Most finance departments are not commercial, and too expensive
Our Outsourced Finance Department could transform your business
Welcome to Archimedia Accounts, outsourced finance department services
Are you an ambitious business owner in Nottingham seeking professional accounting support? Look no further than Archimedia Accounts. We can deliver a fully outsourced finance function tailored to meet the unique needs of your company.
Running your own business means you understand the importance of having accurate and up-to-date financial information. However, managing your own accounting can be time-consuming and can distract you from your day-to-day operations. That’s where we come in.
By partnering with Archimedia Accounts, you can enjoy the benefits of having a proactive, commercially focused team working alongside you. Our team consists of experienced business professionals who understand the challenges you face and are dedicated to helping you succeed.
We are a family-run business, and our warm, friendly, and professional approach sets us apart. We take the time to understand your business inside out, allowing us to provide tailored solutions that align with your goals.
Our comprehensive range of outsourced accounting services includes management accounts, bookkeeping, payroll services, tax compliance, monthly accounts and much more. With Archimedia Accounts, you can trust that your financial records are in safe hands, allowing you to make informed decisions and drive your business forward.
Ready to take your business to new heights? Contact us today to discuss how Archimedia Accounts can propel your ambitious business whilst taking care of all things finance, such as monthly payroll, annual accounts and tax returns.
The problem with most finance departments
When companies reach £2m-£10m, they often outgrow their accounting team and face many of the following issues:
- Management and owners do not have confidence that the financial information is accurate every time.
- Paying too much money for a Finance Department that has little input in growing your business.
- The Finance Team doesn’t have a commercial enough mindset or enough experience of other larger businesses.
- Reporting gives little help to owners in making informed decisions.
Usually, we are more cost effective than your existing finance team, and far more commercially minded.
Rank your Finance Department’s issues – The Finance Sophistication Scale
We see varying levels of reporting quality across multiple businesses. This had led us to create “The Finance Sophistication Scale” which shows the problems businesses face with their Finance Department as it improves in Sophistication.
As the business reporting becomes more sophisticated it starts to see less of the first problems on the left of this scale but many of the more advanced issues towards the end of it:
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Too much time spent on processing and preparation using an inefficient system means the time is not being spent interpreting the information with the management team to make better-informed decisions. This means profit/cash improvement and growth take a back seat.
What a Professional Outsourced Finance Department should look like
Simply receiving accurate financial data from an accountant isn’t enough.
Professional Outsourced Finance Departments provide the Management Information to perform strategic business planning, mitigate risks, and significantly improve performance. An Outsourced Finance Department provides you as the business owner far more control over your own company.
It is beyond the capabilities & experience of most external Accountants or in-house Financial Managers/Controllers to implement efficient & commercial budgeting controls, create your future financial plan, and give rich insights into the business’ real financial position.
We start with discovering what Management Information you need to run a better business and invest with more confidence to grow. After we mimic your existing systems/people (so as not to disrupt current practices at all), we can then make gradual efficiency improvements and most importantly work with you to make better financial decisions for the business.
Rich Management Information allows owners to better decide where to invest in the business.
The ideal
The aim is to have Rich Management Info, that is integrated to the other operational software systems of the business, is aligned to the business strategy, and easily understandable & usable by the management team.
A Professional Finance Department must then use world-class, refined processes and the latest technology to make sure it is efficient enough for the Management team (with the Finance team) to spend time on interpretation and helping the business achieve its goals.
Our Process
Our Outsourced Finance Department is fully systemised, and it can work around your existing people & processes.
We will mimic your current system (technology, data systems, and people) to create a seamless transition, map issues, develop scope for change, and then implement system improvements at your pace.
Our process is efficient and produces rich management information (MI) and controls, so you can make better informed decisions, manage risks, and stay on-track to your strategy.
What does The Outsourced Finance Department do?
It is your entire finance department. From creating invoices to reporting performance, everything.
It carries out the following tasks:
- Collects data (invoice collection),
- Processes financial data (bookkeeping & payroll),
- Collects performance information from people and software systems from all departments of your company, e.g. your CRM, Google Analytics, Amazon systems, Order/Project Management, ERP, Financial Reporting package etc (technology systems)
- Reports the performance of the company to the owners in the way they need to run and grow their company (management information),
- Help the owners plan the financial future of their company and stay on-track to these goals (budgeting)
- Help owners model the effect certain business decisions will have on the future financial position (detailed forecasting or scenario planning),
- Maintains compliance (traditional compliance accountant),
- Plans to save the company as much tax as legally possible (tax planning).
Outsourced Finance Director
In addition to the many great advantages of an outsourced finance function, you can also benefit from an experienced outsourced finance director. This allows you access to a highly qualified and commercially-focused individual to help oversee your finance functions and guide you and your management team to make more informed decisions.
A Finance Director differs from a Financial Controller or Company Accountant in that they are all about strategy. They are commercially focused and there to help the company set targets, analyse performance and reach its financial goals.
