Management accounts in Manchester, on your desk the same date every month within ninety days
Management accounts in Manchester for owner-managed service businesses that need the month’s numbers while the month’s decisions are still open. Cash, debtors, creditors and margin by job, on an agreed date.
Most owners learn what a job actually earned long after the quote for the next one went out. The question is not whether your books get done. It is whether the answer reaches you while the decision is still yours.
Ardein provides management accounts in Manchester for owner-managed businesses, run remotely by Gavin Jardine MIAB from a Chester base. Monthly reporting on cash, debtors, creditors and margin arrives on an agreed date. Fees are a monthly amount scoped to the work after seeing the records, and the handover from a current accountant is managed at no separate charge.
“They don't feel like a contractor. They get fully involved in the business and are well respected by all.”
UK SME owner
- IAB member (MIAB 292185)
- Anti-money-laundering supervised
- Established 2021
Three things you would know before you signed
Know which job or customer is carrying the margin
Income and costs sit against the job in the records, so the ranking is there every month.
Sign off the van, the kit or the second site the same day
Cash, committed spend and debtor timing are current, so payback can be checked in an afternoon.
Decide the next hire before the vacancy costs you the work
Payroll, recurring costs and forward cash are reconciled, so affordability has a number behind it.
The decisions Manchester owners make without the number in front of them
Three owners, three decisions made on the wrong figure.
- Supplier
“We moved to a cheaper supplier and only worked out a year later that the wastage had eaten the saving twice over.”
The unit price was visible. The wastage was not, and nothing put the two in the same report until year end.
- Hire
“I held off hiring a second engineer for eight months because nobody could tell me whether we could carry the salary.”
The work went elsewhere in the meantime. The cash was there, the answer simply took two quarters to arrive.
- Price
“We put prices up across the board because I had no idea which contracts were the thin ones.”
Two good clients pushed back on an increase they should never have had. Margin by contract was in no report we received.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
By day ninety the pack arrives on the same date every month. You open it and see cash, debtors, creditors and margin by job. The hire question takes an afternoon rather than a quarter. When a figure looks wrong, you ring and get the reasoning that day.
Quick check · no email
If you rang your accountant this morning about a second van and the answer needed last year’s accounts and a fortnight, you have the wrong accountant
Three questions, answered about the accountant you have now.
Question 1 of 3
Could they tell you by this afternoon whether you can afford that second van?
Could they show you which customer or job made the money last month?
Could they tell you today what is owed to you and by when?
The gap is real, and it is costing you decisions rather than fees. The review is where we work out which numbers are missing and why they never arrive.
That is a reasonable position with one soft area. Check the reporting date first, because figures that arrive after the decision are figures you did not use.
You are well served and there is no reason to move. The first ninety days guide is there if you want to compare routines.
Year-end accounts and monthly numbers answer different questions
Both have a place. Only one of them helps you decide in September.
Your year-end accountant
Files the accounts and the corporation tax return properly.
Confirms what happened, months after it happened.
Answers on tax when the return is being prepared.
Rarely sees the month you are trading through now.
Monthly management accounts
Reports cash, debtors, creditors and margin on an agreed date.
Covers the month just closed, while it can still change something.
Gives you a number for the hire, the purchase or the price rise.
Comes with the reasoning, from someone who has seen the records.
Eight decisions your reporting should already cover
Eight yes or no questions about the calls in front of you.
- 01
Do you know which job made the most money last month?
If the answer is a feeling, job costing is not in the records.
- 02
Could you price a new contract from last quarter’s actual costs?
Quoting from memory is how thin work gets repeated.
- 03
Do you know what is owed to you today and when it lands?
Debtor timing decides whether this month’s purchase is safe.
- 04
Could you say whether a second hire is affordable this quarter?
Payroll plus forward cash gives that a number rather than a guess.
- 05
Do you know your cash position four weeks out?
A bank balance is today. It is not next month.
- 06
Could you check payback on a purchase before you sign it?
