Sixty minutes with the numbers, and a written list of the five things most likely to cost you funding.
Today that answer takes a fortnight, a spreadsheet, and somebody’s memory of last spring.
Funders renew what they can verify quickly. Slow evidence loses awards the work itself had already earned.
Or read on to see how it works.
How the evidence question usually goes when a funder asks
- Funder asks for evidence
- You email the accountant
- Records are months behind
- Someone rebuilds the year
- Claim goes in late
- Next award looks doubtful
The work was delivered. The proof of it was assembled after the fact.
Every reply built from memory costs staff days and leaves the board approving figures nobody can trace. Funders notice which organisations answer in a week and which answer in a month.
Five questions a funder can ask that stop the room
These are the questions that decide whether an award is renewed, extended or quietly not repeated.
- Which salaries are covered by which award?
- How much restricted money is still unspent?
- Can you evidence last quarter’s spend this week?
- Which claim is due next, and when?
- What does the board see before it meets?
That makes every claim and every board paper harder than it needs to be.
What a funding register settles that a year-end file never will
Same week. From live numbers. With the reasoning.
Each award is tracked from the moment it lands to the last pound spent against it, so the answer already exists when the question arrives.
- 5gaps named in writing
- Funding flow followed
- Restricted money made visible
- Evidence checklist agreed
- Answer the funder yourself
The board sees the same figures you do, before the meeting rather than after it.
What the first ninety days change, and in what order
If you go on from the review, this is the sequence, and you can hold us to the dates.
- Before day one
Records in our hands
Scope and AML checks are done, and if you already have an accountant or bookkeeper we manage the handover and collect the records.
- Day 30
Every award traced
Bookkeeping is complete and reconciled, and each funding stream can be followed from award to spend.
- Day 60
Claims on a timetable
Claims, evidence and payroll run to fixed dates, with a funding register updated monthly rather than rebuilt each time.
- Day 90
The board pack arrives first
Board and management figures arrive before the meeting, on the same day each month, provided the information is with us.
What sixty minutes on your records settles, and what it costs
We spend an hour on your actual records, not a general conversation. We follow the funding flow from award to spend, test how much restricted money you can still see, and look at what the board is given before it meets.
You leave knowing which five things to fix first, in order.
You keep the written output: the evidence checklist, the claims and reporting timetable, and the priority actions for the next ninety days. It is a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding, and the list is yours whether you go on with Ardein or not.
Capacity is capped at four new clients a month, and the handover from your current accountant is managed at no separate charge.
Who this review is for, and who it is not for
It is worth being plain about this before either of us spends an hour.
This fits if
- You are a registered CIC, charity or community organisation with grant or contract income.
- You need someone running the finance function every month, not a one-off tidy-up.
- You hold restricted funds and cannot always show where each award has gone.
- Your board or trustees want figures they can question before they approve them.
- You can explain how the organisation works and what you actually need from finance.
This does not fit if
- You want a single piece of advice rather than an ongoing monthly finance function.
- Your budget sits below the floor for a scoped monthly fee, which we agree after seeing the records.
- The organisation runs mainly on cash, or the work depends on CIS construction.
- You would need records presented in a way we could not stand behind.
- You would rather not complete client due diligence and AML checks.
Two minutes. If it fits, you’ll book the review with Gavin.
Your funder will ask again. The question is what you can show.
- Show where the money went
- Answer funders the same week
- Give the board real figures
- Keep claims on the timetable
None of that depends on remembering last spring, because the register is written as the money moves.
Think your numbers should be answering this?
Begin the reviewThe review is with Gavin, on your own records, and the written list is yours either way.
See if your finance function fits your size / structure
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