Frequently Asked Questions

A good finance director can add value to your business in many different ways and support you in growing your business. This value comes from years of experience, but few businesses need that quality of input on a full-time basis. AC looks to supplement your existing finance/accounting team in identifying opportunities within your business, addressing and overcoming challenges and most importantly developing your team to take your business to the next levels on their own.

Many accountants can provide you with a laundry list of things to do or check to maximise profit margin, but they miss the DNA of the business or its owner. AC recognises both and looks to build mutual trust and chemistry between the finance team, the owner and other functional heads to identify efficiencies and ensure that resources are deployed to develop the most profitable segments of the business.

Business owners often look for information from their accountant that they have not previously asked for and are often told that they can’t have that information, or it will take days/weeks to piece together. This is often a result of how the accounting records are structured but this should not be a barrier to achieving the underlying question that the owner wishes an answer to. Less experienced accountants tend to be reactively relying on practices and procedures with which they are familiar. AC will help your finance team transition to be a more proactive partner and help you drive revenue and profitability growth.

There are many reasons why this happens, but it shouldn’t. The accountant is often the messenger, and when they have to report bad news, they are either blamed for the poor performance and/or feel responsible for it. Communication is critical and can take many forms, but most importantly, it must be two-way. AC will work with your existing finance team to ensure that processes and procedures are in place to keep them informed of all material matters that will impact financial performance. Such matters are communicated to the relevant parties on a timely basis.

Every business function will benefit from more investment, but it is important that the return on this investment is evaluated before and tracked after the decision is taken. Not every benefit can be objectively measured in pure accounting terms but there will be non- financial measures that can be monitored to ensure that the expected value is delivered from the investment. AC can assist you to finance team in setting up processes that ensure you have as much transparency in the investment that you are making and the actual return that you receive.

The social, demographic and technological landscape is evolving faster than businesses can and naturally, this will test the capabilities of your existing finance team. AC can assist you and your finance team in navigating the opportunities and challenges by developing processes ad procedures that will allow you to make an informed decision of what changes, if any, you should consider your existing business model.

Business owners and non-finance function heads often have limited time and sometimes limited experience in reading financial reports. Accountants may try and impress with volumes of financial information and it is possible that the reader cannot see to wood for the trees. AC will work with your finance team to deliver the right information to the right management on a timely basis; highlighting material and “actionable” data. Online dashboards with traffic light indicators and automated email alerts are just some of the tools that keep the decision-makers informed.

For start-up businesses, in particular, it often makes economic sense to outsource the book- keeping and accounting to a third party but the more complex your business model gets and the more finance input you need to make your business decisions it may be time to bring on an accountant. AC will help to assess the right time to bring on a young energetic, less experienced accountant to partner with you as you grow your business and will assist in developing them as your business grows.

If your business involves a high number of repetitive accounting processes that leads to a high turnover of finance staff, it may be time to have a third party that has the necessary tools to perform these services on your behalf. This is particularly true when these activities are performed by experienced accountants who themselves have insufficient time to provide value-added services. AC can assist you and your accountant in evaluating the most appropriate model for your business and establishing the necessary processes and procedures to mitigate any impact on your business or customers.

Particularly within the finance and business service industry, there is a lack of transparency on client profitability that may be due to clients taking multiple services/products or the “inability” to allocate costs to specific clients. This is particularly important when your business is preparing for a new round of funding or for an exit. The ability to demonstrate not only the growth in an individual client’s revenues but incremental growth in that client’s profitability margin will very much enhance that valuation that you will obtain for your business. AC can assist your finance team in establishing processes to best measure these attributes and tracking them on an ongoing basis to provide the validation that your investors or buyers will want to see

Particularly within the finance and business service industry, there is a lack of transparency on product/service profitability that may be due to clients taking multiple services / products or the “inability” to allocate costs to specific products/services. This is particularly important when your business prepares for a new round of funding or an exit. The ability to demonstrate not only the growth in an individual product’s/service’s revenues but incremental growth in that product’s/service’s profitability margin will very much enhance that valuation that you will obtain for your business. AC can help your finance team establish processes to best measure these attributes and track them on an ongoing basis to provide the validation that your investors or buyers will want to see.

Historically the professional services industry has been both slow to invoice clients and reluctant to chase clients for payment either since the relationships are viewed as personal, risking damaging a relationship or waiting until they need more cash in the business. AC can help your finance team putting in the necessary processes and procedures to improve your cash flow and to reduce the level of bad debts that naturally arise when invoices are left outstanding for long periods.