Accountant for community interest companies: over £200,000 of funding paperwork never completed
Accountant for community interest companies that run on grants, contracts and restricted awards, where the funder and the board both want evidence, and the chief executive is doing the finance as well as running the organisation.
We found that £200,000 by asking one plain question about how a cost was being funded. Nobody had hidden it. The awards had simply never been reconciled, line by line, against the money that actually arrived.
Ardein is an outsourced finance function for grant-funded community interest companies, charities and owner-managed businesses, run remotely from Chester by Gavin Jardine MIAB. It covers bookkeeping with fund tracking, payroll, monthly board and evidence packs, year-end accounts and CIC filings. Fees are scoped to the work; the handover from your current accountant is managed at no separate charge.
“They don't feel like a contractor. They get fully involved in the business and are well respected by all.”
UK SME owner
- IAB member (MIAB 292185)
- Anti-money-laundering supervised
- Established 2021
Three answers you’d have before the next board meeting
Answer a funder’s query the same week it lands
Every award sits in a register against the income received and the spend claimed.
Approve a new post knowing which award carries it
Salaries are mapped to awards, so the coverage and the end date are both visible.
Take a decision in the meeting rather than after it
The board pack arrives before the meeting, on the same date each month.
The decisions that go wrong when restricted money is not tracked
Three things CIC leaders have told us, each about a decision taken without the number in front of them.
- Funder
“The funder asked what their award had actually paid for. It took us three weeks, and we still guessed at two of the lines.”
The next application went in late, with an officer who had already lost confidence. The spend existed; the record tying it to the award did not.
- Salary
“We appointed a coordinator against a three-year award, then found the award only covered eighteen months of the post.”
Unrestricted reserves carried the balance for a year. The end dates were in the offer letters and never in the payroll figures.
- Contract
“We ran a council contract for two years assuming it washed its face. A trust grant had been subsidising it throughout.”
The renewal was signed at the old price. Contract income and contract cost had never been put on the same page.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
The funding register is updated monthly and reviewed at each board meeting. You can see what each award has paid for, what is left, and when it ends. A funder’s question is answered from the register in an afternoon. Claims go in on the dates you set, not the dates you notice.
Quick check · no email
If your accountant can only tell you where the grant money went once the year-end accounts are filed, and not this week, you have the wrong accountant
Answer these three questions about your current accountant honestly before you decide anything.
Question 1 of 3
Could they tell you by Friday how much of each restricted award is still unspent?
Could they show which awards cover which salaries, without opening the offer letters?
Could they produce the evidence a funder asked for this week, without a scramble?
The gap is real, and it usually shows up at the worst moment, in front of a funder or a board. The review is where you find out how wide it is.
That is a reasonable position with one area still open. The organisation where we found over £200,000 of unfinished funding paperwork had an accountant too.
You are well served, and there is nothing here you need to buy. The guide on the first ninety days is worth a read if you are planning growth.
Filing the accounts and satisfying a funder are not the same job
Both matter. They answer different questions, on different timescales.
A year-end accountant
Confirms what happened, months after it happened.
Works from totals rather than award by award.
Answers Companies House and HMRC, on their dates.
Rarely sees a funding offer letter.
Ardein
Answers a funder’s question in the week it is asked.
Tracks each award against income received and spend claimed.
Delivers the board pack before the meeting, on an agreed date.
Reads the offer letters, then builds the reporting around them.
Eight questions your funding records should already answer
Work through them as yes or no. The noes are where decisions are being taken blind.
- 01
Can you list every live award with the amount still unspent?
If it takes more than an afternoon, the register does not exist.
- 02
Is every salary mapped to the award or contract that funds it?
Without that, a hiring decision is a guess about reserves.
- 03
Do you know which awards end within the next twelve months?
End dates decide recruitment, not enthusiasm.
- 04
Has every claim due this year actually been submitted?
This is the question that found over £200,000.
- 05
Can you show a funder the spend behind their award on request?
Evidence assembled after the request is always thinner.
