Annual accounts for every entity arrive months after year end; the decision on the next property is needed this week.
Landlords and developers who can see each entity monthly know before they commit whether the rent covers the debt and the covenant holds. Those who wait for the accounts find out a year after the money went out. Ardein runs the finance function across the portfolio and answers the same day.
Three things you’d know before you signed
Know which property is actually earning its keep
Rent, interest, service charge and void cost sit against each property every month, not against a portfolio total.
Commit to the next purchase with the payback in front of you
Cash across the entities is mapped, so you can see what a deposit takes out and when it comes back.
Answer the lender’s covenant question the same week
Each lending entity is reconciled monthly, so headroom is a number you already hold rather than one you have to rebuild.
The property decisions that looked fine until the accounts turned up
Each of these was decided on a feel about the yield, because the entity-level number was not available yet.
- Purchase
“We bought the third block on a gut feel about the yield. Two years on, the service charge and the interest had eaten it.”
The block was barely covering itself while the rest of the portfolio carried it. Nobody could see cost by property, only a group total at year end.
- Contract
“I renewed the letting agent across all six properties on one contract. Nobody had compared what each property was costing to manage.”
Two of the six were paying management fees out of proportion to their rent. The fee sat in one overhead line, so the comparison was never possible.
- Price
“I held the rents flat for another year because I could not tell whether the portfolio could absorb a round of voids.”
A year of income was given away to avoid a risk that the cash position did not actually carry. The cash forecast existed only in the owner’s head.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
You open one report and see each property and each company side by side. Rent received, interest paid, costs, arrears and cash are current to last month end. When a unit comes up, you know within the afternoon whether the deposit is there and whether the covenant holds. The decision stops depending on how the year finally looked.
Annual accounts, or a monthly view across every entity: which one is available when you decide?
Both do a job. Only one of them exists at the moment you are choosing whether to buy, refinance or hold.
What the year-end accounts do well
They satisfy Companies House and HMRC for every company in the structure, and done properly that matters.
They give a lender a filed record of what each entity owns and what it owes.
They confirm the corporation tax on each entity’s profit for the year that has already finished.
For one property and one mortgage, they may be all the reporting an owner needs.
What a monthly view across the entities adds
Rent, interest, service charge and void cost land against each property while the quarter is still running.
Covenant headroom is visible before a drawdown rather than after the lender asks for it.
Cash timing is mapped across the companies, so a deposit in one does not strand another.
The purchase decision takes an afternoon, because the numbers underneath it are already reconciled.
Eight questions about the portfolio, answered yes or no
Answer these as they stand today, not as they would be after a week of digging.
- 01
Do you know which property made money last month?
The portfolio total is not the answer here. The property is.
- 02
Could you state covenant headroom in each lending entity today?
If it needs a spreadsheet rebuild first, the lender is ahead of you.
- 03
Do you know when the next large cash call lands, and which company pays it?
Cash timing across entities is where most portfolio pressure actually comes from.
- 04
If a unit came up on Friday, could you decide by Monday?
That depends entirely on whether last month is already reconciled.
- 05
Do you know what the last refurb actually returned?
Refurb cost against the rent it moved should be a single line you can look up.
- 06
Can you see arrears by tenant without opening the agent’s statement?
Arrears that only live in the agent’s report tend to age quietly.
- 07
Do you know which entity is carrying costs that belong to another?
Intercompany drift is normal. Not knowing the size of it is the problem.
- 08
Could a lender ask for management figures this week and get them?
If the answer is next month, the refinance conversation starts on the back foot.
Ask whoever does your books three questions this week. If the answers take longer than a day, or come back entity by entity with gaps in them, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you today what each property returned last month after interest and service charge?
- 02Could they show you covenant headroom in each lending entity without asking you for the bank statements first?
- 03Could they tell you this week what cash the group has free for the next deposit?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
Why the date the reporting lands decides whether you can use it
A figure that arrives after the decision is a record of what you did, not help with what you are about to do.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
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What changes by day ninety, and what has to happen first
Ninety days from the start, the portfolio reports on a fixed date each month.
You know exactly what the switch involves
We agree the scope across the entities, complete due diligence and AML checks, and deal with your current accountant or bookkeeper ourselves. The handover is managed by Ardein at no separate charge.
Every entity reconciles, so the first number is worth reading
Banks reconciled in each company, rent and agent statements matched, arrears and supplier balances that make sense. Anything historic that does not add up gets surfaced now rather than at year end.
Rent, interest and costs land in the same place each month
Routines are set for bookkeeping, supplier bills, arrears chasing and payroll, with property-level coding agreed so each unit carries its own costs instead of hiding in an overhead line.
The next purchase or refinance call takes an afternoon
Monthly management information covers cash, debtors, creditors and performance by property and by entity, on an agreed date, in time to act on what it tells you.
What we run for a portfolio, and what it lets you decide
The work is the whole finance function. The point of it is the answer you get when you ask.
One monthly view across every company you hold property in
Bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and reconciliation in each entity, then management accounts that show performance by property and by company on a fixed date.
Covenant and cash figures ready before the bank asks
Reconciled balances, debt service and cash position per entity, so refinancing and drawdown conversations start from numbers you already hold.
A finance lead for the buy, refinance or sell call
Virtual CFO and FD input from someone who was the financial officer of a management buyout, for the decisions that move the portfolio rather than record it.
Who this does not work for, said plainly
We do not take on cash businesses, whatever the property structure around them looks like.
We do not take on construction work that depends on CIS, so developers running subcontractor deductions are not a fit.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, from falsified VAT records, and from anyone who will not complete AML checks.
The relationship does not work if an owner cannot explain how the portfolio is structured or what they actually need from us.
If none of that applies, the review is where we find out whether the rest fits, and capacity is four new clients a month.
The questions landlords and developers ask first
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a sixty minute finance review of how the portfolio is recorded and reported now, with your top five priorities and an indicative monthly structure at the end. It carries a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding.
We already have an accountant. Why would we do this?
Most portfolio owners we speak to have an accountant who files the accounts properly and no month by month support at all. If your current accountant can answer the three questions above this week, stay where you are.
What happens with our current accountant?
We deal with them. Professional clearance, records collection and a transition plan agreed around your year end, all managed by Ardein at no separate charge.
What are we committing to?
A monthly fee scoped to the work, agreed after we have seen the records and understood how the portfolio runs. Nothing is quoted before that, because the entity count and transaction volume decide it.
We hold properties across several companies. Do you report on each one?
Yes. Each entity is kept and reconciled in its own right, and the monthly reporting shows them separately and together, which is the only way covenant and cash questions get a straight answer.
Make the next property decision with the numbers already in the room
Start with the review. It tells you what your current reporting cannot answer, and what it would take to answer it by day ninety.