Nine months in, the grant didn’t cover the delivery costs, and reserves have been paying the difference.
The award looked workable when the budget was built in a fortnight.
Six years of reserves went into delivering somebody else’s contract, and the funder now wants a line by line account of where the money went.
Or read on to see how it works.
How a contract gets signed before anyone knows what delivery costs
- Funder invites a bid
- Budget built from estimates
- Award accepted, delivery starts
- Real costs land monthly
- Reserves quietly cover it
- Funder asks for evidence
Nobody decided to subsidise that contract. It happened one month at a time.
The staff time, the supervision, the premises share and the reporting hours were all real. None of them were sitting anywhere the chief executive could see before signing.
Five questions about that contract you cannot answer this afternoon
Take the contract you are currently delivering and try these without opening a spreadsheet.
- What share of delivery does the award actually cover?
- Which salaries are charged to which restricted funds?
- How much of your reserves has this contract used?
- What is unclaimed on awards already won?
- Could you evidence any of it by Friday?
That makes everything downstream harder.
What changes when the shortfall shows up in month one instead
Same week. From live numbers. With the reasoning.
You see the gap between what an award pays and what delivery costs while there is still a conversation to be had with the funder.
- %of delivery each award covers
- Costs mapped to awards
- Shortfall visible in month one
- Board told early
- Sign it, or renegotiate first
Year-end accounts would have told you the same thing eleven months after it mattered.
Ninety days to the number you needed before you signed
This is what a chief executive has in front of them by day ninety.
- Before day one
Every award and contract in one list
We agree scope, complete the checks, and collect the awards, agreements and records, managing the handover from your current provider.
- Day 30
Money in and money out reconciled
Bookkeeping complete, banks reconciled, and each funding stream matched against what has actually been received and claimed.
- Day 60
Costs sit against the award that funds them
Salaries, delivery costs and overheads are mapped to restricted and unrestricted money, so coverage on each contract is visible monthly.
- Day 90
You can price the next contract before signing
A board pack and funding register arrive on the same date each month, and the evidence a funder asks for is already assembled.
The review costs a fixed fee and is credited in full if you proceed
Sixty minutes with Gavin, going through your funding flows, your restricted money, your claims position and what your board currently sees.
It is a review of your organisation, not a sales meeting.
You leave with an evidence checklist, the gaps in your board reporting, a claims and reporting timetable, and the priority actions for the next ninety days. That is yours whether you go ahead or not.
Ardein takes a maximum of four new clients a month, and the handover from your current accountant or bookkeeper carries no separate charge.
Who this works for, and who should not bother with it
Worth being honest before either of us spends an hour on it.
This fits if
- You run a CIC, charity or community organisation with more than one funding stream.
- You have taken on contract or grant delivery and are not certain it pays for itself.
- Your funders or trustees are asking for evidence you cannot produce quickly.
- The chief executive is doing finance as well as running the organisation.
- You want monthly figures you can act on, not accounts that arrive after the fact.
This does not fit if
- You want a once-a-year filing exercise and nothing between now and then.
- You are a cash business, which we do not take on.
- Your work depends on CIS-heavy construction delivery.
- You are looking for records to be presented as something other than what they are.
- You would rather not complete anti-money-laundering checks.
Two minutes. If it fits, you’ll book the review with Gavin.
Know what a contract costs before your reserves find out for you
- Tell me what the award covers
- Show where the money went
- Get the claim in on time
- Answer the board in the meeting
That is the work: bookkeeping-level evidence behind every funding decision, delivered while you can still change the answer.
Think your numbers should be answering this?
Check your funding evidenceThe review takes an hour and the checklist is yours either way.
See if your finance function fits your size / structure
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