Accountant for Driving Mobility centres: know what every award has actually paid for
Accountant for Driving Mobility centres and the CICs and charities running accredited assessment services: bookkeeping with fund tracking, payroll, the monthly evidence and board pack, year-end accounts and the CIC filings.
A commissioner asks how many assessments last year’s award actually paid for. Most centres can answer eventually, from spreadsheets and recollection, several weeks later. The question worth sitting with is what that delay costs you when the next contract is being decided.
Ardein is an outsourced finance function for grant-funded CICs and charities, including accredited driving assessment and mobility centres, run remotely from Chester by Gavin Jardine MIAB. It covers bookkeeping with fund tracking, payroll, monthly funder and board evidence, year-end accounts and CIC filings. Fees are scoped to the work and the handover 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 things you would know before the next board meeting
Answer a funder in the same week they ask
Award income and the spend against it sit in one register, updated monthly rather than rebuilt on request.
See which award is carrying which assessor salary
Payroll is split by funding stream in the books, so claims go in for the full amount they should.
Take on a contract knowing what delivery costs
Assessment activity and cost sit side by side, so you can see whether reserves would be subsidising the work.
The decisions that go wrong when the evidence turns up late
Three things we hear from mobility centre leads, usually once the decision has already been made.
- Award
“We took a second year of the award on the same terms. It turned out the first year had been subsidised out of reserves.”
The award had never covered the assessor hours the service actually used. Nobody had costed a single assessment before the renewal was signed.
- Salary
“Half an assessor’s salary was meant to sit against the health-funded work. When the claim came round, nobody could show which half.”
The claim went in short and unrestricted funds absorbed the rest. Payroll had never been split by funding stream in the records.
- Funder
“The funder wanted a breakdown of last year’s spend. It took three weeks, two spreadsheets and an evening with the bank statements.”
The report landed after the next application had already opened. The money had been spent properly; the evidence was simply not kept in a form anyone could hand over.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
The funding register is current, so a question about an award is answered the same week. Board figures arrive on the agreed date, before the meeting rather than during it. Salaries and assessment costs are already coded to the funding stream they belong to. When a new contract is offered, you know what delivering it costs before you say yes.
Quick check · no email
If you cannot ask your accountant on a Tuesday how much of this year’s award is still unspent, and have the figure by Wednesday, you have the wrong accountant
Answer these three about whoever does your finance now.
Question 1 of 3
Could they tell you this week how much of each award has been spent and on what?
Could they show which salaries sit against which funding stream, without rebuilding it from payslips?
Could they give the board its figures on a fixed date every month, before the meeting?
The gap is real, and it shows up as late claims and answers you have to promise for later. The review is where you find out which part of it costs you most.
That is a reasonable position, and one area is worth checking properly. Reconciling awards against income received, line by line, is how more than £200,000 of unclaimed funding came to light in one organisation.
You are well served and the routine is doing its job. The guide on the first ninety days is probably more use to you than a review.
A year-end accountant and a monthly answer do different jobs
Both are legitimate. Only one of them is any use when a funder emails on a Monday.
A year-end accountant
Prepares the accounts and the CIC filings after the year has closed.
Works from records you or a volunteer have kept in the meantime.
Confirms what happened, several months after the decisions were taken.
Answers funder questions by going back through the year.
Ardein
Keeps the bookkeeping and the fund tracking current every month.
Splits payroll and costs to the award they belong to as they arise.
Delivers board and funder figures on the same date each month.
Answers a question about an award in the week it is asked.
Eight questions your last board meeting should have been able to settle
Answer each one yes or no, as things stand this month.
- 01
Can you say how much of each current award is unspent?
A funding register updated monthly answers this in a minute.
- 02
Is every assessor salary mapped to the money that pays for it?
Payroll split by funding stream in the books, not afterwards.
- 03
Do claims go in on the dates the funder set?
A claims timetable, held by us, with the evidence gathered as it arises.
- 04
Could you produce last year’s spend breakdown this week?
