Eight questions that tell you whether your cloud accounting system is hiding the numbers behind your next decision
Owners who can answer all eight sign off a purchase or a price rise in an afternoon. The rest wait for the year end to explain what already happened. Ardein rebuilds what sits underneath, so the answer comes back on the day you ask.
Three answers you would have before the next decision
Know which job, product or customer carries the margin
Income and costs are coded the way you actually earn money, rather than the way a tax return wants them.
Sign off the purchase with the payback in front of you
Live feeds and reconciled balances mean the cash position you decide on is today’s.
Answer a funder or a lender the same week
Restricted money and project costs are tracked where they happen, so the evidence is already assembled.
Three decisions that went wrong while the books were still catching up
Each of these came from records that were complete on paper and useless for deciding anything.
- Purchase
“We bought the second van in March. By September I could see it had never covered its own costs.”
Every vehicle cost sat in one overheads code, so nothing showed that van on its own. The year end surfaced it six months too late.
- Price
“I put prices up across the board because I could not see which customers were the thin ones.”
Two good accounts left over a rise they did not need. The sales ledger held the answer, sitting in a single income line.
- Contract
“We priced the contract off last year’s accounts, and by the time we started, our costs had moved.”
The job ran for eleven months on a margin nobody could check monthly. Costs were never coded to the contract in the first place.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
By day ninety the bank is reconciled to yesterday and the ledgers agree to reality. Income splits by the lines you actually sell, and costs land against the job, site or fund that caused them. You ask what a vehicle, a contract or a hire really costs, and the figure comes back the same day. The decision takes an afternoon instead of a quarter.
What a year-end accountant gives you, and what it still cannot tell you in March
Both have a place. The difference shows up on the day you have to decide something.
A year-end accountant
Statutory accounts and a corporation tax computation, filed correctly and on time.
A considered view of last year, usually some months after last year ended.
Records tidied once, at the point where the figures are already history.
A structure built around what Companies House and HMRC need to see.
A finance function on a live system
The same filings, prepared from records that were already right each month.
Cash, debtors and creditors you can look at on any Tuesday morning.
Costs coded to the job, product, site or fund that caused them.
A structure built around the decisions you make about hiring, pricing and spending.
Eight questions about your cloud accounting set-up, and what each one costs when the answer is no
Answer them as your system stands today, not as you intend it to be by Christmas.
- 01
Are your bank feeds connected and reconciled up to yesterday?
If not, the cash figure you are deciding on is an estimate with a date attached. Every affordability question starts here.
- 02
Does your income split by service, product or site rather than landing in one sales line?
One sales line tells you turnover. It never tells you which part of the business is worth doing more of.
- 03
Can you see the cost of a single job, project or fund without rebuilding it in a spreadsheet?
That figure decides whether you take the next contract on the same terms, or walk away from it.
- 04
Does the sales ledger agree to what has actually been delivered?
Goods and work leave the business and invoices do not always follow. Nobody notices until someone reconciles the two.
- 05
Are supplier bills entered when they arrive rather than when they are paid?
Otherwise your creditor total understates what you owe. The purchase that looked affordable on Monday is not affordable at all.
- 06
Does somebody read the debtor ageing every week and act on it?
Cash usually feels tight for a reason that is sitting in the ninety day column, waiting to be chased.
- 07
Do the opening balances agree to your last set of filed accounts?
A conversion that skipped this makes every comparison you draw afterwards untrue, including the ones you price from.
- 08
Is the month closed on a fixed date, with reports out the same week?
A month that never closes produces a decision that always waits. The timetable is what makes the number usable.
Ask your accountant these three questions about the system your books sit in. If the answer to any of them is next month or after the year end, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you this week which customers or jobs made money last month?
- 02Could they give you today’s cash position without asking you for a bank statement?
- 03Could they pull one project’s costs, already coded, without rebuilding them in a spreadsheet?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What a rebuild finds when nobody has looked at the structure for years
One entry from client work. It was not found by looking harder at the accounts.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”UK SME owner
What changes in the first ninety days, and what you can ask for by the end of them
A move to a modern cloud accounting system is only worth doing if it changes what you can ask.
You see what the current set-up has been hiding
We review the bank, the ledgers, the payroll and the chart of accounts before agreeing any scope. If another accountant holds the records, we collect them.
Cash and debtors you can act on this week
Feeds connected, banks reconciled, supplier and customer balances made to agree with reality. Anything historic that does not add up is listed and explained.
Costs land against the thing that caused them
Income and costs are recoded to the lines, jobs, sites or funds you actually manage, so margin questions have somewhere to be answered from.
The purchase decision takes an afternoon
Month end closes on a fixed date and management information arrives on the agreed day, with cash, debtors, creditors and performance in it.
What we do to a cloud accounting set-up before it starts answering questions
Three pieces of work, in this order. None of them are worth doing on their own.
Moving the books onto a modern cloud accounting system
Balances migrated and agreed back to the last filed accounts, feeds connected, VAT treatment checked rather than assumed. Gavin is Xero certified, so compatibility there is an advantage.
A chart of accounts rebuilt around your decisions
Income and costs coded to the lines, jobs, sites or funds you manage. This is the work that surfaces what the old structure was covering up.
The monthly rhythm that keeps the system honest
Bookkeeping, supplier bills, credit control and month end run to a timetable, with management information delivered on the agreed date.
Who this does not suit, said plainly before you spend an hour on it
We do not take on cash businesses, whatever the system they use.
Construction work that depends on CIS is not something we take on.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, including falsified VAT records.
If AML checks will not be completed, or an owner cannot explain their own business, the relationship does not work.
Everything outside that list is exactly what the review exists to look at.
Questions owners ask before they move the books anywhere
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a worked review of your records, reporting, systems and debtor position, ending in five priorities and an indicative monthly structure. There is a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding.
We already have an accountant. Does this cut across them?
Most clients arrive with one. The question is whether anyone gives you monthly numbers you can use, and who does what from here.
What happens with our current accountant or bookkeeper?
Ardein manages the handover: professional clearance, collecting the records and a transition plan agreed around your year end. There is no separate charge for it.
How long are we committing to?
The fee is monthly and scoped after we have seen the records. Capacity is capped at four new clients a month, so timing matters more than any tie-in.
Do we have to move to Xero?
No. We work with modern cloud accounting systems, and Xero certification means compatibility there is straightforward. What matters is whether your set-up can answer the questions you are asking of it.
The next purchase decided with the number already in the room
Start with the review. You will know which of the eight your system fails, what that has already cost you, and what the first ninety days would change.