Written for Scottish accountants and their professional practices. A practical guide to when an introduction to a specialist asset finance broker makes sense, how it protects your client relationship, and what Mackenzie Commercial Finance can offer.
My name is Alana Mackenzie and I am a Director of Mackenzie Commercial Finance Ltd. Between Martin and me, we bring over 35 years of combined experience across the banking, finance and legal sectors to every client engagement. Martin spent twenty years in banking and commercial finance, including significant time with two of the largest asset finance lenders in the UK market. My own background is in the legal sector, where I spent over fifteen years working closely with professionals across the north of Scotland, including significant experience in debt recovery. We founded MCF in 2026 with a clear focus: asset finance and refinance for businesses across the whole of Scotland.
Part of my role at MCF is building relationships with professional introducers, particularly accountants, solicitors and other advisers who work closely with the business owners we are here to help. This article is written for those professionals. It is specific to Scotland, it is based on real conversations I have had with accountants from Inverness and Dingwall to Aberdeen and beyond, and I hope it is useful.
What we actually do
Mackenzie Commercial Finance is a commercial finance brokerage. We are not accountants and we are not lawyers. We are bankers who became brokers. Our world is banking and lending. Yours is accounting. The reason these two things sit well together is that your clients' financial lives involve both, and the best outcomes happen when the right specialists work alongside each other.
Our main services are asset finance and asset refinance. Asset finance covers the purchase of business assets through hire purchase or lease agreements. Refinance covers the release of equity from assets a business already owns. We are based in Inverness but we work with businesses across the whole of Scotland, from Shetland to the Borders, and we travel to meet clients wherever suits them, at their business premises, at their home, or at our office. We do not charge for that initial conversation. Our number is 01463 652 653 and we are available at any time.
The most common reason an accountant calls us
The most frequent enquiry we receive through professional introducers is actually the most straightforward one. A business client needs to finance the purchase of an asset. A company vehicle, a van, a lorry, a tractor, a piece of machinery, specialist equipment. They have found what they want to buy and they need to know how to fund it without draining the business account.
Their accountant knows the business inside out. They know whether the business can service the payments. They know whether hire purchase or a lease makes more sense from a tax perspective. What they may not know is which lender will offer the best rate, which will look most favourably at that particular asset type, or which operate with a panel that actually includes the lender best suited to the deal.
That is exactly where we come in. We search a panel of over 120 lenders, the majority of whom operate exclusively through brokers and are not available to businesses approaching them directly. We match the requirement to the most suitable lender, handle the paperwork, and keep the accountant informed throughout. The client gets a competitive solution. The accountant has added genuine value to the relationship without adding workload to their day.
This applies equally to new-start businesses, which is a scenario accountants encounter regularly. One of the most common misconceptions in the market is that asset finance requires an established trading history. It does not always. We have placed asset finance for new businesses across Scotland, and we know which lenders are willing to look at a well-presented new-start case. If your client is just getting started and needs a vehicle or a piece of equipment to trade, that conversation is absolutely worth having with us before they assume the bank will say no.
Refinance: the option most accountants have not considered
Asset refinance is less widely understood but can be one of the most powerful tools available to a business sitting on depreciating assets.
The principle is straightforward. If a business owns plant, vehicles or machinery outright, or even if those assets are still on existing finance agreements, a lender can advance funds against their current market value. The business receives a cash lump sum. The assets remain in use. There is no property security required, no solicitor involvement, and no floating charge over the business.
Where this becomes particularly relevant from an accountant's perspective is the balance sheet. An asset that has been depreciated to near zero on the accounts may still hold significant real-world value. A ten-year-old excavator, a piece of agricultural machinery, a commercial vehicle. A lender working from market value rather than book value may see something very different from what the accounts show. Only the accountant can advise on the tax implications of a raised asset value, which is exactly why that conversation between accountant and client needs to happen before a refinance progresses. Our role starts once that piece of advice has been given.
The scenarios where refinance comes up through accountant introductions include clients needing to clear HMRC arrears, clients wanting to reduce monthly finance outgoings by consolidating multiple hire purchase agreements, clients needing a deposit to purchase a new asset, and clients going through a business acquisition where the target business holds assets that can be used to fund part of the purchase price.
The trust problem, and why it matters
I have spoken with a number of accountants across Scotland in recent months, and one issue comes up consistently. The reluctance to refer a client to a finance broker is not about a lack of suitable clients. It is about reputation.
Making a referral means putting your name behind someone else. If that referral goes well, the client remembers who introduced them. If it goes badly, they remember that too, and they remember it far longer.
One conversation I had recently stayed with me. An accountant I spoke to had referred a client to a finance broker they knew, a well-networked type who attended the right events and was visible in the right circles. The client engaged with the broker, paid an upfront engagement fee of several thousand pounds, and months later was being told the fee was about to expire and that another payment may be required. The client came back to the accountant. The accountant had recommended this person. The damage to that relationship was immediate, and the accountant told me that a ban on ever using that broker again was now in place across their whole practice.
