About Meridian

A practice
built on quiet
competence.

We started in 2013 with a simple thesis — accountancy, for the owner-manager, should feel less like a chore and more like having a senior CFO on retainer. Twelve years later, we've kept the firm small on purpose so that promise stays true.

James Meridian, founder of Meridian Accountancy, at his desk
James Meridian Founder · ACA, FCCA
From the founder

Why I started Meridian.

By the time I'd spent eight years in mid-tier audit, I'd watched enough small business owners receive their bills with a gulp and a half-understood explanation that I knew there had to be a better way of doing this. So in the spring of 2013 I rented a two-room office in Charterhouse Square and started taking clients on the condition that we'd talk every quarter — not once a year.

The bet was that owner-managers would happily pay a fixed fee if it bought them clarity and time. It turned out they would. Twelve years on, we still operate with the same four-person model: senior accountants only, no juniors learning on your books, no churn between your annual filings.

If you're considering us, the most useful thing you can do is ring or email. Our discovery calls are free; our advice on the call is free; whether you become a client is entirely your decision after that.

James Meridian Founder & principal accountant
What guides us

Three principles
we don't bend on.

Every firm has values. These are ours — written as instructions to ourselves, not slogans for a website.

i.

Plain English, always.

If we can't explain a position to you in two paragraphs without jargon, we don't understand it well enough yet. Tax law is hard; your understanding of it shouldn't have to be.

ii.

Senior people, every time.

Your accounts are prepared by an accountant with at least seven years of post-qualified experience. We don't run a partner-fronted, junior-staffed model.

iii.

Forecast, don't react.

We will always tell you what's coming six months out. The January Self Assessment shock is a failure of forecasting, not an inevitability of the calendar.

The bench

Four UK-qualified
chartered specialists.

Every client knows everyone, everyone knows your business. We've kept the firm small on purpose.

The Meridian Accountancy team — James Meridian, Sarah Thompson, Daniel Harris, Olivia Brown

James Meridian

Founder & accountant

ACA, FCCA. Twelve years in mid-tier audit before founding the firm. Specialism: limited-company tax structuring.

Sarah Thompson

Tax advisor

CTA qualified. Twenty-two years across Big Four and boutique practice. Specialism: R&D tax credits and EMI option schemes.

Daniel Harris

Senior accountant

ACCA, MAAT. Edinburgh-trained. Runs our cloud bookkeeping practice — Xero certified advisor since 2018.

Olivia Brown

Client manager

Manages onboarding, payroll runs and HMRC correspondence. The reason replies arrive within 24 hours.

By the numbers

Twelve years
of quiet receipts.

2013 Founded

Charterhouse Square, London EC1.

240+ Active clients

Freelancers, agencies, e-commerce, professional services.

£1.6m Tax saved in 2024

Across our active client base — not including allowances claimed.

98% Client retention

Year-on-year, since 2018. We treat that figure carefully.

Discovery call

Let's see if Meridian
fits your situation.