Does your debtor and creditor control tell you today who owes you and what you can spend?
Debtor and creditor control for owner-managed UK businesses, so the money owed to you and the money you owe are both accurate on the day you have a decision to make.
Most owners can name their largest customer. Far fewer can say what that customer owes this morning, or how much of last quarter’s work was never invoiced at all. One trading business had supplied £20,000 of goods and billed none of it.
Ardein is an outsourced finance function for owner-managed UK businesses and grant-funded organisations, run remotely from Chester by Gavin Jardine MIAB. Debtor and creditor balances are reconciled monthly so cash questions get a same-day answer. Fees are scoped to the work after the records are seen, 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’d know before you paid another supplier
Know who owes you, and how late, today
The sales ledger is reconciled monthly, so the aged list is current when you pick up the phone.
Pay suppliers on a decision, not a panic
The purchase ledger shows what is genuinely due this week, with duplicates and disputed bills already out.
Sign off the purchase with the cash in front of you
Expected collections and committed payments sit beside the bank balance, so the affordable date is visible before you commit.
Three decisions that went wrong because nobody had reconciled the ledgers
Each of these cost real money, and in each case the number existed but nobody could find it.
- Purchase
“We held off buying the second van for four months because I couldn’t tell whether the cash in the bank was ours or the suppliers’.”
The money was there. Three customers were sitting forty days past terms and nobody had asked them, so a healthy balance read like a warning.
- Supplier
“I paid a supplier twice in one quarter and only found out when I rang to chase a credit note.”
Duplicate bills had been sitting on the purchase ledger for months. It cost cash the business needed and a conversation nobody enjoyed.
- Hire
“I couldn’t approve the new hire because I had no idea which invoices would actually land that month.”
Debtors were one total with no ages behind it. The role stayed unfilled for a quarter while work was turned away.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
You open one page and see who owes what, how old it is, and who has been chased. You see what leaves the bank in the next fortnight and what can reasonably wait. The purchase you have been circling becomes an afternoon’s decision rather than a month’s worry. Nothing is supplied and left uninvoiced, because invoicing sits inside the month-end routine.
Quick check · no email
If you asked this afternoon who owes you money past thirty days, and which supplier payments can safely wait a fortnight, and the answer took a week, you have the wrong accountant
Three questions to put to whoever keeps your books this week.
Question 1 of 3
Could they tell you this afternoon which customers are more than thirty days late, and for how much?
Could they show you what you owe suppliers next week, with duplicates and disputed bills already removed?
Could they tell you whether anything you delivered last month left without being invoiced?
The gap is real, and it is costing you decisions rather than admin time. The review is where we look at your ledgers and tell you what is actually in them.
That is a reasonable position, and one area is worth checking properly. The £20,000 of uninvoiced goods below was found in a business whose books looked fine from the outside.
You are well served, and there is no reason to change anything. The guides will still be useful if you want to tighten the monthly routine yourself.
What a year-end accountant sees, and what a monthly ledger routine sees
Both are doing their job. Only one of them is looking while you can still act.
A year-end accountant
Sees the debtor balance once, months after the year has closed.
Confirms what happened and files it correctly, which matters.
Has no view of who has been chased or who has gone quiet.
Finds the uninvoiced sale, if at all, when it is too late to bill it comfortably.
Debtor and creditor control at Ardein
Reconciles the sales and purchase ledgers every month, on an agreed date.
Gives you an aged list you would be willing to phone from.
Shows committed payments against expected receipts before you commit to anything.
Catches the delivery that never became an invoice in the month it happened.
Eight questions that show whether your ledgers are earning their keep
Answer each one yes or no, from memory, without opening anything.
- 01
Can you name your three largest overdue invoices?
If not, chasing is running on memory rather than a list.
- 02
Do you know which customer has quietly slipped from thirty days to sixty?
The slide usually starts long before anyone notices the cash.
- 03
Is everything you delivered last month on an invoice?
This is the question that found £20,000 already supplied and never billed.
- 04
Do you know what leaves the bank in the next fortnight?
Without it, every supplier payment is a judgement call made late.
