A Scottish-founded accountancy and business advisory firm with offices across Scotland and in Newcastle, training graduates, school leavers and placement students.
Johnston Carmichael is an accountancy and business advice firm. It prepares accounts, carries out audits (independent checks of accounts), gives tax and business advice, and works with companies, family businesses, farms and individuals. It also trains a large number of young people to become qualified accountants each year.
The firm was founded in 1936 in Elgin, in the north east of Scotland, as W. D. Johnston and Carmichael by William Dewar Johnston and John Carmichael. Johnston had begun by turning farm records into annual accounts, and the two founders focused on personal service and integrity. During the Second World War, Mr Carmichael kept the business going by visiting farms. By the 1950s it had five offices across the north east. Grenville Johnston, the founder's son, brought in computerised accounting in the 1970s, and Patrick Machray became the first chief executive in 1991. It opened in Edinburgh in 2002, in Dundee and London in 2019 and in Newcastle in 2023. Lynne Walker is now chief executive and partner. It said in October 2024 that it had over 950 people, and its early careers pages mention 13 locations in Scotland and beyond.
Its chief executive describes the firm's guiding principle as "doing the right thing for our colleagues, clients and communities", which it says has held since its founding almost 90 years ago. A 2013 rebrand set four values: remaining relevant, leading our future, doing the right thing, and standing in other people's shoes. The firm also says it wants to be a world-class learning organisation.
The firm's work includes accountancy, audit, tax and wider business advisory. It grew through offices across the Highlands, Aberdeen, Tayside and the Central Belt, including mergers such as Bell Bauchop in Inverness in 1995 and Andrew Duncan and Co in 2004. It partners with the ICAS Foundation, which supports accountancy students from disadvantaged backgrounds, offering bursaries, internships, mentoring and networking. A 2023 announcement said this would support two students for up to four years.
The firm says it is close-knit, with strong working relationships between colleagues, and its head of early careers has said the doors are wide open for young people starting a business and accountancy career. These are the firm's own statements. Its student induction in Dundee included talks on values and culture from senior leaders. In October 2024 it welcomed 92 new students across graduates, university placement students, summer interns and school leavers (90 in 2023). School leavers join through JC Futures, a four-to-six-year accounting apprenticeship leading to a permanent job. The firm pays for qualifications such as ICAS, ACCA and tax qualifications, or a graduate apprenticeship at Robert Gordon University or Glasgow Caledonian University, with study leave and tuition. Pay is described only as competitive, and entry requirements were not listed when we looked, so check the careers site for current dates.
Website: johnstoncarmichael.com
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