How would you know if £200,000 of your funding had never been claimed, before the funder asked?
Organisations that can show where each award went get the claim signed off and the next application taken seriously. Those that can’t spend weeks rebuilding a year from bank statements while the board waits. Ardein runs the finance function for grant-funded CICs across Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, so the evidence is already there.
Three things you’d know before the next board meeting
Answer a funder’s evidence request the same week
The funding register shows every award, what it paid for and what has been claimed.
Walk into the board meeting with the figures already read
The pack goes out before the meeting, on the same date each month.
Know which salary sits against which grant, today
Restricted funds are tracked as the money moves, so coverage is visible rather than reconstructed.
The decisions that go wrong when the evidence isn’t there
Three situations chief executives in the North West describe, and what each one cost.
- Funder
“The funder asked for a breakdown of how the award had been spent. It took us three weeks and two evenings of my own.”
The claim went in late and the next application started from a weaker position. The spend was all there; nothing linked it to the award.
- Award
“We found out at year end that one award had never been claimed in full, and the window for the final drawdown had closed.”
Money already spent on delivery was never recovered. Awards sat in a spreadsheet that nobody reconciled against income received.
- Salary
“A project manager’s salary was split across two grants. When a trustee asked which one carried it, nobody in the room could say.”
Reserves ended up subsidising a contract they were never meant to cover. Payroll had never been mapped to funding lines.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
By day ninety the funding register is current and reviewed at every board meeting. When a funder asks where the money went, the answer comes from the register rather than from a month of bank statements. Restricted balances are visible as the money moves, so you know which award still has room in it. The board pack arrives before the meeting, on the agreed date.
A year-end accountant and a funder’s deadline are not on the same clock
Both jobs matter. Only one of them helps you answer a funder in the week they ask.
A year-end accountant
Files the CIC accounts at Companies House and keeps the statutory position correct.
Works from the full year once it is finished, usually months after the spending happened.
Sees the totals rather than which award each cost was sitting against.
Answers on the timetable of the filing, which is rarely the timetable of the funder.
A finance function that runs monthly
Keeps a funding register showing awards, spend and claims as they happen.
Produces the board pack on the same date each month, before the meeting.
Maps salaries and overheads to the grants that carry them while the costs are current.
Answers a funder’s evidence request in the week it arrives.
Eight questions to answer before the next funding decision
Answer each one yes or no. The no’s are the work.
- 01
Could you state today how much of each award is unspent?
Yes means the register is live. No means a reconstruction from bank statements.
- 02
Do you know which staff costs are carried by which grant this month?
Yes means payroll maps to funding. No means reserves may be covering delivery.
- 03
Could you send a funder an evidence pack this week without rebuilding it?
Yes means evidence is a by-product. No means every request becomes a project.
- 04
Does the board get the figures before the meeting rather than during it?
Yes means decisions get made. No means the meeting becomes a briefing.
- 05
Do you know how many months of unrestricted money you are holding?
Yes means you can plan a hire. No means you plan on instinct.
- 06
Has every award of the last two years been claimed in full?
Yes means nothing lapsed. No means spend already incurred may never be recovered.
- 07
Is the chief executive still doing the bookkeeping at weekends?
No means capacity sits where it should. Yes means delivery is paying for admin.
- 08
Could you cost a new contract properly before you apply for it?
Yes means you bid on numbers. No means you find out afterwards.
Ask whoever does your finance three questions this week. If they need a month, a meeting and last year’s file to answer any of them, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you today how much of each award has been spent and how much is left?
- 02Could they produce an evidence pack for a funder this week, without you rebuilding it?
- 03Could they show which salaries are carried by which grant, line by line?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What turned up when the awards were reconciled against the money actually received
Two entries from client work, anonymised and described by type of organisation only.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”
What changes in ninety days, and what it lets the board decide
Four markers, from the records arriving to a board pack you can act on.
You stop running the handover yourself
We agree the scope, complete AML checks and collect the records. If you have an accountant or bookkeeper, we deal with them at no separate charge.
Every award has a balance you can quote
Bookkeeping is complete, banks are reconciled and awards are matched against income received, so restricted balances mean something.
Claims and reports keep their dates
Routines are set for bookkeeping, payroll, credit control and reporting, with claim deadlines and board dates in the same calendar.
The board reads the numbers before the meeting
Monthly management information and funder-ready evidence arrive on the agreed date, while there is still time to act on them.
What sits behind an answer that arrives the same week
Three parts of the monthly routine, each one there so a question gets answered quickly.
Evidence that exists before the request does
Bookkeeping with fund tracking, so every award has spend attached to it as it happens.
A pack the trustees have read before they arrive
Monthly figures on cash, restricted balances and performance, delivered on the agreed date.
Claims and filings that keep to their dates
Payroll, year-end accounts and the CIC filings handled alongside the claims and reporting timetable.
Where we would say no, and why that saves us both time
We do not take on cash businesses, and we do not take CIS-dependent construction work.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, including falsified VAT records.
We cannot act for an organisation that will not complete AML checks.
The relationship does not work when nobody can explain how the organisation actually runs.
The review is where we both find that out, before either of us commits to anything ongoing.
Questions people ask before they book the review
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a worked review of your funding flows, restricted fund visibility, evidence and board reporting, ending in priority actions for the next ninety days. It carries a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding.
We already have an accountant. Does that matter?
Most organisations that come to us do. The accountant files the year end. The gap is usually the month-by-month evidence and the board reporting in between.
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.
What are we committing to?
Nothing beyond the review itself. Any ongoing work is scoped and agreed after we have seen the records and understood how the organisation runs.
Do you need to be in the room with us?
We work remotely across Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK. Records, queries and reporting all run remotely, and it has not been a constraint.
Make the next funding decision with the award balances in front of you
Start with the Funding & Finance Evidence Review and see what your records can already show a funder.