Accountant for charities: over £200,000 of funding that had never been claimed
Accountant for charities and grant-funded organisations that need the funder answered this week, the trustees answered inside the meeting, and every restricted pound tied back to the award that paid for it.
If a funder asked today where last year’s restricted award went, the answer should take an afternoon. In most charities it takes a fortnight of digging through bank statements. The digging is usually what turns up the claim nobody finished.
Ardein is an outsourced finance function for UK charities, CICs and grant-funded organisations, run remotely from Chester by Gavin Jardine MIAB. It keeps restricted fund records, funder claims and trustee reporting on an agreed monthly timetable. Fees are a monthly amount scoped to the work, with the handover from your current accountant 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 things your trustees would already know by Friday
Answer the funder the same week, from the register
A funding register updated monthly ties every award to the spend behind it.
See which contract restricted money is quietly subsidising
Costs are coded to funds as they happen rather than reconstructed after year end.
Take a new post to the board with the funding mapped
Every salary sits against an award with an end date, so trustees can see what runs out and when.
The decisions charities get wrong when the fund figures arrive late
Three things chief executives have said to me, each one a decision made without the number that would have changed it.
- Funder
“We spent three weeks pulling receipts together for a monitoring report, and still sent it in late with two lines estimated.”
The estimates were queried and the next payment sat unpaid for a month. Nothing was wrong, and nothing could be evidenced quickly either.
- Salary
“We kept a project coordinator on for six months after the award that paid for her had actually ended.”
Unrestricted reserves covered the difference and nobody saw it until year end. Reserves paid for a post instead of the thing they were held for.
- Award
“A trustee asked how much of the restricted balance was still unspent and I had to promise to email it after the meeting.”
The answer arrived ten days later and the decision waited with it. The figure existed, in a spreadsheet three months behind the bank.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
The fund balances are current, so a trustee gets the unspent figure while the item is still being discussed. Claims go out on the dates in the reporting timetable, with the evidence already attached. When a funder asks a follow-up question, the answer comes back the same week. The independent examiner receives records that reconcile rather than a box of queries.
Quick check · no email
Ask your current accountant three questions this week about your restricted funds, your claims and your next board pack. If the answers take longer than a day, you have the wrong accountant.
Answer these three yourself, honestly, about the people who do your books today.
Question 1 of 3
Could they tell you by Friday how much of each restricted fund is still unspent?
Could they show a trustee which award pays for every salary on the payroll?
Could they produce the evidence behind last quarter’s claim without asking you to find it?
That gap is real, and it usually shows up first as a late claim or a question deferred to the next meeting. The review is where we find out how big it is.
That is a reasonable position with one soft area, and the soft area is normally the funding register itself. Reconciling awards against income received is exactly how over £200,000 of unclaimed funding came to light in one grant-funded organisation.
You are well served and there is nothing here you need. The guides are worth a read if you want to tighten the reporting timetable further.
Year-end accounts, or an answer while the decision is still open
Both have a place. Only one of them helps a chief executive on the day a funder emails.
A year-end accountant
Prepares the annual accounts and the Charity Commission filing properly.
Works from records that arrive after the year has finished.
Sees the restricted position once, months after it mattered.
Answers a funder query by asking you to send the paperwork over.
A finance function reporting monthly
Keeps fund balances current so the unspent figure is always quotable.
Puts the board pack in trustees’ hands before the meeting, on the same date each month.
Maps each salary and cost to the award funding it as it happens.
Answers the funder in the week they ask, from the register.
Eight questions your funders and trustees will ask before you do
Answer each one yes or no, from memory, without opening a spreadsheet.
- 01
Do you know today’s unspent balance on each restricted fund?
If it takes a rebuild, the next monitoring report will be late.
- 02
Is every salary mapped to the award that pays for it?
Unmapped posts end up funded by reserves without a decision being made.
- 03
Has every award you have won been claimed in full?
Unfinished claim paperwork is the most expensive thing we find on arrival.
