who were happy to provide testimonials:

How to Get Started with Ridgefield Consulting

Our process is simple.

Arrange an introductory call and tell us a bit about you and what you’d like help with.
Receive a detailed line by line quote from us for you to consider
Say yes, that you’d like to go ahead!
Send us all the necessary documentation (we’ll let you know what those are!)
Sit back and relax.

We’ll let you know when everything is done for you! If you have an accountant already then you’ll need to notify them in writing that you would like to switch. Just copy us into that email and we’ll take care of all future communications, including making sure we get a record of all the work they’ve done for you to date.

Tell us what you think

We always want to hear feedback. Think we can do something better? We’re all ears. Want to sing our praises? Please do so on Google, or any other review platforms of your choice:

Refer a friend

Tell us what you think Do you know someone who’s also looking for an accountant? We’re always so grateful to everyone who refers us new clients. As a small gesture of our thanks, we like to offer you a £75 reduction off your fee for every new client that comes our way as a result of your kind recommendation. If you only needed our help once we’ll offer you a £75 gift card of your choice instead.

Get even more from Ridgefield Consulting

If you want to find out more about the team at Ridgefield
Consulting, what really goes on behind the scenes, as
well as stay up to date on hot topics then
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About Us

Our Core Principles

Why Choose Us

How It All Began

Humble Origins

Where We Are Today

Where We Want To Be

Our Core Principles

Why Choose Us

How It All Began

Humble Origins

Where We Are Today

Where We Want To Be

A huge thank you to our clients who were happy to provide testimonials:

How to Get Started with Ridgefield Consulting

Tell us what you think

Refer a friend

Get even more from Ridgefield Consulting

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Podcast

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Tax

Accounting

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