Want the latest news from Swansea sent straight to your inbox? Don't miss anything from your city! Sign up for regular updates Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

It may sound like a Japanese beer, but Nomoshobo is actually sophisticated software for accountants working with small businesses, that aims to get more accurate data into cloud accounting systems.

For a venture that only began in August 2016, Nomoshobo is already turning heads. With private investment secured and shareholders on board, the start-up has been selected for the Welsh Government’s Accelerated Growth programme – which forecasts that it will have in excess of 20 employees on board within three years.

Director and founder Murray Pullin built up his accounting expertise in a number of roles since qualifying in 2005.

"I was involved in software consultant budgeting and forecasting solutions for some of the UK’s biggest companies," he says.

It’s no surprise that Pullin has chosen Swansea’s TechHub as the base for his entrepreneurial adventure, and he cites the centre’s other success stories, such as Veeqo, as inspiration and a source of advice.

"For me, it’s all about user experience. There are some talented designers at TechHub and a few consultants. I can go to Mike Leach web design, and explain the kind of screen I’m trying to build and what it’s meant to do and ask if it will work, will someone have a good experience?"

So, what exactly is Nomoshobo?

"Well, it’s not accounting software," explains Mr Pullin.

"It’s software that brings accountants and their clients closer together. It links to accounting software, and it’s all about streamlining accounting processes.”

Unlike traditional accounting software, which is targeted at SMEs, Nomoshobo is targeted directly at accountants.

Essentially, it’s all about freeing up accountants to work better with small businesses.

(Image: publicity pics)

“Nomoshobo enables accountants to work with their clients to get data in more accurately – which frees them up to do more meaningful and valuable work – like forecasting and mentoring,” says Pullin.

“Checking for errors etc can take a long time and there’s no value for the end customer.

“By giving a small business better access to its latest financial information, Nomoshobo empowers it to make better decisions,” he says.

With a background in accounting, Pullin’s fascination with all things tech has inspired his journey along the entrepreneurial route.

“When the business I worked for was sold in 2011, I gave myself the challenge of building an accountancy practice in the cloud,” he explains.

The same year, he co-founded Zoosme. By 2014 it was a fully-operational cloud-based accountancy practice.

“We were onboarding customers on the cloud, taking them on a journey on the cloud, and completing their day-to-day finance on the cloud, approving, compliance and filing, all on the cloud,” explains Pullin.

“Then in 2015, we were spotted by a big software company and they asked us to go with them on a city tour – to show their clients how to work with technology.”

But working on the cloud wasn’t all great – there was the challenge of getting clients to get the data in correctly – and this is where Nomoshobo was born.

“We did some research with accountants – and we got them to grade their clients’ ability to enter good data into cloud accounts.

“We had a scale of one to five, where five was super-efficient, and they were confident in the business’ ability to enter good data, and one was incompetent, and they would have no confidence at all in the data.

“The average score came out as 1.8 – so this clarified that we had a real problem to solve!” says Pullin.

He points out that standard accounting software is addressing the issue by looking at tools to identify the errors after they’ve gone in.

“We’re looking at it in a different way – we’re trying to stop the errors before they go in,” he says.

“I like to think of it as a polluted river – you don’t try and stop the pollution downstream, you stop it at source – we’re trying to be preventative.”

(Image: publicity pics)

Nomoshobo is currently in a pilot phase, with the test users providing feedback on the features and ease of use.

“The pilot phase is more about user experience than functionality,” explains Pullin.

“We’re on the verge of our first release,” he adds.

Lead developer on Nomoshobo is Alan Boyce, who was previously lead developer at Vizolution. Boyce has recently launched DragonfiAR, designing cloud-based apps and games for mobile and desktop.

“I met Alan through a networking group in Llandelio,” says Pullin. “Alan understands all the back-end work – how processes are run and automated – but he also has ability to do the front end, and he comes back with something that’s workable.

“To make games you have to understand the user experience and you also need it to perform.

“He’s a great guy to have onboard to really get the project off the ground.”

And the curious name Nomoshobo?

“No more shoeboxes!” says Pullin.

Accounting can occasionally descend into a rather shambolic function – where invoices and receipts get stuffed into shoeboxes.

“The phrase ‘no more shoeboxes’ just came to me as I relaxed at home one evening. I played around with it and came up with Nomoshobo,” he explains.

“We’ve priced it in a way that we would expect accountants not to pass on the expense to their clients.

“Depending on the number of clients – for the first 100 clients it costs from £30 a month up to £150 a month for 1000 clients.”

With its official launch on the horizon, and its enrolment in the Accelerated Growth Programme, Nomoshobo looks poised for an exciting future. Pullin says he will be looking to invest in key new staff very shortly.

“I love what I do! And there are opportunities to make a difference to the way a lot of people work. I’m driven by my passion for tech and passion to make processes easier,” says Pullin. “At the end of the day it’s about saving people time.”