Committed spend has to be visible alongside the cash.
- 07
Do your reports arrive on the same date every month?
A moving date means the decision waits for the pack.
- 08
Does a supplier change get tested on total cost, not unit price?
Wastage, carriage and rework rarely show up in the quoted rate.
What has to run underneath the monthly answer
The reporting is only as good as the records it sits on.
Bookkeeping kept to a routine
Complete, reconciled records produced on a schedule, so nothing is being rebuilt at month end.
Monthly management accounts
Cash, debtors, creditors and performance by job or customer, delivered on the date we agree.
Virtual FD input on the bigger calls
Hiring, funding, pricing and margin, talked through with someone who has run a finance function.
Entry 01
The date your numbers arrive decides how much of the month you get to use
One entry, and it is a standard rather than a rescue.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
What clients say
“They don't feel like a contractor. They get fully involved in the business and are well respected by all.”
UK SME owner
What changes by day ninety, and what has to happen first
Ninety days from a first conversation to numbers you can decide on.
You know what is missing before anyone touches the books
We agree the scope, complete client due diligence and AML checks, and collect the records. If you already have an accountant, we run the handover.
The month closes on figures that hold up
Bookkeeping complete, banks reconciled, debtor and creditor balances that make sense, and any historic gaps put in front of you.
The reporting date stops moving
Routines for supplier bills, credit control, payroll and reporting are set, so the monthly pack is produced rather than chased.
The hire or the purchase takes an afternoon
Monthly reporting on cash, debtors, creditors and performance lands on the agreed date, with queries answered the day you ask them.
Where this does not work
We do not take on cash businesses.
We do not take on construction work that depends on CIS.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, including falsified VAT records.
It does not work with owners who will not complete AML checks or cannot explain their own business.
If you are unsure which side of that you sit on, the review settles it in an hour.
Questions Manchester owners ask before they move
Is the Finance Function Gap Review just a sales call?
No. It is a sixty minute review of your bookkeeping and reporting workflow, debtor and creditor visibility, payroll and systems, and you leave with the top five priorities and an indicative monthly structure. It carries a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding if you go ahead.
We already have an accountant. Do we need management accounts in Manchester as well?
Many clients keep an accountant for the year end and come to us for the month by month work. Others move everything across. A year-end accountant confirms what happened; monthly reporting tells you whether the hire, the purchase or the price rise is affordable now. The review will tell you which split fits.
What happens with our current accountant or bookkeeper if we switch?
We run the handover. That means professional clearance, collecting the records, agreeing who is responsible for what and setting a transition plan around your year end. You do not chase anybody. There is no separate charge for a normal handover from an existing accountant or bookkeeper.
How long are we committing to?
The work is a monthly engagement scoped to what your business actually needs, agreed after we have seen the records. The first ninety days are the point of it: clean foundations, then routines and controls, then dependable monthly reporting. If it is not working, you are not tied into a long contract to prove it.
Do you need to be based in Manchester to handle our management accounts?
No. Ardein works remotely from a base in Chester, with clients across Greater Manchester, Stockport, Altrincham and the wider North West, and further afield. Records, questions and reporting all move online, and Gavin is reachable by phone and email Monday to Friday, nine to five.
What do monthly management accounts cost and what is included?
The monthly fee is scoped to the work once we have seen the records and understood how the business runs. For limited companies it typically covers bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and auto-enrolment, year-end accounts and corporation tax, with management reporting and virtual FD input where a finance lead is needed.
Three ways to take the next step
Take the Finance Function Gap Review
Sixty minutes on your records and reporting, then a written list of the five things to fix first and how the monthly work would be structured.
See what you’d be told 02 · A question firstWant to ask something before you commit?
Call or email Gavin directly and ask what your monthly reporting would actually contain.
Ask Gavin a question 03 · Still decidingStill deciding
The first ninety days guide sets out what changes each month, and what we need from you to hold the reporting date.
When cash feels tight →