department in the company at the time. An ambitious Cathy, and determined to work her way up, every internal position that was advertised, Cathy applied. She moved into data capturing, then into finance in the costing department, costing those parcels in the warehouse.

Finally understanding now at this very young age, the full process, of operations, capturing the logistics, and calculating the costs of those parcels. One night, at a company function, Cathy overheard the directors talking about the issue with the debtor’s department and not collecting the funds outstanding from the clients. They could not understand why their GP (very unfamiliar term at the time) was so low. The clients were complaining the parcels were late and wanted credit notes. That night changed her life. She stood up confidently, and went to the directors table, and asked them, “what if there was a way to calculate the loss and deduct it off the various airline’s invoices? If we were crediting our customers, surely, we should be receiving credits from the airlines?” They realized this was the missing link. Between operations and end result = income collected.

The company sent her on some advanced programming courses, and she developed software that the data capturing department would put in an “estimated time of arrival based on the airline levels of delivery times” and then the branch would say “actual time of receiving”. At 19, they created a whole new department for her, the service quality control department. She became manager of that department, and as the roll out phase of this department started with the various branches, she applied for the “Regional service quality control manager” which she got as she had a clear understanding of measuring the value of service and time, and how to calculate it. The position was a huge responsibility, which is when she learnt the value of her own time in meeting deadlines. And so became very deadline orientated.

No matter how many hours she had to work, she was very passionate about what she was doing as it was her solution and never saw it as a difficult position. There was a huge shift in directors and managers, and some directors from Dubai came down, so she had a new boss now. The position of National Service Quality Control Manager came up, and as per norm, she applied. This time however, she did not get it. She asked her new boss, who knew nothing about her, (however he still remembers her to this day) why and was told, and remembers these words like it was yesterday “What female do you know that is 21, and runs a national department?” She realised two things at that time. One, she was not moving forward anywhere, and two, she could not work for a boss. She needed freedom with her analytical mind to introduce systems needed. And so, she started Hills Business Solutions.

She took her theory and re-created the database (as she had no restraint of trade) and implemented the systems at various courier company’s. The programme now had a built- in system of automatic reconciliation of the airlines invoices before receiving their statement. Saifar at that time, also approached her and asked if she could do something there, so that they too could monitor their own service quality. She implemented the system there. She then registered her business as a close corporation on the 26th of July 1999. Hills Business Solutions cc.

time to get experience in different types of industries.

At the time, employment offers were advertised in the newspaper, and she would approach the Employer and sell them the idea of rather using her service as a bookkeeper and analyst instead of hiring a full-time employee and deal with all the labour issues. This method of sales worked, and so, Hills Business Solutions client base started. By 2003 she had approx. 24 monthly clients that she was managing. Describing herself as ambitious, a workaholic and passionate about what she was doing.

laws and an independent party was needed to perform this task). It was during this time; Cathy learned the principle of EVA. Which became an integral part of Hills Business Solutions core principle when applying the method to her clients. Something that other small accounting firms were not doing. It gave her an extra advantage.

Economic value added (EVA) is a measure of a company’s financial performance based on the residual wealth calculated by deducting its cost of capital from its operating profit, adjusted for taxes on a cash basis. EVA can also be referred to as economic profit, as it attempts to capture the true economic profit of a company

This new principle once understood completely was applied to the existing HBS clients base as a tester. To work out the client’s true economic profit, against their net profit. In all principles, it was guarded as “what department / employee was adding value economically to the company. For example, take South Africa, and put it into a company, and use the EVA method, a question would arise, are the municipalities adding economic value? If it was, great, we do not change anything. If not, we needed to work out why, and a change was required. We all know about this frustration in our economy in South Africa, cannot do much about it, but Hills Business Solutions found that they could apply it through their clients.

This method was applied across all the internal departments in Yardley of London for analysis purposes. Hills Business Solutions started getting a bigger understanding of this principle. It was at that stage, that Cathy could see immense potential in selling Hills Business Solutions services, as she lived, breathed, and stood by that principle, explaining it to the client the way we explained the country example.

Cathy understood this process very easily due to her exposure in calculating economic losses when working with the variety of courier company’s.

However due to her hours, she had to employ two employees to do the data capturing of the bookkeeping requirements for her other clients. She would analyse the output and worked closely with her two employees on queries to raise to the customer.

(as they are also a manufacturing company) but introduced the EVA principle. The way the company changed was truly remarkable. Unknowingly, Cathy was learning strategy. From operations, to costings, to income, and to evaluate each department with the EVA principle whilst doing the internal ISO2002 implementation.

