When a hire, a price rise and a funding decision land in the same week, who does the maths?
Owners with a finance lead sign off the hire with the payback in front of them. Owners without one decide on instinct and find out at year end whether it worked. Ardein puts a finance lead inside the business, on top of monthly numbers that are already accurate.
Three things you’d know before you signed anything
Sign off the hire with the payback in front of you
Live payroll, margin and cash figures show what the role has to bring in and by when.
Know which customer, job or product carries the margin
Revenue and cost are split by line every month, so the answer does not need a week of digging.
Answer a funder or a bank in the same week they ask
Awards, drawdowns and commitments are tracked monthly, so the pack gets assembled rather than reconstructed.
The decisions that get made without the number, and what they cost later
Three things owners have said to me in a first conversation. None of them were careless people.
- Hire
“We took on the second estimator in March and only worked out in January that he had never paid for himself.”
The cost landed in month one and the extra work in month nine. Nobody put the two on the same page while it still mattered.
- Price
“We put prices up across the board because the numbers were too vague to show which customers were the problem.”
Two good customers absorbed a rise they did not need, and one of them left. The loss-making jobs carried on at the same margin.
- Funder
“The bank asked for figures to support the facility and the newest set I had was fourteen months old.”
The request was answered slowly and from a weaker position. The performance was there, the record of it was not.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
The purchase gets decided in an afternoon, with the payback written down. You can say which three customers made last month’s profit and which two ate it. When a lender or a funder asks, the figures come out of the monthly pack rather than a weekend of rebuilding. The decision is still yours, and you make it while there is time to change your mind.
What a year-end accountant is for, and what it leaves you deciding alone
Both jobs are real. They answer different questions, and only one of them helps you on a Tuesday in March.
A year-end accountant
Files accurate statutory accounts and the corporation tax return on time.
Confirms what happened, usually several months after it happened.
Answers tax questions well, because that is the work they are doing.
Sees the business once a year, from the outside, in summary.
A finance lead inside the business
Answers the hire, purchase and pricing question in the week you ask it.
Works from this month’s reconciled numbers, not last year’s accounts.
Puts the reasoning next to the figure, so you can argue with it.
Sits close enough to the operation to know which jobs are the awkward ones.
Eight decisions you should be able to make this week
Answer each one yes or no, honestly, about the last three months rather than your intentions.
- 01
Can you say what the next hire has to earn before it pays for itself?
If the answer is a feeling rather than a figure, the hire is being made blind.
- 02
Do you know which three customers made you the most money last month?
Most owners can name their biggest customers. Biggest and most profitable are often different names.
- 03
Could you compare a cheaper supplier on total cost, including wastage and rework?
Unit price is easy to see. The rest of the cost shows up in margin two months later.
- 04
Do you know how much cash the business has free, after tax and payroll?
The bank balance is not the answer. The answer is the balance less what is already spoken for.
- 05
Could you defend a price rise customer by customer rather than across the board?
Line-level margin turns a blunt rise into three targeted ones.
- 06
Do you know which jobs or contracts ran over and by how much?
If that only emerges at year end, the same quote goes out again next month.
- 07
Could you assemble figures for a lender or funder within a week of being asked?
Speed of answer changes the terms you are offered as much as the figures do.
- 08
Do you know your corporation tax liability before the year is finished?
Knowing it in month eight is a decision. Finding it in month twenty is a bill.
If you rang your accountant today about a hire, a price rise and a supplier switch, and none of the three could be answered this week, you have the wrong accountant.
- 01Could they tell you this week what the next hire has to bill before it pays for itself?
- 02Could they show you which customers and jobs carried the margin last month, rather than last year?
- 03Could they take a bank or funding request and produce supporting figures from live records within days?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
Two things nobody was looking for, found by asking how something was being paid for
Both surfaced during onboarding, from reading the records line by line instead of accepting the summary.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”UK SME owner
What changes between the first conversation and the ninetieth day
The FD input starts once the numbers underneath it can be relied on. That takes about a quarter.
You know what the records are hiding
Scope agreed, AML checks done, records gathered. If you have an accountant or bookkeeper now, I run the handover at no separate charge.
The month-end figure can be argued with
Bookkeeping complete, banks reconciled, debtor and creditor balances that make sense. From here a number is worth putting in front of a decision.
The awkward questions get a standing slot
Routines for billing, credit control, payroll and reporting. Margin starts being reported by the lines you actually sell.
The purchase takes an afternoon, not a quarter
Reporting arrives on the agreed date each month, and hiring, pricing, funding and cash questions get answered against live figures.
What the finance lead actually gets asked in a normal month
This layer sits on top of accurate monthly finance, and it is kept to a few clients so the involvement is real.
The hire and the purchase, with the payback attached
We put the cost, the cash effect and the work it has to bring in on one page before you commit.
Pricing and margin by customer, job and product
Reporting split the way you sell, so a price decision names the customers it applies to.
Funding, lending and cash questions answered from live records
Forecast cash, tax and commitments kept current, so a request for figures is a download rather than a project.
Who this does not work for, said plainly
I do not take on cash businesses, whatever the turnover or the sector.
Construction work that depends on CIS is not work I take on.
I walk away from falsified records, from anything reportable, and from anyone who will not complete AML checks.
It does not work when an owner cannot explain their own business or say what they actually need.
If none of those describe you, the review is where we find out whether an FD layer would earn its place here, and capacity is capped at four new clients a month.
The questions owners ask before they book
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a working session on your records, your reporting and the decisions you are facing, and it ends with the five things I would fix first. It carries a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding.
We already have an accountant. Does that rule us out?
Most of my clients had one. They had a filing service and no month-by-month support, which is a different job. You can keep your accountant for the year end and use the FD input alongside it, or move everything across.
What happens with our current accountant or bookkeeper?
I handle it. Professional clearance, records collection and a transition plan agreed around your year end, managed by me at no separate charge.
What are we committing to?
A monthly fee scoped to the work, agreed after I have seen the records and understood how the business runs. Nothing is priced before that, and the review is not conditional on you continuing.
Do you need to do our bookkeeping to give FD support?
The reporting has to be reliable, so in practice I take on the monthly finance first or bring existing records up to that standard. Advice built on late or incomplete records is not worth having.
Make the next decision with the number already in the room
Tell me what you are deciding this quarter and how your numbers reach you now. I will tell you whether a finance lead would change the answer.