CASE STUDIES
Included below are a selection of the many projects we've completed successfully.
Whatever your needs, we help you manage your challenges and deliver solutions.
Please feel free to contact us if you're considering your next small or large project and would like additional assistance and resources. We're very happy to explore possibilities with you.
Case Study 1
Wholesale home fabrics designer, manufacturer, retailer and distributer
Case Study 2
Case Study 3
Case Study 4
Charitable Youth Services organisation
Case Study 5
Case Study 6
Case Study 7
Public listed Property Investment Group
Cast Study 8
Case Study 1
Wholesale home fabrics designer, manufacturer, retailer and distributer
2012 to 2014
Finance department management and raising £17m of new finance
Our client is a successful designer, manufacturer, retailer and distributer of home fabrics to major retailers globally.
Our services included:
Finance Department Management
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Leading the finance department for the group, including a £25m turnover wholesale distribution business, and a £10m property holdings group
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Identifying and documenting the group strategy, business plan, main strengths, key performance indicators, key variables and sensitivity analysis
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Implementing an insightful management reporting framework to measure performance and add value
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introducing significant system improvements for greater control and efficiency
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meaningful, comprehensive and relevant commentary with sophisticated and fully integrated profit, cash flow and financial position forecasts, with detailed projections and analysis for the group
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accurately completing group financial reporting matters and handling the consolidated and business unit financial affairs for the parent and eight subsidiary entities in accordance with IFRS and statutory requirements and to maintain compliance with bank borrowing covenants
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Managing and handling the year end audit process
Finance and Capital raising
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facilitating £8m in bank finance to fund group trading operations
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facilitating £6m in bank finance to fund group property investment
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advising on and co-ordinating a £3m share capital raising
International group structure
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advising on and establishing a new vehicle for the company’s overseas trading operations, and structuring the group’s trade, property and patent assets to achieve tax efficiency, asset protection and the desired separation of legal entities.
Case Study 2
Fashion Retailer
December 2014 to September 2017
Tax savings of £10,000 and efficient accountancy and business advisory services
Our client operates a successful family owned retail operation, being a regular winner of acclaimed national sales awards for leading brands, together with a family owned IT Consultancy business.
Our client became concerned their previous accountant and bookkeeper had produced draft 2013 accounts that were delivered late, did not appear to make sense, did not appear to reflect the true performance or state of affairs of the business, and the supporting MYOB system did not appear fully up to date or fully reconciled at year end.
Our client also had concerns about tax inefficiencies in the way a shareholder loan was being handled for tax and accountancy purposes. Our client felt their previous advisor was failing to provide help and explanations within a reasonable time frame.
Through the recommendation of another client of ours, we were appointed in December 2014 to review, revise and complete the June 2013, and complete the June 2014 accounts and tax affairs for both business entities and husband and wife, and negotiate no penalties with the tax authorities.
We worked closely with our client and quickly identified, explained and corrected all anomalies in the bookkeeping system to our client's satisfaction, completed the affairs for the family group entities, including two businesses and husband and wife, for both tax years 2013 and 2014 with a tax efficient outcome, and achieved tax refunds and tax savings worth more than £10,000, together with no tax penalties.
We achieved this in 1 month.
In 2015 our client's IT business was transferred to a new entity and we were able to submit the final accounts and tax returns and BAS within 2 weeks of the year end in order to achieve a quick and clean wind up of the company's affairs.
The remaining 2015 family group affairs were also handled quickly and efficiently.
For 2016 we worked as a team with our client to maintain MYOB, monthly payroll, quarterly tax returns and clear business performance information up to date, clean and reconciled throughout the financial year.
We then reviewed the long term business plan and put in place the steps to achieve this.
We achieved a smooth and efficient process to handle the 2016 year end providing a clear and up to date understanding of the business performance, tax minimisation, clarity of vision and a clear sense of direction for the family business.
