If the council emailed today asking what its funding paid for, could you answer before Friday?
Schemes that can answer keep the contract and get the next award. Schemes that cannot spend three weeks rebuilding a year from bank statements, and the funder notices. Ardein runs the finance function so hire fees, grants and donations stay separate all year, and the evidence is already written.
Three things you would know before the next board meeting
Answer the council’s evidence request the same week
Spend already sits against the award it was funded from, month by month.
Know what the hire fees genuinely cover
Hire income, donations and grant money are tracked apart instead of netted into one balance.
Approve the next scooter purchase with the money identified
Restricted and unrestricted balances are current, so you know which pot the spend can come from.
Three requests that arrive by email and take three weeks to answer
Every one of these came from a scheme with mixed income and a single bank account.
- Funder
“The council asked what its grant had actually paid for. We sent a bank statement and a spreadsheet nobody could follow.”
It took three weeks and a trustee’s evenings to rebuild the year. The spending was all legitimate. The records simply never separated the council’s money from hire fees and donations.
- Salary
“Half the coordinator’s time was meant to sit against the grant. When the claim came round, nobody could show which half.”
The claim went in for less than the award allowed. The scheme carried a salary cost it had already been funded for.
- Award
“We let a second award go because we could not show how the first one had been spent in time.”
The application needed a funding statement by the Friday. The figures existed in three places and none of them agreed.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
By day ninety, every pound of income is coded to the award, contract, hire fee or donation that brought it in. When the council asks what its money paid for, you open the funding register instead of the bank statements. Salary splits are agreed once and applied every month, so claims go in for the full amount. The board sees the same figures you send the funder, before the meeting rather than during it.
Year-end accounts, or an answer in the week the funder asks
Both have a place. Only one of them helps when the email lands on a Tuesday.
A year-end accountant
Files the CIC or charity accounts accurately and on time.
Sees the year once it is finished and cannot be changed.
Reports total income, rather than income by award and contract.
Answers a funder’s question by reading back through bank statements.
Ardein each month
Income coded to the award, contract, hire fee or donation that brought it in.
Restricted balances kept current, so you know what is left to spend.
Evidence written as the year runs, instead of rebuilt after it.
Board figures on the agreed date each month, provided the information is with us.
Eight questions to answer before the next claim goes in
Answer each one yes or no from memory, without opening a spreadsheet.
- 01
Can you say today how much of each award is still unspent?
If the answer needs a reconciliation first, the claim timetable is already at risk.
- 02
Is hire income recorded separately from grant and contract income?
One combined figure makes it impossible to show a funder what its money did.
- 03
Does every funded post have an agreed, written salary split?
Without it, claims go in for less than the award actually allows.
- 04
Could you produce last year’s spend against one award in a day?
Funders read speed as control, and a slow answer invites further questions.
- 05
Do donations sit outside restricted funds in your records?
Mixing them makes unrestricted money look spent and restricted money look available.
- 06
Does the board see the same figures you send the council?
Two versions of one year is the hardest thing to explain in a meeting.
- 07
Do you know which part of the scheme runs at a loss?
Hire fees rarely cover the full cost, and that gap decides what you ask for next.
- 08
Is your next application waiting on figures somebody still has to build?
Applications are missed on evidence and deadlines far more often than on merit.
Ask your accountant these three questions this week. They hold your records, so they hold the answers. If any of them takes more than a day to come back, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you today how much of this year’s council funding is still unspent?
- 02Could they show which costs sit against each award without going back through bank statements?
- 03Could they produce the evidence pack for a claim inside a week?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What a line-by-line reconciliation found in one grant-funded organisation
The money had been awarded. The paperwork that released it had never been finished.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”UK SME owner
What changes between the first records review and day ninety
A scheme with three kinds of income needs the split agreed before anything else is built.
You know which awards and contracts the records have to separate
We agree scope, complete AML checks and collect award letters, service contracts and current records. If another accountant or bookkeeper holds them, we manage that handover at no separate charge.
Every pound of income sits against the money that brought it in
Bookkeeping brought complete and reconciled, with grants, council contracts, hire fees and donations coded separately and funded salary splits agreed once.
Claims and board papers come from the same set of figures
Routines set for claims, payroll, supplier bills and reporting, so the evidence is written during the month instead of after the funder asks.
The funder’s question takes an afternoon rather than a fortnight
A funding register updated monthly, restricted balances you can read at a glance, and management information delivered on the agreed date.
What the review looks at in a scheme with mixed income
One session on your funding flows, your records and what the board is being asked to approve.
Where each award actually went
A funding-flow review and a restricted-fund visibility check across grants, council contracts, hire fees and donations.
What a funder would ask for next
An evidence checklist and a claims and reporting timetable set against the dates your funders work to.
What the board cannot answer in the meeting
A board-reporting gap review, then the priority actions for the next ninety days.
When we would tell you Ardein is not the answer
We do not take on cash businesses, so a scheme running significant unbanked cash sits outside what we do.
We do not work on anything non-compliant or reportable, and we will not shape records to fit a claim.
The relationship does not work when nobody in the organisation can explain how the scheme runs and what it needs.
Capacity is four new clients a month, and everyone completes AML checks before any work starts.
The review tells you which of these applies before either of us commits to anything.
What schemes usually want settled before booking the review
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a working session on your funding flows, restricted funds, evidence and board reporting, ending in a written list of priorities. It carries a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding if you go ahead.
We already have an accountant. Does this still make sense?
Often yes. Most schemes have someone who files the year-end accounts and nobody who can separate the council’s money from hire fees month by month. The review shows which of those you are missing.
What happens with our current accountant or bookkeeper?
We handle it. 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?
The review only. If we go on to run the finance function, the monthly fee is scoped after we have seen the records and understood the funding streams, and agreed before anything begins.
Do you work with schemes outside the North West?
Yes. Ardein works UK-wide and remotely from a base in Chester, so where the scheme is based does not affect how it is looked after.
The next funding decision, made with the figures already in the room
Start with the review. You will leave knowing where the evidence gaps are and what the next ninety days would fix.