2018 Top 35-under-35 Finalist: Nestene Clausen

‘They always say that actions speak louder than words. I don’t talk much about what I do, but I am happy to let the beautiful things that happen around me wherever I go tell my story.’

Nestene is the founder and owner of The Audit Pro, the first completely virtual audit firm of South Africa. The Audit Pro ‘team members’ check into the online virtual office when it suits them. Their golden rule is #teamworkmakesthedreamwork and #aslongasthejobisdonewevewon. Nestene has handpicked and customised the software that makes this virtual office environment possible. Similarly, she has handpicked, trained and managed the team members of The Audit Pro into a super effective, cohesive team that work well together, prioritise client relationships, adds value to every single organisation that signs up for their services and, most importantly, gets the job done on time, every time at the highest possible standards. Nestene has established an organisational culture in which clients and team members know that they are taken care of. ‘We don’t have staff members, we have team members. This is one of the most important ingredients in our recipe for success. I’ve said this from day one.’

If you ask her about her greatest achievement to date she would tell you: ‘Our greatest achievement by far has been the selection, training and successful placing of one of our staff members who applied for a job with us as a trainee accountant; with only a matric certificate, years of experience as a picker in a pharmacy and the dream of becoming a chartered accountant. She is now working with one of our clients in an excellent position in the accounting department and she has started her studies towards becoming a chartered accountant. We could not be more proud.’

Nestene has also recently published a book, Tips, tricks and checklists from a tax practitioner: ace your South African income tax return, that aims to empower every person that needs to file a South African income tax return with the knowledge, skills and checklists to be able to do so. This book targets everyone that doesn’t want to or can’t afford to appoint a tax practitioner to file their income tax return and is a typical example of how Nestene is breaking down walls and pushing boundaries in her quest to ‘change the world’. ‘I was once told (at the first international conference I attended in the UK) that my biggest problem is that I still believe I can change the world. I see this as my biggest asset and the driving force behind everything that I’ve accomplished thus far.’