- 06
Do you know whether each contract covers its own cost?
Otherwise restricted or unrestricted money is quietly subsidising it.
- 07
Does the board pack arrive before the meeting, every month?
Figures tabled on the day get noted rather than acted on.
- 08
Could you answer a trustee’s question about reserves today?
If not, the reserves policy is a document rather than a control.
What the evidence review looks at before anything is agreed
One session, then a written set of priorities for the next ninety days.
Where the funding actually went
A funding-flow review and a restricted-fund visibility review, award by award.
What the board and funders are not being shown
An evidence checklist and a board-reporting gap review against what your funders ask for.
When claims and reports should land
A claims and reporting timetable, plus the priority actions for the next ninety days.
Entry 01
What one plain question found in a grant-funded organisation’s records
Two entries from client work, both found in the first weeks, both anonymised.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
What clients say
“They don't feel like a contractor. They get fully involved in the business and are well respected by all.”
UK SME owner
What changes by day ninety, and what has to happen first
A defined onboarding, so you know what you will be able to answer and when.
Your records are here and the handover is done
We agree scope, complete AML checks and collect the records. If you have an accountant, we deal with them.
Every award is visible against what it has paid for
Books complete, banks reconciled, awards reconciled to income received, and the gaps written down.
Claims and reporting run to dates you set
Routines for bookkeeping, payroll, credit control, claims and the board pack, with the checks that keep them right.
The funder’s question takes an afternoon
Monthly board and evidence pack on an agreed date, a live funding register, and figures you can decide from.
When we are not the right accountant for your CIC
We do not take on cash-based operations, because the records cannot be evidenced to the standard funders expect.
We do not take on construction work that depends on CIS.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, and from anyone who will not complete AML checks.
There is a minimum monthly commitment, and capacity is capped at four new clients a month.
The review tells you plainly whether this is a fit, before either of us commits.
Questions CIC leaders ask before they get in touch
Is the Funding and Finance Evidence Review just a sales call?
No. It is a working session on your funding flows, restricted funds, evidence and board reporting, and you leave with an evidence checklist, a claims and reporting timetable and priority actions for the next ninety days. It carries a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding if you go ahead.
We already have an accountant for community interest companies, so why would we need you?
Most accountants file the accounts and the CIC report well. Fewer track money award by award, map salaries to the awards funding them, or produce a board pack before the meeting. The organisation where we found over £200,000 of unfinished funding paperwork already had an accountant filing on time.
What happens with our current accountant if we switch?
We handle it. We write for professional clearance, collect the records, agree a transition plan around your year end and set out who is responsible for what. The handover is managed by Ardein at no separate charge, and you are not asked to chase anybody or explain the change yourself.
What are we committing to if we go ahead?
An ongoing monthly engagement, scoped after we have seen your records and understood how the organisation runs, with a monthly fee agreed in advance rather than billed by the hour. There is a minimum monthly commitment. If your CIC is too small for that to make sense, we will say so at the review.
Do you work with CICs outside the North West?
Yes. Ardein works UK-wide and remotely from a base in Chester, with clients from Edinburgh and Newcastle down to Bristol, Exeter and Cardiff. Everything runs through Xero and scheduled calls, so location is not a constraint. The North West core covers Chester, Liverpool, Manchester and Cheshire.
Can you handle CIC accounts and the annual community interest report?
Yes. We prepare the statutory accounts, the corporation tax computation and the community interest report, reconciled back to clean monthly records so year end confirms what you already knew. From 1 April 2026 CIC accounts must be filed with Companies House using software, which we do as part of the routine.
Three ways to take the next step
Start the Funding and Finance Evidence Review
You get the gaps in your funding evidence and board reporting written down, with the first ninety days mapped out.
Check your funding evidence 02 · A question firstGot a question about your awards?
Ask Gavin directly and you will get a straight answer about whether this is worth your time.
Ask Gavin a question 03 · Still decidingStill deciding
The guides set out what the first ninety days involve and what changes by day ninety.
Read the guides →