Meet the Ally: Lindsay Bowler
Good advice starts with understanding the person behind the question.
For Lindsay, Director of Client Services at NLP, being an accountant isn’t simply about supplying the technically correct answer. It’s about understanding what a client is trying to achieve, seeing the bigger picture and bringing together the right expertise to help them make decisions with confidence.
In Part 2 of our Meet Your Ally series, Lindsay Bowler shares why she believes an accountant should be more than someone you speak to once a year, where professional judgement still matters in an age of AI, and what being a true ally to her clients means in practice.
Tell us a little about what you do at NLP and the clients you typically work with.
As Director of Client Services, I combine technical accounting and audit expertise with a collaborative approach, bringing together specialists across accounts, audit, tax and advisory here at NLP to provide clients with the right advice at the right time. I work predominantly with ambitious businesses and individuals mainly in the creative sectors, helping them navigate complex financial and commercial challenges, make informed decisions and achieve their goals. For me, it’s about understanding the bigger picture rather than looking at an individual accounting or tax issue in isolation.
What’s one question you find yourself being asked by clients again and again?
“It’s not so much one particular question, but I’m increasingly hearing clients say, “ChatGPT told me…””
What do you enjoy most about working closely with clients?
For me, this is what the job is all about. I genuinely enjoy getting to know my clients, not just what they want to achieve in business, but what they want from life as well. Understanding the bigger picture and the story behind a business means I can give advice that actually works for that individual. It’s not always about saving a little tax in one particular area if doing so creates a bigger problem somewhere else or affects another important decision.
“I don’t believe your accountant should simply be someone you pass your records to once a year for filing.”
What does being an ‘ally’ to your clients mean to you?
To me, being an ally means being there for our clients in whatever capacity they need. Sometimes that means answering questions such as, “Does this make financial sense?”, “What can I do to manage my tax?”, “Should I go ahead with this deal as proposed?” or “Are my systems working efficiently, or could they be improved?” But sometimes our heroes simply need an ally to be a sounding board, someone who understands the business well enough to talk through a difficult decision and challenge their thinking when necessary. I want to be that person for my clients. Whether they need technical expertise, commercial advice or simply someone to talk a decision through with, I want to help them overcome the hurdle in front of them and move forward with confidence.
What’s something people might not realise goes on behind the scenes when you’re helping a client?
The heart and passion that goes into it. My LinkedIn tagline is “The accountant that cares”, and I chose that because I genuinely care about my clients and the businesses they have built.
“When a client asks me a question, I don’t want to simply provide a technically correct, generic answer. I want to understand why they are asking it, what they are trying to achieve and how the answer might affect them, their business and the decisions they need to make.”