By day ninety you decide the hire in an afternoon; the question is what that decision costs you today.
Owners who can answer say yes to the hire while the candidate is still available. Owners who cannot wait for the year-end accounts, and by then the decision has made itself. Ardein runs the finance function so the answer is in the room while it still matters.
Three answers you would have had last quarter
Sign off the hire with the payback in front of you
Monthly figures show what the last hire cost and what the business actually carried.
Know which customer and which job carries the margin
Sales and costs sit in a chart of accounts built to answer that question.
Commit cash on the twelfth, not on a feeling
Cash, debtors and creditors are reconciled each month and reported on an agreed date.
Three decisions that cost money, and the figure that was missing each time
Each of these owners had an accountant, and none of them had the figure on the day they needed it.
- Hire
“I took on a second estimator in March, and it was November before I could see what he had actually cost us.”
Eight months of salary went out before anyone could say whether the work he won covered him. The payroll cost was in the records; nothing turned it into a monthly answer.
- Supplier
“We moved to the cheaper supplier to protect margin, and nobody costed the wastage until the year-end accounts arrived.”
The unit price fell and the gross margin fell with it. Nobody was comparing purchases to output month by month, so the switch ran for a year.
- Price
“I put prices up five per cent across every customer because I couldn’t tell which contracts were the thin ones.”
Two good customers were pushed on price they did not deserve, and the loss-making contract stayed loss-making. Job-level margin had never been reported.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
The books are complete by the same date every month, so nothing waits for a year end. You open one report and see cash, debtors, creditors and margin by line. When the supplier quote or the hire lands, the comparison takes an afternoon. Gavin answers the awkward question about it the same day, with the reasoning.
Your accountant files the accounts properly. Who answers on the Tuesday you need to decide?
Most established SMEs do not need a replacement for compliance work; they need something the compliance work never provided.
A year-end accountant
Prepares statutory accounts and corporation tax correctly, and files them on time.
Works from records handed over months after the decisions were taken.
Answers pricing and hiring questions once the year is closed and paid for.
Suits a business whose decisions can genuinely wait twelve months.
A finance function reporting monthly
Books complete and banks reconciled every month, so the figures are current.
Management information on the agreed date, covering cash, debtors, creditors and margin.
The hire, the purchase and the supplier switch answered in the week you ask.
Year end becomes a confirmation of numbers you have already been using.
Eight signs you have outgrown basic bookkeeping. How many are yours?
These come up again and again with owner-led businesses that have grown past the setup they started with.
- 01
Could you say today which job or customer made the most money last month?
If working it out takes a week, your pricing is being set on instinct.
- 02
Are you still doing the books yourself on a Sunday evening?
The director’s hour is the most expensive in the business, and it is going on data entry.
- 03
Do the accounts arrive more than six months after your year end?
By then the hire, the purchase and the price rise have all been decided without them.
- 04
Can you say what you are owed right now, without opening the bank?
Debtors nobody watches become debtors nobody collects, and the cash gap widens quietly.
- 05
Has payroll grown past the point where it fits between other jobs?
Pension duties and RTI deadlines do not move because the week was busy.
- 06
Does every VAT quarter start with a scramble to catch the bookkeeping up?
A return prepared from records built in a rush is a return nobody has questioned.
- 07
Does cash feel tight in months when the profit looked fine?
Profit and cash separate as a business grows, and only monthly reporting shows where.
- 08
Have you approved a purchase or a supplier switch without seeing the payback?
The cost of getting that wrong is usually larger than a year of finance support.
Ask your current accountant these three questions this week. If the answers take longer than a day, or arrive with a caveat about the year end, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you this week which customers made you money last month?
- 02Could they tell you today whether you can afford the next hire, and from which month?
- 03Could they tell you what you are owed right now, without asking you to check the bank?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What day ninety gives you, and what the ninety days before it involve
The onboarding is defined, so you know what changes each month rather than hoping it settles down.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”UK SME owner
What changes between the first week and the decision you make on day ninety
Each month ends with something you can act on, not a promise about the year end.
You stop chasing anyone for your own records
We agree the scope, complete due diligence and AML checks, and deal with your existing accountant or bookkeeper ourselves. The handover is managed by Ardein at no separate charge.
The numbers behind the next decision are real
Bookkeeping complete, banks reconciled, supplier and customer balances that make sense. We also agree who does what, so nothing sits waiting for you to remember it.
Month end happens without you driving it
Routines for bills, credit control, payroll and reporting are running to dates. Checks go in where money can go missing, and duplicated manual work comes out.
The hire, the purchase and the price rise take an afternoon each
Management information arrives on the agreed date, covering cash, debtors, creditors and performance. You decide from this month’s figures while there is still time to change the answer.
What sits behind an answer that arrives the same day
You are buying the answer; these are the parts of the finance function that make it possible to give one.
Management information you decide from
Cash, debtors, creditors and performance by line, delivered on the agreed date each month.
The compliance work, off your desk
Bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and auto-enrolment, year-end accounts, corporation tax and director Self Assessment, all run to a timetable.
A finance lead for the bigger calls
Virtual CFO and FD input on hiring, funding, pricing and margin, without a full-time salary on the payroll.
Who this does not suit, said plainly
We do not take on cash businesses.
We do not take on construction work that depends on CIS.
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 when an owner cannot explain their own business or say what they actually need.
If none of that applies, the review is where we find out whether the fit is right in both directions.
The questions established owners ask before they start
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a working session on your figures and how your finance runs, for a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding. You leave with the top five priorities whether or not you go further.
We already have an accountant. Why would we change?
Most of our clients arrived with one. The accounts were being filed correctly and nobody was answering the hire, the price rise or the supplier question in the month it was asked. That is the gap we fill.
What happens with our current accountant?
We deal with them. Professional clearance, records collection and a transition plan agreed around your year end, managed by Ardein at no separate charge.
What are we committing to?
A monthly fee scoped to the work and agreed after we have seen the records, so nothing is quoted blind. Capacity is capped at four new clients a month, so start dates are agreed rather than assumed.
Does this work if we are not in the North West?
Yes. Ardein works remotely across the UK from a base in Chester, with clients from Edinburgh down to Exeter.
Make the next decision with the number already in the room
Start with the review. We look at how your finance runs today, where the answers are getting stuck, and what the first ninety days would change.