If you decided this week to take on another employee, could your books tell you by Friday whether you can?
Owners with current books sign off the hire, the price rise or the purchase in an afternoon. Owners catching up at weekends decide on a feeling and find out at year end. Ardein keeps the records complete and reconciled every month, so the number is in the room when you need it.
Three things you’d know before you signed anything
Know which jobs and customers are actually making money
Income and costs are coded the same way every month, so margin by job holds up when you check it.
Sign off the purchase with the payback in front of you
Cash, debtors and creditors are current, so the affordability question takes an afternoon rather than a quarter.
Change a price or a supplier on evidence you can see
Supplier spend and customer income are reconciled monthly, so the comparison is a real one.
What late books cost, months before anyone calls them late
Each of these came from an owner doing the books at weekends and deciding without them.
- Hire
“I took on a fourth person in March because the bank balance looked healthy. The VAT bill landed in April.”
The balance held money that was never his. Two quarters of unreconciled records kept the liability out of sight until it was due.
- Price
“I held my day rate for two years, because I had no idea what the work was actually costing me to deliver.”
Wages and materials had both risen inside the year. Nothing was coded to jobs, so the lost margin only showed up in the annual accounts.
- Contract
“We delivered the whole contract and found out much later that a good part of it had never been invoiced.”
Goods went out and the paperwork lagged behind. The sales ledger was never matched against delivery records, so the sale quietly never appeared.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
By day ninety the bookkeeping is complete and every bank account is reconciled, on a date you know in advance. Debtor and creditor balances mean what they say, so you can see what is owed and what is owing without asking anyone. When you want to know whether the hire works, you ask on Tuesday and have it that week. Year end becomes a confirmation of figures you have already seen.
What a year-end accountant gives you, and what it cannot tell you in March
Both have a place. The difference shows up on the day you need to decide something.
A year-end accountant
Files accurate statutory accounts and a corporation tax return on time.
Keeps Companies House and HMRC satisfied, which genuinely matters.
Works from records handed over once the year is already finished.
Tells you what happened, usually several months after you could have acted.
Bookkeeping kept monthly
Closes the month on an agreed date, with banks reconciled and balances that make sense.
Answers the hire, purchase or price question in the week you ask it.
Surfaces missing income, unbilled work and cost drift while the year is still running.
Feeds the year-end accounts, so filing confirms figures you have already read.
Eight questions about your next decision, and what a no is costing
Answer these honestly. The pattern of the noes tells you what the records are hiding.
- 01
Could you name your three most profitable customers without opening anything?
If not, pricing and effort are spread evenly across work that pays very differently.
- 02
Do you know what you were owed at the close of last month?
Debtors that are a guess make every cash decision a guess as well.
- 03
Is every bank account reconciled up to last month end?
Unreconciled accounts hide missing income and costs that have been paid twice.
- 04
Could you say today whether a new hire is affordable for six months?
That answer needs current cash, committed costs and a view of what is coming in.
- 05
Has anyone checked that everything delivered last quarter was invoiced?
Work goes out, the paperwork lags, and the sale never reaches the ledger.
- 06
Do you know the full cost of your largest supplier, including rework?
Unit price is easy. Total cost only appears when the records are coded properly.
- 07
Would a price rise be based on your figures or on what competitors charge?
Without cost by job, the rise goes to everyone, including customers already paying enough.
- 08
Do your management figures arrive on the same date each month?
A reporting date you can rely on is what turns a decision into a Tuesday job.
Ask your accountant these three questions this week. If the answers need last year’s file, a fortnight’s notice or a caveat about incomplete records, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you today what you were owed at the end of last month?
- 02Could they show you which customers or jobs carried the margin this quarter?
- 03Could they confirm every bank account was reconciled last month, without going to look?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What turned up in the records before the first quarter had closed
One clean-up, one reconciliation, one figure nobody had noticed was missing.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”UK SME owner
What changes by day ninety, and what changes in the first week
Four markers, each one a thing you can do that you could not do before.
You find out what the records actually look like
We agree the scope, complete the checks and collect the records. If you already have an accountant or bookkeeper, we run the handover ourselves.
The books are complete and the banks agree
Bookkeeping brought up to date, accounts reconciled, and any historic gap written down rather than left sitting in the file.
You stop doing the month-end yourself at weekends
Routines set for supplier bills, credit control, payroll and reporting, with responsibility for each part agreed in writing.
A decision takes an afternoon rather than a quarter
Reports arrive on the agreed date, so the hire, the purchase or the price rise is settled on current figures.
What gets done each month so the answer is ready when you ask
Bookkeeping is the product here. Everything above it is only as good as this.
Books closed to a date you can diary
Transactions coded consistently, every bank account reconciled, and supplier and customer balances that mean what they say.
Figures you can act on while it still matters
Cash, debtors, creditors and performance reported on the agreed date, so the decision belongs to this month.
Year end as a confirmation rather than an investigation
Accounts and corporation tax built from records that already agree, with the liability visible long before it is payable.
Who this does not work for
We do not take on cash businesses, and that one is not negotiable.
Construction work that depends heavily on CIS sits outside what we do.
Anything illegal or reportable, or records that have been falsified, ends the conversation immediately.
If you will not complete AML checks, or cannot explain how the business makes money, the relationship does not work.
Everything else is what the review is for, including books that are several months behind.
Questions owners ask before they move their books
Is the review just a sales call?
No. It is a working session on your records and the decisions in front of you, carrying a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding. You keep the findings either way.
We already have an accountant. Does this replace them?
Usually it replaces the year-end-only arrangement, because the monthly work and the accounts belong together. Some owners keep an existing adviser for specialist tax work.
What happens with our current accountant or bookkeeper?
Ardein manages the handover at no separate charge: professional clearance, records collection and a transition plan agreed around your year end.
What are we committing to?
A monthly fee scoped to the work and agreed after we have seen the records. Capacity is capped at four new clients a month, so timing is discussed openly.
Our bookkeeping is months behind. Is that a problem?
It is the usual starting point. Month one is spent bringing records up to date and making the balances make sense before anything else is built on them.
Decide the next hire with the number already in the room
Start with the review. You will see which decisions your records can answer now, and which ones are being made blind.