- 04
Could you evidence last quarter’s spend without chasing colleagues?
Evidence collected monthly is evidence you already have.
- 05
Do trustees get the pack before the meeting, every month?
Papers arriving on the day mean decisions get deferred to the next one.
- 06
Do you know which contract is running at a deficit?
Restricted money quietly subsidising a contract is only visible with fund-level coding.
- 07
Would an independent examiner find records that reconcile?
Examination readiness is decided by the bookkeeping, not by the covering letter.
- 08
Can you see which awards end within twelve months?
Funding cliffs are a hiring decision long before they are a cash problem.
What the review looks at before anything is agreed
Three areas, reviewed against your actual records rather than a questionnaire.
Funding flow and claims
Awards traced against income received, with unfinished or late claims identified.
Restricted fund visibility
Whether fund balances can be produced on demand and what evidence sits behind them.
Trustee reporting gaps
What the board is asking for, what it currently receives, and the timetable that would close the difference.
Entry 01
What reading the records line by line turned up
Two things found during onboarding, neither of which showed in a set of year-end accounts.
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 you have to do for it
A defined onboarding, so you can see when each answer becomes available to you.
The handover is done for you
We agree scope, complete AML checks and collect the records from your current accountant or bookkeeper at no separate charge.
Every restricted fund has a balance you can quote
Bookkeeping is complete, banks reconciled, awards matched to income and spend, and any unfinished claims listed.
Claims and board papers arrive on a date
Reporting, payroll and evidence collection run to a timetable agreed with you and your trustees.
Decisions get answered in the week they arise
Monthly management information, a live funding register, and records the independent examiner can work from.
Where this would not work, said plainly
We do not take on cash-based operations, including charity shops and collections run largely on cash.
We do not act for construction work that depends on CIS.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, and from anyone who will not complete AML checks.
It does not work if the chief executive cannot explain how the organisation earns and spends its money.
If none of those apply, the review is the sensible place to find out whether the rest fits.
Questions charities ask before the first call
Is the review with an accountant for charities just a sales call?
No. It is a paid piece of work with an output: a review of how funding flows through your records, whether restricted balances can be produced on demand, an evidence checklist, and priority actions for the next ninety days. The fee is credited in full against onboarding if you go ahead.
We already have an accountant, so why would a charity need Ardein?
Most charities we speak to have someone filing the annual accounts and nobody keeping the numbers current in between. That is a different job. We run the bookkeeping with fund tracking, payroll, funder reporting and the monthly board pack, then the year-end accounts come out of records that already reconcile.
What happens with our current accountant if we switch?
We handle it. Ardein writes for professional clearance, collects the records, agrees a transition plan around your year end and maps who is responsible for what afterwards. There is no separate charge for the handover. You tell your current accountant once, and we deal with the rest.
How long are we committing to?
The engagement is a monthly one, scoped after we have seen your records and understood how the organisation runs. There is no long tie-in. Capacity is capped at four new clients a month, so the timing of the start is usually the thing we agree first.
Can you handle restricted funds and independent examination readiness?
Yes. Restricted and unrestricted funds are tracked in the bookkeeping as transactions happen, so fund balances are available at any point in the year. We prepare the records and the year-end accounts so that your independent examiner receives figures that reconcile, rather than a set of queries.
What does an accountant for charities cost?
A monthly fee scoped to the work, agreed once we have seen the records. For charities it usually covers bookkeeping with fund tracking, payroll, the monthly evidence and board pack, year-end accounts and the charity filings, priced on the number of funding streams and how often you report.
Three ways to take the next step
Book the Funding & Finance Evidence Review
You get the evidence gaps in writing, and if you go ahead the fee comes off onboarding.
Check your funding evidence 02 · A question firstGot a question about your restricted funds?
Call or email Gavin directly and you will get an answer rather than a brochure.
Ask Gavin a question 03 · Still decidingStill deciding
The guides set out what happens in the first ninety days, so you can see what changes and when.
Read the guides →