As part of #Globalbookkeepingweek we take a look at one of our many success stories, where we have turned our client's business and fortunes around!

Background

• Client is an independent kitchen studio designed
• Based in the High Wycombe area in Bucks
• Established 1992
• Company has interests in a range of kitchen design areas, including standard retail kitchens, kitchens for private developers and kitchens for older and disabled people
• Fit kitchens across the UK
• Have an established reputation, particularly in the field of accessible kitchen design, where they are an acknowledged leader in the field
• Most of the company’s work comes from recommendations

How We Helped

When we took the client on, the company was based in a showroom in a village location, they had six full time employees and a number of subcontractors. The use of sub contractors brought the business into the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). On the bookkeeping side, we inherited many years of established, basic practice including a backlog of queries.

The most recent bookkeeper had been maintaining a simple system using Sage, going in to the office for one day per week. On winning the business, we went in to assess the current system and see whether improvements could be made.

The company had only experienced two bookkeepers since 1992, and the first challenge was fitting into a tight-knit team, whilst coming to grips with the ongoing queries and examining the system for potential changes. We managed to resolve the majority of inherited queries within two months which meant we could get the work done in less time, enabling us to reduce our monthly fee.

It soon became clear, however, that turnover was not where the company wanted it to be, and the Director’s established method of tracking cashflow needed to be updated. We continued to work closely with the company’s MD to track finances, he preferred using spreadsheets rather than their accounting system so we developed a series of spreadsheets to track every debit and credit against the company’s accounts. This helped the company make decisions about the best week in which to order goods and weekly cashflow meetings were held to monitor progress.

Meanwhile, we worked on a list of cost-cutting measures, including moving away from Sage accounts software as they did not need the functions of an expensive piece of software. A long-standing issue which was made more obvious by our efficiencies - the fact that the company’s accountants were providing little support, so the company Director took the decision to change to a different accounting firm and decided to move to smaller premises. These changes, in addition to the intensive cashflow work and cost-cutting measures, meant that the company safely navigated a challenging trading period, emerging in a stable and sustainable position.

Today, we work for the company remotely, providing seamless service throughout the week and a member of the team visits once a month (during the coronavirus pandemic this was changed to online meetings and posting paperwork) to catch up on any office-based work. In addition, the MD has access to a range of reports in Xero that give him a snapshot of the company’s financial health at any moment.

Cashtrak's MD stated  “this was a big job to undertake, so much of the bookkeeping had been overlooked for some time and there was a lot to catch up on. I enjoy a challenge, getting my teeth in to something and seeing it through to completion drives me. Problem investigation and solving is a strength of mine and I love putting it to use to help our clients. We have been engaged many times to fix a business’s bookkeeping and we have become experts on this now!

Transforming a business’s financial position is such a driving force for me, seeing the appreciation of the business owner(s) is a great motivation for me, then maintaining our processes and systems to allow the business to grow is fantastic. I don’t think a lot of people realise how integral a good bookkeeper can be to the decision making processes of a business”