Testimonials

As a local photography business, most of my time is spent focusing on clients and the creative work I love – so cyber security wasn't exactly top of my list. But, with everything being digital and cloud based these days I knew it was something I couldn't ignore. I recently had a cyber health check with Rebecca at Armstrong Watson Cyber Security Solutions, and she was incredibly thorough. As a small business, I'm often focused on the day-to-day, so cyber security isn’t something that naturally gets much attention. But Rebecca made it feel straightforward and manageable from the start.

She walked me through all the issues clearly and explained the steps I could take to resolve them. I learned so much about best practices — what to do, what to avoid, and how to keep my business more protected going forward. Thanks to the health check, we’ve tightened up how we store and share client images, improved our password practices, and now feel much more confident that our systems and data are secure. It’s one less thing to worry about. It was all explained in a way that was easy to understand, which I really appreciated.

Thanks to Rebecca's guidance, I now have a clear action plan and feel far more organised and confident about our digital security. It’s reassuring to know there’s someone knowledgeable and approachable to turn to for support. I’d definitely recommend Armstrong Watson to other local businesses who want to feel more in control of their cyber security. It’s been a really positive experience and one I think many local businesses could benefit from.

“The health check process was incredibly helpful and surprisingly eye-opening,”

“Some of the questions asked highlighted risks we’d never even considered but, once pointed out, seemed really obvious—like users having admin rights on their devices. It’s easy to miss things like that when you're focused on day-to-day operations. Rebecca and the team made the whole process accessible and straightforward. It was worth every penny for the reassurance and clarity it’s given us—we now have a much better understanding of our cyber risks and how to manage them.”

“By leveraging Armstrong Watson’s expertise, we’ve strengthened our defences, ensuring business continuity and protecting our reputation in the international market. With their support and guidance they identified specific vulnerabilities within our systems and highlighted areas for improvement, such as enhancing security configurations and protecting critical digital assets. This proactive approach has allowed us to address these challenges and reinforce our operational defences against future threats.

“With their tailored tools and strategies, Armstrong Watson and their cyber security partner have provided us with the means to secure our critical data and maintain compliance with industry best practices. These measures have greatly improved the resilience of our operations, ensuring we remain protected in the face of evolving cyber risks.”

"I was introduced to David and Ellis at Armstrong Watson from a close friend, right from day one David and his team have been faultless. They took great care of my family through the whole process and always went the extra mile to ensure we got the best we could from every situation. Selling a business is an extremely emotional and challenging task, they explained and guided us over every obstacle and managed to complete everything within the time frame set."

We find using Xero easy and have been doing so for I think over four years now. We first moved to Xero when we decided to update our accounting process from ‘large paper book keeping books’ to something ‘electronic’. The team at AW put the ‘background’ information into the system, it was then easy to add the ‘direct bank link’ and going forward reconciliation has been very easy and preparation and submission of the VAT return is very straightforward. If we ever need any help the knowledgeable staff are always easy to contact and have always been able to answer any questions.

We're not a big business but we are certainly made to feel like we are! Jonathan is so easy to talk too and feels like we've known him forever.

In all my dealings with Graham, I have found him to be exceptionally professional. He has dealt with several complex issues for me, including the merger of several businesses. He is very well supported by a strong team at Armstrong Watson and has been instrumental in allowing me to expand my business to multiple locations. I would highly recommend Graham and Armstrong Watson

If Bruce and I come up with an idea, Armstrong Watson is like a sounding board. Grant will sit down and he’ll say ‘what about this?’ I used to see accountants as a bit up-tight, a bit beige – they’re not like that. A lot of accountants you’re just a number, but Armstrong Watson understand the people behind those figures and the passion they have for what they’re doing.

We were undertaking a review of our pension scheme, a benefit which has been much valued by the members and felt that to provide the additional support during the transitional period, we needed to bring in the services of a professional financial adviser firm. It was important to us that the firm was local to Cumbria and able to create a trusted relationship with our colleagues who were trying to understand how the proposed changes would or could affect them.

The feedback from our members has been extremely positive; they valued the independent, professional and considered advice and support the team at Armstrong Watson were able to provide.

Nothing seemed to be too much trouble and the advice given to the members has been critical in allowing informed decisions to be made.

Working with Armstrong Watson has been a positive experience and we hope to continue to build on this relationship for future initiatives.

Armstrong Watson have been our accountants and tax advisers for many years. We have an exceptionally good working relationship, so much so that we see them as another arm of our team here at The Lakes. They not only deal with our accounts and tax affairs, they understand our business and the way we run it, which is so important when we talk through problems or opportunities. They have supported us throughout a period of significant growth and it goes without saying that their pro-active approach to business and tax planning has been invaluable. We would not hesitate to recommend them.