Every so often Hills Business Solutions, gets called in to do internal reviews of the various departments / branches within Rocketseed (PTY) Ltd.

She has very confidently sent in some of her staff to do the internal reviews as she had trained them up with experience. Her experience. Understanding the diverse industries Hills Business Solutions was exposed to, the underlying principle was always the same. Performance. Staff morale, Key Performance “Appraisals” instead of “Analysis”. The very word Appraisal was so much more effective with the staff, than saying analysis, which was built into the KPA, but the method of approach was appraisal. It was a great way for both parties to express shortfalls, why, assistance needed, and appraisal of things accomplished.

Financial Statements as GAAP was no longer an acceptable practise of accounting and reporting arrangements. Cathy and Hills Business Solutions became a member of SAIT (The South African Institute of Tax Practioner’ s) as well as SAIBA, (The South African Institute of Business Accounts) and through yearly continual professional development, Hills Business Solutions has remained at the forefront of knowledge, training up her staff (as she likes to put it, her team is her investment) and ensured that Hills business Solutions firm was knowledgeable at all times.

Performance and service quality = income and satisfied clients. They trained their staff and continue to train them, so that all the staff can understand the vision, and also to advise their client base. Understanding the Tax Administration Act, Service Charter Act (SARS based) as well as changing of new laws relating to our profession, both tax and the new Company’s Act of 2008. She studied part time whilst running Hills Business Solutions client base, corporate clients and employees. She even has two international clients in the shipping industry and would report to the Head Office in Denmark and New York. The auditors at that time were Price Waterhouse Coopers, and the clients were unsatisfied at the service they were getting. Hills Business Solutions had a partner relationship with an auditing firm, where she handed over her completed audit findings and Financial Statements to be checked and signed off. The service delivery was far better than Price Waterhouse Coopers, and a lot cheaper, which defined the service quality that Hills Business Solutions offers.

grants. Although not a registered auditor, she was still able to do an objective review, which opened the doors for a few other NPO’s that the Department of Social Services were suspicious of how the grants were being used.

As HBS grew, more staff were employed, and personally trained up by Cathy, so that the whole company was in unison with the same vision in mind. Hills Business Solutions has now at this stage a unique formula of strong strategy methods using the EVA principle and the various stages of implementing strategies and evaluating of those strategies by analysing the bookkeeping and management accounts on a monthly basis.
Hills Business Solutions motto is “to create stability, takes time, commitment and a strong vision” and so she had her vision, and ensured her staff knew the vision, and to remain committed at all times. Appraisal was key to her staff success.

Hills Business Solutions remains ethically strong, but with the continued professional development, has been able to use the right laws to reduce taxes and improve productivity. Economic Profit. As Business Accountants, we look at the entire business process, not just do the accounting, but find solutions based on the books and ratio’s and working very closely with all their clients.

Hills Business Solutions now has five divisions
• Backlog bookkeeping
• Bookkeeping to Trial Balance
• Accounting and Management accounts
• Portfolio Managers that oversee their set of clients
• Tax structuring and a strategy division which Cathy handles herself most of the time, as well as the Annual Financial Department doing the tax returns (based on Cathy’s structuring) and the preparation and sign off on Annual Financial Statements.
Her Business Partner – Nicole Hill, manages the Business and Employee’s deadlines. 

closely with their clients and for Hills Business Solutions staff to collaborate closely with their clients, that they manage. Their clients had strong strategies in place already by using the principle of “PESTEL” which included solutions to a change in economy, change in politics, and a change in law. Hills Business Solutions clients made it through to the other side of COVID-19! and are still trading to this day. Having clients with her for 15 to 18 years still. Fixing performance levels and tax structuring became a core focus of Cathy’s responsibility. She however praises her team as a team to count on. She would not have been able to pull this off without her departments and the process flow of collating and analysing the end result.

As of now, Hills Business Solutions has been running for 23 years, and still going strong. Having quite a diverse number of clients. Hills Business Solutions is not a large firm, as their core focus is collaborating with their clients very closely, so they take on a select few clients at a time. Tax Structuring became easy, and with Cathy’s analytical mindset of using the economic method, and strong strategic thinking, allows Hills Business Solutions to be constantly evaluating their client’s performance, to ensure what they have put in place with their clients is offering favourable results. Trust, Integrity, Commitment, Strong Ethics and Knowledgeable staff is what Hills Business Solutions stands for. An accounting firm that provides “Business Solutions”.