By Rachel Gandy, Technical Account Manager at Catax
Hi, I’m Rachel and I’ve been a TAM at Catax for just over 2 years. I’m an avid Disney fan, a member of the Women’s Institute (WI) and live in Bolton with my husband and our house bunny, Prince Lennard Fluffybum (Lenny for short). Prior to coming to Catax, I had worked in personal insolvency for several boutique insolvency practitioners in and around the Greater Manchester area. In 2010, I put myself through college and successfully obtained my AAT qualification. After 11 years in insolvency, I decided I needed a new challenge and the role at Catax came up.
So, what is a TAM? Just like any company, Catax loves a good abbreviation! TAM stands for Technical Account Manager. I work in the Research & Development (R&D) Operations department, based at our head office in Altrincham with 12 other TAMs, all varying in experience from being here since Catax started nearly 12 years ago, to some newer members who have only been here for a couple of months. A TAM is the main point of contact for our clients and we are involved in the R&D claim at every step of the process. This means our clients have one point of contact that they get to know whilst completing a claim with us.
The primary role of a TAM is to conduct the initial technical calls with clients and ensure that their projects are qualifying in line with HMRC’s criteria. We then assist them in obtaining the required level of costing information and evidence for us to compile a report (with help from our Specialist Tax Consultants and Tax Analysts) which will then be passed on to HMRC. We are also at the end of the phone should our clients have any questions or problems to do with their claims. Each TAM has their own client base, with quantities varying depending on their experience. This means that our clients deal with the same person throughout their time with us and it allows us to build up a relationship with them over this time. We also work closely with accountants in order to assist our clients when they find it challenging to locate specific costing info they need to provide.
My clients are very wide ranging from companies involved in agriculture, to manufacturers of CBD products, to breweries. No two days are the same at Catax, and that’s what I enjoy about the role the most. I speak to clients on a regular basis, some I have worked with since I started here, others are brand new to the company, and it’s nice to see after all the work that goes into completing an R&D claim for a client the end result of them getting cash back (in a majority of cases).
Everyone that works at Catax is passionate about ensuring that we maximise our claims for our clients, and everyone works really well as a team. – Everyone sits together for lunch (when we’re not playing pool or table tennis) and we even have a drink after work on a Friday together in our office bar (which is actually encouraged by the Directors). There is a great sense of community and collaboration at Catax, and I hope this shows to our clients.