The management team had bought out WBM and inherited its accounting and management information structure knowing that they were going to update it.
The challenge
The team were working on Sage but felt that they had limited information at their fingertips and couldn’t track the different revenue streams easily. They wanted to know how they were doing faster, and with more granularity around where their growth was coming from. They also felt that they would benefit from a financial narrative being provided monthly, with a deeper dive into different areas of the business quarterly, as they did not have a financially experienced role within the business.
The solution
We quickly identified that the leadership needed better lenses through which to look at the company’s figures so we reset the revenue and cost nominal ledgers, and activated the tracking codes in Xero to give oversight at a divisional level as well, allowing for a much better understanding of business success. We worked closely with the outgoing financial support to map existing Sage codes across to the redesigned chart of accounts and to then bring the data across. This ensured a quick start to financial reporting in the new financial year.
The result
We provide monthly and quarterly packs of information to WBM, and have done since early 2020. We have also provided ad hoc consultancy to support with business valuation and we deliver continued training and team development. In addition we suggested that the team would benefit from a regular support package to help the finance team in their day to day activities.
We engaged Strata to deliver a two-phase piece of work in 2019; they supported a transition to Xero, redesigning business processes and the IT ecosystem around this, as well as building an accounting structure to ensure management information matches our needs. They moved into a monthly rhythm of delivery of management accounts, VAT returns and working with our bookkeeper. We felt supported through the transition with regular meetings both face to face and then through Zoom; and they have also lent in to support us with the challenges the coronarvirus has brought. We are working with Strata as our accountancy firm but more importantly as a business partner; and would recommend them to anyone wanting to improve the timeliness and accuracy of their management information, as well as wanting a collaborative partner to bounce ideas off or to approach for help in business or financial matters.
Danny Kosifou, COO, May 2020
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