At Mackenzie Commercial Finance, we do not charge engagement fees. We do not charge the client anything upfront. We are paid a commission by the lender when finance is successfully placed, and that commission is disclosed in full to the client before anything is signed. If a client changes their mind at any point in the process, there is nothing owed to us. The client never returns to their accountant out of pocket because of an introduction they made to us.
Specialism matters here too
Accountants specialise. A tax adviser is not a forensic accountant. A management accounts specialist is not necessarily the right person for a complex personal tax situation. That is understood across the profession because it reflects the reality that depth of knowledge in one area usually comes at the expense of depth in another.
Finance broking is the same. Mackenzie Commercial Finance does asset finance and asset refinance. We do not claim to do commercial property, invoice finance, or business banking. If, during a conversation with a client, it becomes clear that what they actually need sits outside our area, we tell them. We tell the accountant too, so that the right specialist can be found. Our goal is not to take every piece of business that comes through the door. Our goal is to be the firm that Scottish businesses and their advisers can rely on for asset finance and refinance, consistently and over the long term.
How we work with accountants in practice
We have a straightforward onboarding process for professional introducers that is not labourious and can be talked through in a single phone call or meeting. Formal onboarding is required if you are likely to introduce clients whose finance may fall under FCA regulation, which typically applies to sole traders and partnerships in certain circumstances. For most commercial introductions it is a simple process.
On the question of commission for introductions: most of the accountants I speak to are not interested in a payment. What they want is confidence that their client is being looked after properly and that their own relationship with that client is not going to be damaged. That is entirely understandable, and it is the basis on which most of our professional relationships work. Where an accountant does want a commission-sharing arrangement, that is something we are happy to discuss, and it is always disclosed in full to the client.
I am actively looking to build relationships with accountancy practices across Scotland. Whether your practice is in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Perth, Stirling, Kirkcaldy, Oban or anywhere else in Scotland, I am happy to have a phone conversation, join an online meeting, or come to your office in person. If it would be useful to present to your whole team about what we do and how an introduction process would work in practice, I am very happy to arrange that. There is no cost and no commitment involved.
A practical summary
Mackenzie Commercial Finance is a specialist asset finance brokerage based in Inverness, covering the whole of Scotland. Our combined experience across banking, finance and the legal sector spans over 35 years. We arrange hire purchase and lease agreements for the purchase of business assets, including vehicles, plant, machinery and equipment, for both established businesses and new starts across Scotland. We also specialise in asset refinance, releasing equity from assets businesses already own.
We do not charge clients for our initial consultation. We do not charge engagement fees. We visit clients anywhere in Scotland, at their premises or at home, at a time that suits them. Our number is 01463 652 653. We are available at any time.
If you have a client in Scotland who needs asset finance for a purchase, or who has assets that might hold more value than the balance sheet suggests, a conversation with us costs nothing and takes as long as it needs to.
Commission transparency and your involvement in the process
One of the questions that comes up when I speak to accountants, particularly those who have not worked with a finance broker before, is around commission. Specifically: does the commission a broker receives from a lender influence which lender they recommend to the client?
It is a fair question and one I am very happy to answer directly. At Mackenzie Commercial Finance, our commission arrangements vary between lenders. We do not push clients towards a particular lender because the commission is higher. Our reputation depends on getting the right outcome for the client, and that means recommending the most suitable lender for the specific requirement, not the most financially convenient one for us. The commission disclosure that the client receives before signing confirms the exact amount in every case.
If you would like more detail before making an introduction, we are more than happy to sit down with you, by phone, online or in person, and explain who our lending partners are, what our commission arrangements look like, and how our recommendation process works. If you would prefer that commission disclosure happens at an earlier stage than is standard, we can arrange that. There is nothing in our process that we would not be comfortable explaining in full to an accountant before they introduce a client to us.
On the question of how involved you can be in the process: that is entirely up to you and your client. Provided the client is happy and gives their explicit permission, we are very comfortable keeping the accountant fully informed at every stage. If you would like to be present at our initial meeting with the client, you are welcome. If you would like to be copied on key communications, we can arrange that. If you would prefer to simply make the introduction and hear the outcome, that works too.
This is your client. You have built that relationship over years. We understand that, and we want to respect it completely. Our goal is to make the introduction as straightforward and as low-risk for you as possible, and to give you every reason to feel confident that the client is in good hands from the moment they speak to us.
The views expressed in this article are the personal opinions of Alana Mackenzie as an individual and do not represent the views of Mackenzie Commercial Finance Ltd or Crystal Business Finance Ltd. Nothing in this article should be taken as financial or legal advice or a recommendation of any kind. Where this article refers to commercial finance, it refers to unregulated commercial lending, which falls outside the scope of FCA consumer credit regulation. Regulated finance for sole traders and partnerships is handled separately and in full compliance with FCA requirements. Mackenzie Commercial Finance Ltd is an Appointed Representative of Crystal Business Finance Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are a broker, not a lender. We will receive a commission from the lender for all completed agreements.