Virtual Finance Director

Your dedicated financial director can be contacted at any time and will work closely alongside you. You will have a direct point of contact for help with the added benefit of knowing they are supported by our other team members. This also means that you will always be able to speak with someone to discuss any issues you may have.

Managing staff can be a time consuming and tricky affair at the best of times and when these staff are involved in tasks that aren’t in your area of expertise, it can be even more difficult.

We will undertake a “health check” on your current finance function systems and processes to flag up any potential problems and advise on any improvements that can be made to save you both time and money.

Supplying you with real time management reports as to the state of your business will be vital to your ability to make the best business decisions. We will set up your finance function to provide you with reports as often as you like so that you are always on top of how your business is doing at any given time. Along with the reports, we will supply you with our analysis and explanation as to what the figures actually mean to you and your business.

Your dedicated finance director is always on hand for you to email or call at no extra charge. We will always notify in advance and provide a quote to you should you require anything outside of the agreed range of services we have with you. We will never send you a bill that you aren’t expecting!

Once the financial health check has been completed, we will work with you and your team to see how any suggestions made can be implemented in your business to the best effect. This might include issues such as how you get paid by your customers, or improving your invoicing processes through automation (which has the benefit of reducing errors and freeing up employees time) and thus ensuring that cash is received faster. Employee costs can be kept down if you don’t need to employ someone for instance to process your purchase invoices and receipts if this can be done automatically.

As your business grows, it can be easy to lose track of what is being spent. Expense claims will rise as you take on more employees. Having processes in place to alert you to anything out of the ordinary can be of great benefit.

Poor invoicing and cash collection procedures can lead to problems with cash flow. We will undertake a review of your credit control function which will highlight any areas where cash can be received into the business quicker. This could be achieved by automating your credit control function, encouraging and setting up direct debit payments or simply making sure you are paid upfront.

You may find yourself at a point when you want to hire new personnel or invest in a product or service that will move your business forward. The question is though, can you afford it? And if you do, what will be the impact on your finances. Have you taken into account all the other costs associated with doing so? We can identify the “what if” questions you need to ask yourself so that you can reduce your risks and help you in your decision making.

The survival of any business can very much rely on cash. It is essential to monitor cash flow so that you are in a good position to see you through “lean” periods when trade may not be as good as you would like, or if you need money to help you grow. Future liabilities must be remembered, e.g. PAYE, VAT and corporation tax which can unfortunately be easily overlooked. By developing, monitoring and keeping your cash flow forecast up-to-date, we can ensure that you have a clear view of your cash balance.

There are hundreds and hundreds of apps to choose from when it comes to accounting packages. We are here to research them for you and find the best apps to use in your cloud accounting software. These will be the most efficient for you and will mean you save time and money. We will look at both apps that are specific to your type of business and other more general apps covering business processes that might be of benefit to you.

Risk management is crucial for the survival of your business. We will identify the risks involved in your business and help you reduce these risks so that you have peace of mind. An example of this might be if you took on a new client and you wanted to ensure that they will be able to pay their bills. In this case, we would do a credit check on them so that you are fully aware of their financial position.

The data contained in management reports can be very helpful. It becomes even more helpful when it is combined with key performance indicators which will help you achieve your targets in relation to growth. A dashboard where you have all your financial and non-financial KPi’s in one place will help you keep track of them and realise your goals.

To best understand your short, medium and long-term goals for your business, we will arrange to have a strategic planning session with you. By doing this together we can set in place targets that will help you identify and achieve your goals.

To achieve your goals, of course, action has to be taken and this can be very hard when your time is taken up just with the everyday running of your business. Very often it’s a really good thing to have an independent person who will hold you to account and give you that nudge when things need to be done. We will hold a meeting or video call with you each month to work through your action plan and offer any help required and our support. Accessing an independent party can help clear your mind and see things from a different perspective and give you the impetus to achieve your goals.

Raising finance or looking at your existing finance may be necessary if your plans to expand require it. We have access to a wide range of financiers and will approach them on your behalf to get you the best help that you need to ensure your growth plans.

We will work with you to provide the management reports that all financiers will require from you to reassure them that their investment in you is safe. By supplying these in a timely manner, as and when required, will benefit your credit line and your overall credibility.

If you feel the time has come for you to exit your business then you will want to know that you will be fully recompensed for all the hard work you have invested in it, not to mention your time, energy and hard-earned cash. We will work alongside you to make sure you get maximum value for this. Options that we can help you with are MBO’s and considering whether to introduce a tax efficient employee share option scheme for key employees.

It might be that you need to have a non-exec FD on board if you are accountable to other shareholders or investors. Similarly, if you have taken on risk finance. We will take on this role at no extra cost to your package to give you the credibility needed and the reassurance your financiers will want.

Overseeing and managing a finance function in this day and age is a huge undertaking. Luckily, technology has automated many procedures that would have had to be undertaken by employees in the past. It is therefore a very worthwhile exercise to review how your finance function operates so that you can identify areas in which you can save your precious time, energy and money.