BDO’s financial information during accounting period 2021: Strong growth both in Finland and globall

We also built growth through acquisitions: at the beginning of 2021, we acquired the business operations of Helle Partners as well as HelBal's share capital. Both of these are audit firms based in Uusimaa. The clients and employees of Helle Partners and HelBal will continue as part of BDO. In addition, we acquired the share capital of the audit firm RSM Finland Oy at the beginning of our current financial period on 1 September. The effect of the acquisition of RSM Finland on our growth is not yet showing in the figures of the financial period 2020–2021. The merger with RSM Finland brought synergies to the customers of both companies – BDO's extensive network of experts, service selection and industry expertise provided RSM's clients with more comprehensive services, while the client relationship with their familiar account manager continues. RSM Finland’s experts strengthen BDO's competence, in particular in the areas of special audits, restructuring and tax services. With the acquisition of RSM, we became Finland's leading auditing firm for special financial management issues related to insolvency situations.

At the end of the financial period, we had 267 employees, whereas the previous year, this number was 236.  Of our personnel, 52% are women and 48% men. As the exceptional circumstances continue, we have paid constant attention to our personnel’s well-being and coping in addition to developing their competence. We have supported the well-being of our personnel through, for example, incentives and activities within the work community. We continuously monitor our employee satisfaction and morale by conducting surveys. The results of regular pulse surveys were excellent throughout the financial period (average of 4 on a scale of 1–5). In addition, the personnel provided excellent feedback on management to supervisors and assignment managers (average 4.33 on a scale of 1–5).

BDO's global growth continues as well

The combined turnover of the global BDO network grew to EUR 9,8 billion (USD 11.8 billion) for the financial period that ended on 30 September 2021. The year-on-year growth was 10.8% when calculated at fixed exchange rates. Our global growth has been steady. The share of auditing services in the global turnover is 42%, the shares of tax and advisory services is 21.5% for both service areas, and the share of outsourcing services for financial administration is 15%.

BDO serves clients locally around the world. In Finland, we have 17 offices, globally, we serve our clients from 1,728 offices in 167 countries. With shared tools and operating methods as well as continuous digital development projects, the member companies of our network are working together for our clients more seamlessly than ever. 

More information on BDO Global’s result and the achievements of the financial period is available here.

Everything we do starts from a desire to help

The essence of our operations is a genuine desire to help. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, our clients and employees already became familiar with remote work during the previous financial period, so we were able to serve our customers remotely without disruption using digital tools and other functional remote working practices. With the long period of working remotely, we wanted to revamp our work model to meet the changing needs of working life. At the beginning of August 2021, we adopted a hybrid work model that we developed together with our employees. The hybrid model is centred on both our service promise to provide clients with exceptionally good client service and the desire to offer each of our employees a way of working that best suits their needs. The hybrid work model is always utilised within the limits of the COVID-19 recommendations issued by the authorities.

We are proud that client satisfaction, which was already at a very high level, increased further during the financial period. Of our clients, 94%* gave us an overall grade of very good or good. Our Net Promoter Score was 75*, which is an excellent result. We are constantly developing our services and working practices to ensure that we can continue to meet our clients’ expectations and needs with high-quality services.

Responsibility of our operations

We pay attention to the impact of our activities on people, the environment and society. As part of this work, BDO Finland was accepted in June 2021 as a member of the United Nations Global Compact. The UN Global Compact is a corporate responsibility initiative launched by the UN that promotes and develops the ecological, social and economic responsibility of companies and communities by utilising the ten principles of the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our four focus areas are health and well-being, climate action, reducing inequalities, and peace, justice and good governance.

Increasing global risks and shared concerns have led to the creation of BDO’s international sustainable development movement.  Since the beginning of 2021, the whole network has been following a common strategy of sustainable development aimed at promoting sustainable business in our organisations and in the market through concrete actions as well as information distribution, training and leadership.  Internationally, we have invested in new talent, who dedicate their work to promoting sustainable development and support our clients in their change process, in adapting to sustainable future and by creating a long-term competitive advantage.

As part of the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance, our entire international organisation is committed to supporting the goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

 

*) BDO client satisfaction survey 06-08/2021.