A skilled FD manages relationships with lenders, and understands the financial implications of each business decision concerning profit, cash, and return on investment.
Our 6-step process of The Outsourced Finance Department
Discover – Discover company value drivers. Review your business plan and help you decide what information you need to see on a regular basis, for example you maybe pushing for a certain set of products in the US market and so need profitability by product just for the US. Create/analyse 1-3 year financial plan, this is a budget which determines your plan on how the business needs to perform in all areas to achieve your 1-3 year financial goals. Your value drivers will be a mix of financial and non-financial metrics getting to the heart of your business and its plan.
Design – Design finance function. Design an efficient transaction processing system with integrated controls. Mimic current system designs (seamless transition) and then create improvement strategy.
Setup – Train data stakeholders. Build management information (MI) system. Build budget controls system. Build rolling forecast. Setup cash flow management system.
Ongoing Operational (weekly/monthly) – Manage technology systems. Manage data stakeholders. Transaction processing. Payroll & pension. Rolling forecasting. MI is reported within 1 week of the fact. Budget variance controls (staying on-track to your plan).
Ongoing Decision Making (monthly/quarterly) – Discussion of how the company performed against its plan i.e., actual vs. expect performance. Discussing how the company will stay on-track to its financial goals. Cash flow management & cash improvements.
Tax Planning – Meeting with your Tax Strategist twice yearly for our “full tax review” and 1-3 year tax planning.
This is our full process but you can pick and choose parts of it to suit you. For example just the Discover-Design-Setup, or Discover-Design-Setup-Ongoing Operational, or just the Ongoing Decision Making, or even just the Tax Planning.
Who do we work with?
We work with companies turning over £2-£10m, with moderate to high growth plans. We also work with companies under this only if they have a very high-growth strategy.
This table shows the typical Outsourced Finance Department needs of different size businesses:
| TURNOVER | FINANCIAL CONTROLLER | FINANCE DIRECTOR |
| £500k quickly growing to £2m | A few days per month, plus a bookkeeper | Typically, no. |
| £2m to £5m | Part time as a minimum | Flexibility needed dependent on company growth. 1-2 days/week |
| £5m to £10m | Full Time | Flexibility needed dependent on company growth. 2-3 days/week |
If you are on this table then we are the boutique outsourced finance department for you. You will most likely find we’re more cost-effective and provide far more commercial value than your existing finance department.
What people are involved in our Outsourced Finance Department, and how will they work with your existing bookkeeper or accountant?
The Bookkeeper processes transactions. This must be quality and coupled with adequate review processes. The data processing must be mapped to the Strategic Reporting needs of the Management Team as it forms the basis of the finance department. They must systemise the collection and processing of the financial information, so it brings no unnecessary inefficiency burden on the Finance Dept or rest of the company.
The Financial Controller (or Management Accountant) checks the data created by the bookkeeper. They then create reports analysing trends and performance. The reporting must provide clarity, report on past and expected future performance, and be fully aligned against the business’ plan.
The Finance Director analyses these reports, facilitates and reviews strategic discussions and helps the owners make better financial decisions.
The Practice Accountant ticks the boxes in terms of compliance, they take the data from your Financial Controller and file all reporting requirements to HMRC and Companies House.
The Tax Expert spends time understanding your 12 month and 5 year plans and turns over every stone of UK Tax Law to find existing tax saving opportunities for the owners personally and the business. They then make sure the businesses decisions are structured so that they capture any tax saving opportunities in the future, so any future plans don’t trip them up from a tax perspective.
Archimedia’s Full Outsourced Finance Department provides all five elements above. Alternatively, we can work with your in-house bookkeeper or financial controller, supporting them as we act as your outsourced finance department.
Conclusion: What will the Benefits and Outcomes be of using The Outsourced Finance Department?
Our Full Outsourced Finance Department can transform your business.
A Fully Outsourced Finance Department for £2m-10m businesses gives them early access to an experienced finance team, with processes, technology systems and reporting that mostly only much larger businesses have.
When a business grows past a certain size it’s Finance Department becomes a Bottleneck without it realising – preventing you from planning ahead, unsure of profitability in particular areas, offer little financial control, providing little interpretation & insight into how profit/cash can improve, and providing little guidance on how the Finance Department can help the company achieve its growth plan.
A Professional Full Finance Function is real time, efficient, provides rich Management Information and offers the insights you need to make more informed business decisions.
Owners will feel more in control than ever. You will now have complete clarity over the company’s financials, making better-informed decisions over where to invest. This takes the guesswork out of growing a business.
You will manage risks far more effectively and plan for the future with robust forecasting and budgeting, all built into your financial controls. You will know at a glance which specific elements of the business are performing off target and what to do to improve and achieve your goals. An experienced team manages your cash and improves your cash position. All this allows you to improve profitability & cash and achieve faster, yet more controlled growth.