If your main funder asked today which award paid for that salary, could you show them this week?
Organisations that can answer keep the relationship and get a fair hearing on the next application. Organisations that cannot spend a fortnight rebuilding last year from bank statements, and the board hears about it. Ardein runs your finance function so the evidence is already there, award by award, month by month.
Three things you’d know before the next board meeting
Answer a funder’s evidence request in the same week
Every payment already sits against the award that funded it, updated monthly rather than reconstructed later.
Know what each award has left before you commit
Restricted money is tracked separately, so spend against each budget is visible while there is still money to manage.
Build the next application from real delivery costs
Salaries and overheads are mapped to activity, so the budget comes out of the records instead of an estimate.
The questions a funder asks that your records cannot answer yet
Three decisions that went badly because the number was not there when it was needed.
- Funder
“The funder asked for last year’s award broken down by activity, and it took us three weeks to put something together.”
Two people lost a fortnight to bank statements and the report still arrived late. Nothing in the ledger recorded which award each payment belonged to.
- Salary
“Half a role was funded by one grant and half by another, and nobody could show a funder which hours went where.”
The claim was reduced because the split could not be evidenced. Payroll had been posted as a single figure with no allocation behind it.
- Award
“We committed to a piece of delivery in March, then found the award meant to cover it had almost nothing left.”
Reserves absorbed the difference and the board only learned about it in June. Spend against the award was visible only once the year-end accounts were prepared.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
By day ninety there is a funding register, updated monthly and taken to every board meeting. Each award shows what was awarded, what has been spent, what remains and where the evidence sits. When a funder emails, you open the register and reply the same week. Trustees ask their questions in the meeting and get the answers there.
Year-end accounts, or a funder’s question on a Tuesday: which is your accountant set up for?
A year-end accountant does a real job well. It is not the job a funder’s email creates.
A year-end accountant
Files the accounts and the CIC report accurately, months after the period has closed.
Works from records you assemble, usually once a year.
Reports one closing position, with restricted and unrestricted money blended together.
Answers questions about last year, when the spending decisions are already made.
A finance function reporting monthly
Keeps a funding register showing each award, what has been claimed and what remains.
Posts every cost against the award and activity that paid for it.
Delivers the board pack on the same agreed date each month.
Answers a funder in the same week, from records already reconciled.
Eight questions a trustee could put to you at the next meeting
Answer them honestly. The noes are the reason evidence takes a fortnight to produce.
- 01
Can you say today what is left on your largest award?
A no means commitments get made against money that may already be spent.
- 02
Could you show which award paid a named salary last month?
Funders reduce the claims they cannot follow through the payroll.
- 03
Do board papers arrive before the meeting, on a known date?
Papers tabled on the day turn this month’s decisions into next month’s.
- 04
Is there one register listing every award, claim and deadline?
A missed claim deadline is money the organisation simply never receives.
- 05
Can you separate restricted money from free reserves without a spreadsheet exercise?
If not, reserves quietly subsidise contracts nobody agreed to subsidise.
- 06
Do you know the full cost of delivering a funded contract?
Applications built on estimates leave the shortfall for the organisation to find.
- 07
Could you evidence a sampled transaction within two working days?
Funders sample. Slow evidence shapes how they treat the next application.
- 08
Does anyone besides the chief executive hold the finance detail?
One person holding all of it is a risk the board carries as well.
Ask your accountant three questions this week. If they cannot tell you what each award has left, and what evidence sits behind it, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you today how much of each restricted award is unspent?
- 02Could they show which award paid for a named salary last quarter?
- 03Could they produce an evidence pack for a funder this week without asking you for the bank statements?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What happened when one organisation’s awards were checked against the money received
Funding had been awarded and recorded, but never reconciled line by line to income.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”
What is true by day ninety, and what has to happen before it
Four stages, from the first records request to a board pack that lands on the agreed date.
Your records are collected without you chasing them
We agree the scope, complete client due diligence and AML checks, and gather the records. If you already have an accountant, we manage the handover at no separate charge.
Every award has a balance you can quote
Bookkeeping is complete, banks reconciled, and funding awards matched against the income actually received, with any gaps written down.
Evidence is captured as you go, not at claim time
Routines run for supplier bills, payroll, claims and reporting, with responsibilities agreed on both sides so nothing waits on one person.
The board meeting starts with the figures already read
The funding register and board pack arrive on the agreed date each month, so trustees ask their questions while there is still time to act.
What the review looks at before anything is agreed
One sitting, covering the places where funder questions and board questions usually stall.
Where the money went, award by award
A funding-flow review and a restricted-fund visibility review, so you can see what each award has actually paid for.
What a funder could ask for, and what you could produce
An evidence checklist and a board-reporting gap review, measured against the questions you are being asked now.
When claims and reports would land from here
A claims and reporting timetable, with the priority actions for the next ninety days set out in order.
Where this does not work, before you spend the time
We do not take on cash businesses.
We do not take on CIS-dependent construction work.
We step away from anything non-compliant or reportable, and from anyone who will not complete AML checks.
It does not work when nobody in the organisation can explain how it runs or what it actually needs.
If you are unsure whether your reporting is weak enough to need help, that is precisely what the review settles.
Questions people ask before booking the review
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a piece of work with a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding, and you keep the findings whatever you decide afterwards.
We already have an accountant. Is this worth doing?
Most organisations we take on already have one. The accountant files the year end. The review tests whether you can evidence where funding went, month by month, when a funder asks.
What happens with our current accountant?
We manage the handover: professional clearance, records collection and a transition plan agreed around your year end. There is no separate charge for it.
Do we have to commit to anything?
No. The review stands on its own. Ongoing work is a monthly fee scoped after we have seen the records and understood how the organisation runs.
Do you work with CICs and charities outside the North West?
Yes. Ardein works UK-wide and remotely from a base in Chester, so where you are is not a constraint on who we can look after.
Make the next funding decision with the award balance in front of you
Start with the review. You will know which awards you can evidence today, which you cannot, and what it would take to answer a funder within the week.