Case Study 3
Innovative technology startup
September 2015 to March 2016
Stock Market Listing
Our rapidly growing innovation and technology client successfully raised £2m from a private share issue and wished to gain an stock market listing and raise an additional £4m. We provided a contract CFO to oversee the finance function and be a key team player to provide all the financial due diligence and other financial information required , in order to obtain a listing, including implementing fit for purpose controls and procedures for greater control and efficiency.
This process also included analysing our client's main financial reporting systems maintained in Xero, and other systems used by other group companies, accounting for a number of businesses and asset acquisitions that had taken place, extracting the relevant information and performing all the required accounting and financial reporting across multiple currencies and subsidiary companies, including intellectual property, producing consolidated group financial statements and handling all inquires from the investigating accountants and external auditors, to facilitate the completion of stock market due diligence.
Working as a team with our client and other professional advisors, we successfully delivered all the financial due diligence, financial reporting and corporate governance requirements to achieve a successful, fully subscribed, £4m initial public offering to fund the next phase of their development.
We achieved this in 6 weeks.
Case Study 4
Charitable Youth Services organisation
March 2015 to November 2015
Implementation of Quickbooks On Line, simplifying and automating complex payroll and streamlining management reporting
Our client, a rapidly growing youth services organisation, desired budgeting and monthly reporting across 9 business units, and required complex fortnightly payroll calculations for 35 staff and 20 different grades of pay with variable hours at time, time and a half, double time, public holiday rates, evening rates and night rates, together with payments for sleep-overs, on-calls, business kilometres and other expenses. We tested, demonstrated and implemented Quickbooks On Line (QBO) and KeyPay as the most appropriate cost effective tools for this client and successfully upgraded the reporting framework to provide regular management reports. We designed and programmed the most useful automated reports into the system. We also implemented KeyPay payroll to automate the payroll functions and provide reliable fortnightly payroll calculations for staff, together with automated salary payments, superannuation calculations and payments and integration into the accounting system with automated payroll reporting across the 9 business units, and key performance indicators.
We achieved the QBO and KeyPay and management reporting implementation in 1 month.
Case Study 5
£15m pension fund
December 2015
We acted for our client's pension fund containing a variety of property development projects, joint business ventures and group unit trust investments requiring valuations of a portfolio of assets and consolidation within the group results. The accounting and taxation affairs needed bringing up to date for several tax years whilst maintaining compliance with pensions legislation, handling the external audit process, maintaining tax efficiency, and negotiating and maintaining tax compliance. We successfully brought our client's tax and accounting affairs up to date in a rapid time frame ensuring tax efficiency and tax compliance was maintained and updating supporting documentation for full compliance with regulatory requirements, satisfying the information requirements of the independent auditor, and facilitating the negotiation of no tax penalties.
We achieved this in 3 months.
Case Study 6
£1.5m private share portfolio
March 2016
Our international client departed Australia permanently to take up residence in the UK. Our clients £1.5m international multi-currency investment portfolio during their 5 year period of Australian residence needed to be tracked in order to determine the income and capital gains arising over the period.
We successfully obtained and extracted relevant information and analysed a complex investment portfolio, providing tax calculations that optimised the capital gains concessions for significant tax savings, allowing the client to opt to tax their capital gains event on leaving Australia, resetting their capital gains cost base for UK tax purposes, and making full use of Australian capital gains concessions in order to minimise the Australian tax cost on leaving Australia.
We drove the process forward by working well with investment managers and banks to gather the information required, and processed the information efficiently and in plenty of time to meet Australian Tax Office reporting timelines.
We presented our happy and satisfied client with clear explanations of the tax position and the optimal solution.
Case Study 7
Public listed Property Investment Group
2008 to 2012
Efficiency gains, sale of subsidiary and increase of 32% in shareholder's funds in 4 years
Our client operates a successful publicly listed property investment group. Following the retirement of the full time CEO and CFO at two months notice just before Christmas and the January year end, we were approached to complete the year end accounting and prepare consolidated group financial statements and supporting information for audit and handle the audit process with external auditors.