Restricted fund reporting comes out of the records, not a spreadsheet rebuild.
- 05
Do you know what one assessment costs to deliver?
Activity and cost reported together, so contract terms can be tested.
- 06
Does the board get figures before the meeting, on a fixed date?
Reports delivered on the agreed date each month.
- 07
Has anyone reconciled awards made against income actually received?
That reconciliation is what uncovered over £200,000 of incomplete claims.
- 08
Are reserves quietly covering work a contract was meant to fund?
Contract-level reporting shows it while you can still renegotiate.
What the monthly work covers, and what it lets you answer
One monthly fee scoped to the number of funding streams and how often you report.
Fund tracking inside the bookkeeping
Awards, restricted money and spend recorded as they happen, so the funder’s question has an answer already waiting.
The monthly pack, on the agreed date
Cash, restricted funds, awards and performance, delivered before the meeting rather than described in it.
Payroll, year-end accounts and CIC filings
Payroll and pension duties on schedule, and statutory filings that reconcile back to clean monthly records.
Entry 01
What turned up when someone asked how a cost was being funded
Two entries from client work, both found during onboarding rather than at year end.
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 is true by day ninety, and what has to happen first
Four markers, so you know when each answer becomes available to you.
Someone else runs the handover
We agree scope, complete due diligence and AML checks, and collect the records from your current accountant or bookkeeper at no separate charge.
Every award has a line you can point at
Bookkeeping is complete, banks are reconciled, and awards are matched against income received so any gap is visible.
Claims and payroll stop being a rebuild
Salaries and costs are coded to the funding stream as they arise, and the claims and reporting timetable is set.
The board pack arrives before the meeting
Figures on cash, restricted funds, awards and performance land on the agreed date each month, in time for the decisions being taken.
Who this does not suit
We do not take on cash businesses, and we do not work on CIS-dependent construction.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, and from anyone who will not complete AML checks.
The relationship does not work when a chief executive cannot explain how their own organisation runs.
Capacity is capped at four new clients a month, so there is sometimes a wait.
If you are not sure which side of that you fall on, the review is the cheapest way to find out.
Questions mobility centres ask before they start
Is the Funding and Finance Evidence Review just a sales call?
No. It is a paid review with an output: a look at your funding flows, restricted fund visibility, an evidence checklist, board reporting gaps and a claims timetable, plus the priority actions for the next ninety days. The fee is credited in full against onboarding if you go ahead. If we are not the right fit, you keep the findings.
We already have an accountant for our mobility centre, so why would we need this?
Most organisations we speak to do have one. The accounts get filed and the CIC report goes in. What is usually missing is the month-by-month evidence a funder or board asks for, and the fund tracking underneath it. If your current accountant already provides that, there is nothing here for you.
What happens with our current accountant if we move to Ardein?
We manage the handover and there is no separate charge for 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. You do not have to chase anyone or explain the move yourself.
How long are we committed for?
The engagement is monthly and scoped to the work once we have seen the records and understood how the organisation runs. There is no long tie-in. We ask for enough notice to hand over cleanly, and we will do the same handover for your next provider that we did coming in.
What does an accountant for Driving Mobility centres actually do each month?
Bookkeeping with fund tracking, payroll and pension duties, coding of salaries and costs to the award that funds them, the claims and reporting timetable, and a board pack on the agreed date covering cash, restricted funds and performance. Year-end accounts and the CIC or charity filings sit on top of those records.
Do you prepare CIC accounts and the CIC34 report?
Yes, alongside the year-end accounts and corporation tax, prepared from records that have been reconciled monthly rather than rebuilt in one go. Note that from 1 April 2026 Companies House accepts CIC accounts by software filing only, so the accounts need to come out of a system rather than a document.
Three ways to take the next step
Start the Funding and Finance Evidence Review
You get the gaps in your funding evidence listed, in the order they are worth closing, and an indicative monthly structure if you want one.
Check your funding evidence 02 · A question firstHave a question about one award?
Call or email Gavin directly and ask it, before you commit to anything.
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 →