If you needed to buy a new machine today, could your accountant tell you by this afternoon whether you can?
Most owners ask, wait a fortnight, then decide on feel and hope.
The machine gets bought late, or bought when it was never going to cover itself. Either way the money has gone.
Or read on to see how it works.
How a purchase actually gets decided when the number is missing
- Quote lands Monday
- Email the accountant
- Wait for last year
- Guess the payback
- Buy it anyway
- Find out later
By the time a figure arrives, the decision has already been made for you.
That is how the second machine ends up running half loaded and barely covering itself. Nobody sees it until the accounts turn up, months after the money left.
Five questions about this purchase you probably can’t answer today
None of these need a forecast. They need records that are current and a margin you can actually see.
- Which product, customer or job carries your margin?
- Can you fund this machine without squeezing cash?
- How many months until it pays itself back?
- Which of two supplier quotes costs less overall?
- Which busy customer is earning you almost nothing?
That makes everything downstream harder.
What the same decision looks like when the number is already there
Same day. From live numbers. With the reasoning.
You open Xero, see margin by product, customer and job, and the purchase becomes a calculation rather than a feeling.
- 1 afternoonfrom quote to answer
- Margin by product
- Payback in months
- Two quotes compared
- Sign it off
The same routine answers the next hire, the next price rise and the next contract.
What changes in ninety days, and what you can decide by then
Ninety days is how long it takes to move from asking for a figure to already having it.
- Before day one
Your records collected for you
We agree the scope, complete the checks and deal with your current accountant or bookkeeper ourselves.
- Day 30
Margin visible by product and job
The books are complete and reconciled, so you can see where the money is actually made.
- Day 60
Purchases tested before you commit
Payback, cash impact and total supplier cost get worked out before the order goes in, not after.
- Day 90
Same-day answers, every month
Monthly management information arrives on the agreed date, while you can still act on what it says.
The review is a fixed fee, credited in full against onboarding
Sixty minutes with Gavin on your actual records: how the bookkeeping runs, what the reporting shows, where debtors and creditors sit, and what your systems can and cannot tell you about margin.
It is a look at your numbers, not a sales call.
You leave with your top five priorities and an indicative monthly structure, whether or not you go any further with us.
Four new clients a month, and the handover from your current accountant is managed by us at no separate charge.
Who this works for, and who should not book it
The review is worth doing only if the answer would change what you do next.
This fits if
- You are an owner-managed business with staff and real purchasing decisions to make.
- You have an accountant, but nobody who can answer a question in the same week.
- You cannot say which product, customer or job is carrying the margin.
- You are weighing a machine, a hire, a price rise or a supplier switch.
- You want monthly figures you can act on, not a filing exercise each spring.
This does not fit if
- You run a cash business.
- Your work is dependent on CIS construction subcontracting.
- You want records presented in a way that is not accurate.
- You cannot explain how your own business makes money.
- You only want year-end accounts filed and nothing in between.
Two minutes. If it fits, you’ll book the review with Gavin.
The next purchase is already coming. The question is what you’ll know first
- Show me my real margin
- Tell me if I can afford it
- Compare two suppliers properly
- Answer me the same day
That is the whole product: the figure in front of you while the decision is still open.
Think your numbers should be answering this?
See if Ardein fitsCapacity is four new clients a month, so the list stays short.
See if your finance function fits your size / structure
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