We commenced this service by providing a contract Chief Financial Officer and handled the year end process smoothly and efficiently, managing and meeting all deadlines.
Within a few months our role was expanded to include contract CEO services and the provision of an Executive Director.
Through efficiencies we were able to conduct the role in 1.5 days per week, compared to the previous 5 days per week.
Our services and contributions included:
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negotiating and managing the profitable sale of a non-core subsidiary
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increasing shareholder value by 32%
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managing shareholder relations for multiple ordinary and preference shareholders
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differentiating the company’s industrial property estate from its competitors to maintain full occupancy in the challenging post GFC environment by overhauling the look and image of the estate, and negotiating and working with property advisors and tenants for new leases
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reporting, forecasting, planning, treasury management, investment appraisal, coordinating with auditors, business planning, overseeing construction and renovation projects, managing tenant related matters and managing the affairs of the company's estate.
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focusing management on the company’s main property management business by successfully divesting its non-core contract cleaning business
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controlling overheads by negotiating with suppliers and bringing several services in-house
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elevating operating effectiveness and efficiency by introducing streamlined Board meeting procedures, new key performance indicators and improved systems to monitor and maintain properties and to systematically invoice tenants
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increasing shareholder value by boosting property rental income after elevating the appeal of the property estate by introducing enhanced security systems, professional imagery and signage, refreshing unit facades, renovating older units, initiating modern developments and enhancements on previously under-utilised sites, attracting tenants seeking commercial office space, accommodating the changing needs of quality tenants and reducing tenant turn-around times.
Cast Study 8
Global insurance managers
1999 to 2010
Finance department management and streamlining of operations for 6 complex international UK listed companies.
Due diligence and project management for a series of £1billion plus acquisitions
Our international client retained our services from 1999 to 2010 for outsourced finance department management activities for several large listed "blue chip" UK Plcs. We were recommended for these services by Big 4 auditors who we had worked well with on several other clients. Our services included:
Finance Department Management
Managing and developing financial reporting and operating systems for several companies requiring technically complex internal and external international reporting, and coordinating with top tier audit firms.
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introducing more efficient systems to enable smoother and more automated work processes bringing improvements in speed, relevance, quality and accuracy of output, reporting and information.
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managing investments for FTSE 100 Companies with market capitalisations of £25 billion to £60 billion, including due diligence for proposed mergers and acquisitions, financial reviews and analysis, presenting at Board level, and working with international tax and legal advisors.
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providing continuous support to the Board of Directors and finance and underwriting staff. This included implementing system improvements to automate and streamline the management information and internal and external reporting processes to improve efficiency and facilitating the offshoring of back office support functions to Ireland to significantly reduce operating costs.
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enabling an insurer to meet and exceed capital adequacy requirements following an adverse claims experience by positioning the underwriting entity firmly with an additional £25m of admissible assets whilst achieving minimal impact on the parent company’s cash flow.
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capital restructuring, internal, external and regulatory group reporting for multi-currency entities, board presentations, managing external audits, business planning and forecasting, improving systems and processes, and corporate governance and compliance.
£1billion Acquisitions
On the foundation of our finance department management services, in particular our client also engaged us to project manage all facets for two acquisitions for £1 billion each which included:
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achieving two acquisitions of £1 billion each within a tight time scale with high standards of due diligence and legal, taxation and financial reporting integrity by identifying and addressing the issues to be resolved.
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resolving complex international taxation, financial reporting and legal matters across multiple jurisdictions
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anticipating, documenting, summarising, presenting and handling the relevant information and explanations at Board level for the Board to make a fully informed decision.
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overseeing independent actuarial reviews throughout the acquisition process, together with independent audits, reporting to the Insurance and Pensions Authority and valuing investments to establish the interim financial position and the group’s reserves before entering into the acquisition transactions.
Please feel free to contact us if you're considering your next small or large project and would like additional assistance and resources. We're very happy to explore possibilities with you.