Advisory
The unglamorous work that keeps you out of trouble.
Accounting systems, internal controls, AI-ready workflows — the building blocks businesses ignore until they hurt. We build them right the first time, at SME cost.
What we do
Foundations, not frills.
Accounting system design
For startups and growing businesses: a chart of accounts, reporting rhythm and software stack that gives owners and investors accurate, timely information from the get-go — at low cost, without the clean-up project two years later.
Front of mind right now: FRS 118, the incoming presentation standard effective for annual periods beginning 1 January 2027, reshapes the income statement into operating, investing and financing categories. A chart of accounts configured for it today captures the 2026 comparatives correctly — and spares you a painful re-mapping later.
Internal controls design & review
Customised control frameworks — segregation of duties, approval limits, reconciliations — that prevent fraud and make your financial data reliable enough to run the business on. Already have controls? We evaluate them and show you the gaps before someone else finds them.
AI enablement — fluency, workflows & deployment
We map the pain points in your processes — data entry, reconciliations, reporting, correspondence — match them to AI tools that actually help, deploy them with sensible guardrails, and train your team to fluency. Practical adoption sized for SME reality, from a firm that uses these tools daily in its own practice.
Questions we hear every week
We're a startup — isn't this premature?
It's cheapest right now. Retrofitting systems and controls after growth is expensive and disruptive; designing them early costs little and pays out every month in decision-grade numbers.
What do internal controls actually prevent?
Fraud, error and surprises. They make it hard for money or inventory to leak, and they're what makes your reports trustworthy enough to act on.
Where does AI actually help in an SME finance function?
The unglamorous middle: document handling, transaction coding and reconciliation, first-draft reports and correspondence, and answering questions from live data in plain language. We start from the pain point, not the tool — and we'll tell you plainly where AI isn't worth it yet.
Related
Need ongoing leadership, not a one-off fix?
The Fractional CFO service keeps senior financial judgement in the room, every month.