A move to rural Donegal was the catalyst for Larissa Feeney’s journey into entrepreneurship. The Sligo native set up Accountant Online, after training as a chartered accountant with a practice in Derry. Living in rural Donegal, Larissa realised that she would have to offer her services online to generate a sustainable income – this was in 2011; nine years before working remotely became the norm.

Accountant Online is a firm of Chartered and Certified Accountants serving over 1,800 clients across Ireland and the UK. Larissa leads a team of accounting and company secretarial professionals who work both remotely and in offices in Dublin and Letterkenny. The business uses cloud technology to help clients access professional services simply and securely.

Larissa knows how difficult it can be starting a business, but her online platform aims to make it a little easier:

Accountant Online takes care of the compliance needs of directors and their companies. From the company set-up stage through to all their secretarial, tax and accountancy needs”.

“We started out during the recession and I think that helped because we were able to compete on fees,” Larissa added. “Our pricing was always very transparent, which I think helped as well. We are like a company’s accountant in the statutory sense, but we base our fees on the client’s turnover and we quote them in advance. We tell them how much it’s going to cost before they engage with us and they can pay by direct debit – people like the certainty we offer.

From the outset, Larissa worked closely with Donegal Local Enterprise Office to launch and grow her business. Accountant Online received Angel investment in 2016 and is now supported by Enterprise Ireland. The company has experienced strong growth in recent years, averaging 48% growth per year for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Accountant Online has won many awards and was shortlisted three years in a row for ‘Best Use of Technology in Accountancy and Finance.’ The business also won 'Best Small Practice' in 2017, ‘Best Medium Practice’ in 2018, and was shortlisted in 2019 for ‘Best Medium Practice’. Larissa herself was awarded Accountant of the Year’ in 2018. She is also on the mentor panel of both Donegal LEO and Enterprise Ireland and has acted in a voluntary capacity in various roles including as treasurer with Donegal Women in Business. Larissa is also a mentor for AMBITION, Donegal’s first pre-accelerator programme aimed at developing female entrepreneurship in the county, which Local Enterprise Office Donegal is running in partnership with NDRC