If a supplier offered you a discount for paying in seven days, could you say yes by this afternoon?
Owners who know what is owed to them, and by them, answer that over a coffee. Owners who don’t say no and hope they were right. Ardein keeps the debtor and creditor balances current, so the cash position you decide from is today’s rather than last quarter’s.
Three things you’d know before you chase anyone
Know which customers are costing you money to serve
The aged debtor list is reconciled monthly, so late payers show up by name rather than as a feeling that cash is tight.
Answer a supplier terms offer the day it arrives
Creditor balances match what was actually ordered and received, so early settlement is a calculation instead of a guess.
Commit cash to a hire or a purchase without flinching
The cash you are planning from has been checked against what is genuinely collectable in the next thirty days.
The decisions that quietly go wrong when nobody is chasing
Late payment rarely announces itself; it shows up as decisions an owner defers because cash looks worse than it really is.
- Hire
“We held off hiring for four months because cash looked tight. Half of it was invoices from January nobody had chased.”
The work was there and so was the money, sitting unclaimed in the sales ledger. Nobody owned the chasing, so a good hire waited on a number that was wrong.
- Supplier
“I paid the same supplier twice. The bill sat in two places and the creditor balance hadn’t made sense for a year.”
It cost a month’s stock budget to find and recover. The supplier ledger had never been reconciled against what was ordered and received.
- Contract
“I turned down a contract because I thought we were at our limit on cash. We weren’t. The debtor list was three weeks old.”
The contract went to someone else and the cash arrived a fortnight later. The ledger showed what had been invoiced, never what had been collected.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
Every month you get an aged debtor list with real ages against it, and a payment run set against the cash you actually hold. You know the three customers who always pay at seventy-five days and what has been agreed with them. When a supplier offers better terms for faster settlement, you check and answer the same day. The decision takes an afternoon rather than a quarter.
What your year-end accountant can tell you about your debtors, and what they can’t
A year-end accountant is doing the job they were engaged for, which is a different job to this one.
A year-end accountant
Confirms the debtor and creditor balances once, at the year end.
Files accounts and the corporation tax computation from them.
Can tell you in October what your cash looked like last March.
Has no view on which customer is eighty days late this week.
A monthly debtor and creditor routine
Ledgers reconciled every month, so the aged lists are worth acting on.
Chasing that someone owns, with dates rather than good intentions.
A payment run built against the cash actually in the bank.
An answer on a supplier offer or a hire the day you ask for it.
Eight questions that decide whether your cash is a number or a feeling
Answer these about this week, not about last year’s accounts.
- 01
Could you say today how much of your sales ledger is over sixty days old?
If not, the cash you are planning from is an estimate dressed up as a fact.
- 02
Does one named person chase overdue invoices on set days?
If chasing depends on someone having a spare afternoon, it stops the week you get busy.
- 03
Do you know which customers pay late every time?
Repeat late payers are a pricing and terms decision, not an admin problem.
- 04
Could you approve a supplier’s early settlement discount this week?
That needs a creditor ledger that reconciles and a cash figure you believe.
- 05
Has anyone checked that everything you delivered was actually invoiced?
That single check is how we found twenty thousand pounds of goods supplied and never billed.
- 06
Do you know what leaves the bank in the next thirty days?
Without it, every hire and purchase decision gets deferred by default.
- 07
Are supplier bills entered before they are paid, not after?
Paying from the pile rather than the ledger is how invoices get settled twice.
- 08
Do your debtor and creditor balances get reviewed monthly by someone other than you?
If the only review is at year end, problems arrive nine months after they were fixable.
Ask your accountant these three questions this week. If they need your ledgers rebuilt before they can answer, or need until month end, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you today how much of your sales ledger is over sixty days old?
- 02Could they name the customers who pay late every single time?
- 03Could they tell you what you owe suppliers this month and what has to be paid first?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What turned up when someone finally reconciled the sales ledger
One owner-managed trading business had delivered the goods, billed nobody and had no idea.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”
How the ledgers stop being a mystery, and roughly when
Ninety days from a first look at the records to decisions you can take on the day.
You find out what the ledgers are carrying
We agree the scope, complete the AML checks and collect the records, including the debtor and creditor listings. If you already have an accountant or bookkeeper, we manage the handover.
The aged debtor list is one you’d act on
Bookkeeping complete, banks reconciled, customer and supplier balances that make sense, with historic oddities listed rather than carried quietly forward.
Chasing happens without you remembering to do it
A credit control routine with named owners and dates, supplier bills on a schedule, and a payment run matched to the cash you hold.
You settle the purchase question in an afternoon
Monthly management information on cash, debtors and creditors, delivered on the agreed date, so the answer is on your desk before you go looking for it.
What we take on when the ledgers become our job
Three pieces of work, all of them aimed at one thing: an answer you can act on.
Know what is collectable, not just what is invoiced
The sales ledger reconciled monthly, aged properly, with a chasing routine that runs on dates and does not rely on you remembering.
Pay suppliers in the right order, from real cash
Supplier bills entered on a schedule, balances agreed, and a payment run set against the cash position rather than the loudest email.
Take the decision with the numbers in front of you
Monthly management information on cash, debtors, creditors and performance, delivered on the agreed date while there is still time to act on it.
Who this doesn’t work for, said plainly
We don’t take on cash businesses.
We don’t work with construction that depends on CIS.
We walk away from anything non-compliant or reportable, including falsified VAT records, and from anyone who won’t complete AML checks.
It doesn’t work when an owner can’t explain their own business or say what they actually need.
If none of that rules you out, the review is where we look at your ledgers and tell you what we see.
The questions owners ask before they send us the ledgers
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is sixty minutes on your bookkeeping and reporting workflow, your debtor and creditor visibility, your payroll and your systems, ending with your top five priorities and an indicative monthly service structure. There is a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding.
We already have an accountant. Why would we need this?
Most of our clients arrived with an accountant and no month-by-month support. Filing the accounts and running the ledgers are different jobs, and after the review we will say plainly which arrangement makes sense for you.
What happens with our current accountant or bookkeeper?
We handle it. We deal with them directly, obtain professional clearance and the records, and agree a transition plan around your year end. The handover is managed by Ardein at no separate charge.
What are we committing to?
Nothing before the review. After it you get the priorities and a monthly fee scoped to the work once we have seen the records. Capacity is capped at four new clients a month, so start dates are planned rather than immediate.
Do you only work with businesses near Chester?
No. The practice is remote and works UK-wide, with a core across Chester, Liverpool, Manchester and Cheshire.
The next decision, taken with the collectable number in front of you
Start with the review. An hour on your ledgers, your cash and the decisions waiting on them, then the five things worth fixing first.