Who we work with
“Do you understand my kind of business?”
Fair question, and we’d rather answer it honestly than claim to be experts in everything. In some sectors we’ve run the finance function from the inside. In others we bring solid commercial accounting and we’ll learn your model properly before we start advising on it.
Our specialisms
Sectors we’ve worked in, not just for.
Each of these has its own page, covering the questions owners in that sector actually ask us.
Homecare franchising
What an hour of care really costs, why margin falls as hours rise, and the price increase you keep not getting round to.
Care homes and nurseries
Breakeven occupancy, which rooms carry the setting, agency creep, and fees in advance that aren’t income yet.
Management consultancies
Whether your associates return more than they cost, where non-billable time goes, and which projects are subsidising the rest.
Employment law firms
Retainers that have quietly become loss-makers, recovery rates by fee earner, client account discipline and partner tax reserves.
E-commerce
The real cost of selling through a marketplace, complete landed cost, and the stock you paid for and then forgot about.
Action Figures
How we decide what goes on your report in the first place, whichever sector you’re in.
Also on our books
Other businesses we work with.
We won’t claim to be specialists here. We do know what to look for and where these businesses tend to lose money.
Architects
Fees are earned across work stages but billed in lumps, so your monthly numbers swing for no operational reason. Work in progress needs recognising as the design progresses, and professional indemnity is better spread than absorbed in one painful month.
Marketing agencies
Whether you’re principal or agent on media spend changes your reported turnover dramatically, and a lot of agencies have never had that question answered properly. Add retainer versus project mix and team utilisation and you have a business that needs watching monthly.
Construction and CIS
CIS deductions and gross payment status, the VAT domestic reverse charge, and retentions that sit unpaid for years while still showing as debtors. Profit needs recognising as the work is done, not when the final account eventually settles.
Motor dealers
Stocking finance accrues interest whether a car moves or not, so stock age is a cost as much as a sales problem. Then there’s the VAT margin scheme on used vehicles, demonstrator and consignment stock, and commission income that has been under sustained regulatory scrutiny.
Audio visual and installation
Long lead times, deposits taken up front that are deferred income until the install completes, equipment stock and hire fleet depreciation. Margin needs measuring per job. Measured per month, a good quarter and a bad one look identical.
“I’m not on this list”
Most owner-managed businesses turn on one or two numbers. If yours aren’t obvious from a standard set of accounts, that’s exactly the conversation worth having. Tell us how your business makes money and we’ll tell you what we’d measure.
Tell us how your business makes money.
We’re not taking on new clients at the moment. Join the waiting list and you’ll be first to hear when a place becomes available.