A Dollar Down

Every car yard on Parramatta Road has a banner that says drive away today, pay later. It turns out an accounting firm can be had on the same terms.

Retinue lost $38.9 million in 22 months. The day before the administrators arrived, a client was emailed to say their contract now belonged to someone else, nothing was changing and no action was needed.

The buyer put a dollar down, kept the name, the Xero file and the phone number, and has 37 months to pay off the rest. The administrators kept the lights on until the tax practice changed hands.

The firm took 22 months to fail. Its liquidation will take roughly twice that, waiting on the instalments. Somewhere on Parramatta Road, a salesman is taking notes.

This is Part 4 of Unaudited's Retinue series.

Part 1, Cost of Sales, covered how the firm lost $38.9 million without once making a gross profit.

Part 2, First in Line, covered whose money it was, and who gets paid first from what is left.

Part 3, Restraint, covered the lawsuit that has outlived the company. This one covers the sale, and the email that announced it.

At 12.22pm on Thursday 13 February 2025, a Retinue Accounting client received an email. It was addressed to them "as a client", and does not read as though it was written for only one.

"With immediate effect," it began, "responsibility for providing you with Services under you [sic] contract with Retinue Accounting Pty Ltd (RA) is being assigned to Retinue by Squeeze Pty Ltd (RBS)."

The rights and obligations under their contracts, it said, "have now passed to RBS".

The terms, "including all fundamental elements such as price, length and service scope", were not changing.

Service would not be interrupted. "No action is needed on your part."