Meet the PBS Team: The Specialists Behind Your Bookkeeping, Payroll and Client Support

As a business becomes more complex, the finance function usually involves more people, systems and responsibilities.

There are more employees to pay, more transactions moving through the accounts and more financial information needed by business owners, managers and accountants. Processes that worked when the business was smaller can become harder to maintain once several areas need attention at the same time.

PBS has developed a specialist team structure around that reality.

Our clients work with people who bring experience across different areas of bookkeeping, payroll, client service, reporting and financial systems. The team stays connected around the same client, so information can move between the people who need it without the business owner having to manage those handovers themselves.

Here are some of the people behind that structure.

Chris Stenhouse, Managing Director & Systems Lead

Chris brings a systems and technology background to PBS, with much of his work focused on how bookkeeping, payroll, reporting and data systems operate in practice.

Before joining PBS, he spent more than five years at Apple in technical roles, including as a Lead Genius. That experience shaped the way he approaches problem-solving today, particularly when different systems, processes and people need to work together.

At PBS, Chris is involved in the practical design of bookkeeping and reporting systems, software integrations and internal workflows. His focus is on making sure those systems are reliable, useful and suited to the level of complexity within the business.

He is also responsible for the longer-term direction of PBS as Managing Director, including the way the service model has developed around specialist roles rather than expecting one bookkeeper to remain across every part of a client’s finance function.

Communication is an important part of that approach. Chris has spoken about the value of having team members who can explain technical information clearly, particularly because business owners should not need an accounting background to understand what is happening in their own financial information.

Leanne Burgess, Director of Client Services

Leanne has been with PBS for more than 19 years and brings more than two decades of experience across bookkeeping, BAS, payroll and client support.

Her role combines client leadership with the technical development of the bookkeeping and payroll teams.

A significant part of Leanne’s work is mentoring team members and helping them continue developing their knowledge as payroll, BAS and compliance requirements change. That ongoing learning is important because the work has become increasingly specialised, particularly for businesses with larger teams and more complex employer obligations.

Leanne also works directly with clients and their accountants, helping business owners better understand the financial information behind their business and where their processes may need attention.

Her perspective is grounded in the detail of the work, from balance sheet reconciliation and payroll obligations through to the financial warning signs that can sit unnoticed when accounts are not being reviewed properly.

That combination of technical oversight, mentoring and client support helps maintain consistency across the wider PBS team.

Hear Chris and Leanne share how careers at PBS can grow over time, and what they value in developing their team.

Tram Pham, Client Services Manager

Tram has just celebrated five years with PBS and has grown into one of the most senior members of the delivery team.

With an accounting background and strong bookkeeping experience, she works closely across client service, bookkeeping and team delivery. She is often one of the first people new clients meet, but her role extends well beyond onboarding.

Tram oversees the delivery team and helps manage more complex client matters when they need input from different people across PBS. She also remains closely involved in bookkeeping leadership, which means she understands both the technical work and the wider client relationship.

That becomes particularly valuable when a client joins PBS with several issues happening at once.

In one recent onboarding, the team identified problems across both payroll and bookkeeping. Some employees were not being paid at the correct rates, leave accruals were inconsistent and transactions had been duplicated or reconciled to the wrong accounts.

Tram helped bring those issues together so the relevant bookkeeping and payroll specialists could work through them with the right context.

Her role gives clients a consistent point of contact while also making sure the right specialist is involved when something needs deeper attention. Behind the scenes, she also helps keep priorities, escalations and delivery moving across the team.

Tash Holmesby, Bookkeeping Team Leader

Tash brings more than 20 years of experience as a BAS Agent to the PBS team, along with a Diploma in Payroll Management and further advanced payroll training.

As Bookkeeping Team Leader, much of her role involves technical oversight, problem solving and reviewing the detail within client files.

That becomes particularly important when a business has been operating for several years and historical issues have gradually built up in the accounts.

Regular reconciliation and review help the team identify unusual balances, coding problems or missing information before those issues become part of a much larger clean-up exercise.

Tash also works closely with the wider team when questions move across different areas. A bookkeeping issue may need information from payroll, or a client query may require further investigation before the team can provide a useful answer.

Her experience gives the team an additional level of technical support when those situations become more complicated.

Amy Cole and Kim Green, Payroll Officers

Payroll becomes increasingly difficult to treat as a simple administrative task once a business starts employing more people.

Employee setup, leave balances, pay rates and the timing of payroll obligations all require regular attention, particularly as Australian payroll requirements continue to change.

Amy and Kim bring close to two decades of combined experience across payroll, accounting and bookkeeping.

Their work includes the day-to-day payroll processes that keep employee records and pay runs moving, while also supporting the checking and compliance work behind them.

Having people who spend their time working specifically within payroll also gives the wider PBS team a stronger base of specialist knowledge.

Chris has spoken previously about why this structure became important at PBS. Payroll compliance is one of the more complex areas the team manages, and keeping across ongoing changes requires dedicated professional development and attention. Expecting one person to remain across payroll, bookkeeping, BAS and financial reporting becomes increasingly difficult as those areas become more specialised.

How the team works around the client

A payroll issue can affect the bookkeeping, and a bookkeeping problem can flow through to reporting. Client questions may also need input from more than one person before the right answer is clear.

That is why the PBS team works across the same client relationship rather than treating each area as separate. Tram helps keep communication and priorities moving, Tash provides technical oversight across bookkeeping, Amy and Kim focus on payroll, while Chris and Leanne support the broader systems, service and client relationship.

For clients, this means they can access specialist knowledge without having to coordinate each person themselves or rely on one individual holding all of the information.

The wider PBS team

The people featured in this article are part of a broader PBS team working across bookkeeping, payroll, data and client support.

That wider structure also includes an in-house Data Specialist, giving PBS the ability to look at the systems, information flow and internal tools that sit behind the bookkeeping and reporting work.

The team is continuing to grow, with experienced new hires joining across different areas of the business.

We’ll be introducing more of the wider PBS team over the coming months and sharing more about the experience behind each role and how those roles support clients.

Explore how PBS can support your business

If your current bookkeeping setup is becoming harder to manage as your team, payroll or reporting needs grow, you can explore how PBS supports each part of the finance function.

Explore PBS services across bookkeeping, specialist payroll management and strategic reporting.

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