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 CAVA, the Chartered Accountants Voluntary Advice service, has issued a call for more qualified chartered accountants in response to the growing demand for its service from recession-hit owner-managed businesses. Increasing its network of volunteers will enable CAVA to roll out its valued service in more locations across Ireland in 2011. CAVA was established in 2008 by the Chartered Accountants Leinster Society and is run by Chartered Accountants in Ireland who offer their time and services free of charge to individuals who are not in a financial position to acquire these services elsewhere.
This service was originally initiated with MABS, the Money and Budgeting Advice Service.
 According to Orla Fisher a Senior Manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers and a member of the Chartered Accountants Leinster Society committee who has been spearheading the CAVA initiative, there is significant demand in the country from people in need of advice and direction concerning business matters, particularly sole traders.
"MABS deals with a huge volume of personal and domestic queries; however, there was an urgent void in the market for people experiencing financial difficulty associated with business type queries, especially after the economic effects of 2008. Essentially there was no place for these people to turn to and in response, CAVA was established to assist these individuals," said Ms Fisher.
Since 2008, CAVA volunteers have been assisting the public with issues such as filing tax returns, determining self-employed and small business entitlements, preparing accounts, dealing with creditors and business debt and a host of other business type queries.
Margo Fitzgerald, a chartered accountant volunteer, has found her involvement with CAVA very rewarding: "As we are currently in such a deep economic recession, it is important that we use our skills and knowledge to help people less well off than ourselves. All of the CAVA cases I have dealt with involved people who are running small businesses who can no longer afford to obtain professional advice to deal with taxation, cashflow or budgeting matters. In many cases, a letter to the Revenue Commissioners outlining their current financial position, preparation of a tax return, or a review of the cost base of their businesses may be all that is needed to enable them to survive these tough times. A little help from CAVA could mean the survival of many small businesses in this country."
Last year, CAVA linked up with the Citizens Information Centre (CIC), with the result that volunteers, who are all fully qualified members, are doing a great deal of voluntary work from CIC locations throughout the country. These clinics usually operate on a fortnightly/monthly basis and meetings operate strictly by appointment.
Gillian Duffy, Manager at the Chartered Accountants Leinster Society, said: "Most people that come to CAVA in need of advice or assistance are self-employed individuals. Their personal finances are very often tied up with their business finances. Typically, they need information from CIC or help from MABS with their personal finances and assistance from CAVA with the business side of things. In response to the demand for our services, we are urging more qualified volunteers to give some of their time to support our services and so enable us to roll out the service to more locations across Ireland."
CAVA currently has a base of volunteers working in conjunction with various MABS and CIC offices. These volunteers are working extremely hard on this initiative and providing a very worthwhile service to individuals, who until 2008 had no place else to go. This service offering has grown significantly since 2008 and with CAVA now operating through MABS and CIC we hope that other Chartered Accountants would consider offering some of their free time to this very worthwhile and rewarding service.
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