Couch Perry & Wilkes (CPW) is a British success story. Founded in 1978 by Tony Couch, Gordon Perry and Geoff Wilkes, the leading mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and low carbon consultancy has grown significantly. It now operates across 13 offices and employs around 380 staff. The firm has expanded rapidly with offices in Poland and India as well as several across the UK.
The firm relied on Pegasus Opera 3, an Infor company, but found the system failed to meet multi-office and multinational requirements. CPW evaluated options for a new cloud-based accounting solution that would support multi-entity accounting and integrate with existing systems. CPW also wanted a solution that would provide easy cost-centre reporting across its 13 locations.
Another key requirement for CPW was integration with other systems. These included an integration to Rapport 3, a project management solution that gives engineering firms a more connected way to manage their daily operations. As part of the digital transformation project, AccountsIQ also had to integrate with IRIS Cascade, the new HR and Payroll solution that CPW had chosen.
AccountsIQ has prebuilt integrations to both Rapport3 and IRIS Cascade, as well as over 70 other solutions.
Tom Perks, Finance Manager at CPW, said: “One of the main reasons for us to choose AccountsIQ over other offerings was the seamless integration it was going to have with our project management system.
“ExpenseIn also provided a strong offering. Previously, a lot of time was spent manually transferring and importing data from one system to another, but that is now handled via various APIs. Therefore, the quality of data is more robust.”
Implementation and Benefits
CPW selected AccountsIQ and ExpenseIn, the expense management solution that AccountsIQ acquired in 2025.
The implementation project took less than three months, with Perks stating: “The implementation processes for both AccountsIQ and ExpenseIn were really well planned out. The support was there both on scheduled calls and outside of those scheduled times as well. The implementation specialists were really knowledgeable about all aspects of the system, and they really did guide and support us through that process.”
CPW now has a single, connected finance stack where finance data flows seamlessly across its operational system, payroll and finance applications. The integration with IRIS Cascade means that as employees join or change departments, the cost centres are automatically updated across the finance stack.
AccountsIQ is now delivering several benefits, though CPW has not quantified the improvements over Pegasus yet. Existing benefits include:
- A full audit trail across purchase orders and invoices.
- Deeper, cost-centre-level reporting for senior leadership.
- Reduced manual data entry and improved data quality.
- A finance system built to scale alongside a growing, multi-site business.
Next up ExpenseIn
Having completed the rollout of AccountsIQ, CPW is now looking at the rollout of ExpenseIn across the organisation. It has already identified several benefits that the expense management solution will deliver. These include managing company credit card spend through automated bank feeds.
In addition, with CPW offering developed net zero carbon pathways for clients, it was attracted by ExpenseIn’s ability to track, analyse, and report on expense-related carbon emissions.
Perks added: “We’ve made the right decision for the business because both of these systems are already demonstrating to us the ability to be able to cope with our ever-changing size and structure, and they can be adapted to ensure that those different reporting requirements are possible.”
Darren Cran, CEO of AccountsIQ, said: “CPW’s legacy finance system was delaying its projected growth. The new connected financial stack combining AccountsIQ and ExpenseIn has struck the right balance to enable CPW to gain better oversight of its finance operations, improving its productivity by reducing its reliance on manual data entry.
“In just nine months we’ve brought a detailed audit trail to purchase orders, approvals and invoices, along with much deeper reporting for senior leadership across CPW’s cost centres. Through this, we’ve established greater security around what is going through its purchase ledger. We look forward to continuing to support CPW as it continues to grow.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
For AccountsIQ, CPW is a valuable mid-market proof point: a growing, multi-entity consultancy replacing legacy finance with a connected cloud stack that includes ExpenseIn. It strengthens AccountsIQ’s credibility against larger finance vendors and showcases its integration-led proposition.
For CPW, the move removes a constraint on growth, improves control and reporting across offices, and creates a scalable finance platform that can support international expansion, better data quality and future automation.