- 05
Has anyone checked the purchase ledger for duplicate bills this quarter?
Duplicates sit quietly and get paid twice more often than owners expect.
- 06
Could you say today whether you can fund a new hire from collections?
The answer sits in the aged debtor list, if the list is current.
- 07
Does someone chase on a fixed day each month?
Chasing that depends on somebody remembering tends not to happen.
- 08
Do your debtor and creditor totals agree with the accounts?
When they do not, every cash decision above them is built on sand.
What stops being your problem each month
Three parts of the finance routine that decide whether the cash answer is available.
A sales ledger you would phone from
Invoices raised in the month they are earned, reconciled and aged, so chasing goes to the right people at the right time.
Supplier balances you can commit against
Bills posted, duplicates removed and payment dates visible, so you know what is truly due before you agree anything.
One view of collections against commitments
Monthly reporting that puts expected receipts beside committed payments, delivered on the agreed date while you can still act.
Entry 01
What a reconciled sales ledger turned up in one owner-managed business
Found during the first clean-up, in records that nobody thought were wrong.
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
How long before the cash question stops being a guess
A defined ninety days, with something usable at each stage.
You find out what the ledgers actually contain
We agree scope, complete AML checks and review bank statements, debtors, creditors and the systems already in use.
The debtor list is one you would act on
Bookkeeping is complete, banks are reconciled, and customer and supplier balances make sense with the gaps identified.
Chasing happens without you remembering it
Credit control, supplier bills and month-end run to a routine, with duplication and manual rework taken out where practical.
Cash decisions take an afternoon
Monthly reporting on cash, debtors and creditors arrives on the agreed date, early enough to change what you do next.
Where this will not be the right fit
We do not take on cash businesses, whatever the state of the ledgers.
We do not take on CIS-dependent construction work.
We walk away from anything illegal or reportable, and from clients who will not complete AML checks.
It does not work when an owner cannot explain their own business or say what they need from the numbers.
If none of that applies, the review is the sensible place to find out what your ledgers are hiding.
Questions owners ask before they get in touch
Is the Finance Function Gap Review a sales call?
No. It is a sixty-minute review of how your finance runs now, covering bookkeeping and reporting, debtor and creditor visibility, payroll and systems, ending with the top five priorities and an indicative monthly structure. There is a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding if you go ahead.
We already have an accountant. Do we need debtor and creditor control as well?
Many clients came to us with an accountant already in place and no month-by-month support. A year-end accountant confirms what happened. Debtor and creditor control is about what you can commit to this week, which needs the sales and purchase ledgers reconciled monthly rather than once a year.
What happens with our current accountant or bookkeeper if we switch?
Ardein manages the handover at no separate charge. We write for professional clearance, obtain the records we need, agree a transition plan around your year end and set out who is responsible for each part of the finance process from then on. You do not run the handover yourself.
How long do we have to commit for?
The engagement is monthly, with the scope agreed after we have seen the records and understood how the business runs. The first ninety days follow a defined plan, because that is how long it takes to get records clean, routines in place and reporting arriving on an agreed date.
What does debtor and creditor control actually involve each month?
Invoices raised for everything delivered, the sales ledger reconciled and aged, supplier bills posted and checked for duplicates, and the two balances agreed back to the accounts. You then get reporting on cash, debtors and creditors on the same date each month, provided the information is with us.
Who chases the customers, us or Ardein?
We agree that in month one and write it down. Ardein keeps the ledger accurate and the aged list current, and we set the credit control routine. Some owners want the calls made by their own team, others want the chasing handled alongside the bookkeeping. Both work when the list is right.
Three ways to take the next step
Take the Finance Function Gap Review
We look at your ledgers and systems, then give you the five things to fix first and an indicative monthly structure.
See where the gaps are 02 · A question firstNot sure your debtors are the problem?
Send Gavin the question directly and you will get a straight answer about whether this is worth your time.
Ask Gavin a question 03 · Still decidingStill deciding
The guides set out what the first ninety days involve and what a dependable monthly finance routine looks like.
Read the guides →