This is the point where your business is busy, but you’re not completely comfortable with what that means.
You catch yourself thinking, are we making money here?
Cash doesn’t always reflect how busy things feel, and you’re not sure if that’s just timing or something else. The bigger the decisions get, the more uncomfortable that feeling becomes.
Fee income going up does not always mean the business is doing as well as it looks.
You might be billing more than you were a year ago but taking home less, and if nobody is looking at the numbers regularly enough to spot it, you won’t know until it’s already been going on for a while.
The bigger decisions are being made without anything solid to go on. You get numbers, but by the time they arrive the period has passed and there’s nothing you can do with them.
So you end up relying on instinct more than you would like, and that’s a harder way to run a growing firm than it needs to be.
The frustrating part is that you know you should have a better handle on it, but nobody has ever sat down with you and explained it properly.
You’ve probably been handed a set of figures at some point and left to work out what they mean yourself, which isn’t much help when you’re trying to make decisions about where the business is going.
We give you a regular picture of how the business is doing.
We sit down and go through the numbers with you properly, while there’s still time to act on what they’re telling you.
We look at whether the work going out of the door is turning into profit, and how that’s feeding through into cash.
If time is being spent but billing is slow, or jobs are taking longer than the fee justifies, you can see it before it becomes a pattern.
At the start of the year, we put a Business Roadmap in place so you have something to measure against. We also deal with tax planning ahead of time, so nothing comes out of the blue.
And if something comes up between meetings, we’re available to talk it through.
Everything you need to stay compliant and pay yourself efficiently, plus frequent Growth Reports reviewed with you face to face, an annual Business Roadmap, and tax planning done ahead of time rather than after the fact.
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Get You Sorted For business owners who are tired of feeling constantly on edge about their numbers |
Stay On Track For firms that are growing and starting to feel the limits of guesswork |
Grow With Confidence For owners who want to grow deliberately, not just keep things ticking over |
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| Accounts and tax returns sorted and filed on time | Included | Included | Included |
| Keep bookkeeping, VAT and payroll running properly, so the figures can be trusted and wages, tax and returns are dealt with on time | Included | Included | Included |
| Deal with Companies House admin | Included | Included | Included |
| Personal tax return, salary and dividend planning, so you pay yourself properly | Included | Included | Included |
| Ethical tax planning to reduce tax without taking unnecessary risks | Included | Included | Included |
| Business Roadmap (business budget) showing what the year needs to deliver | Not included | Included | Included |
| Growth Reports showing how the business is performing against the plan | Not included | Included | Included |
| Ongoing company tax planning, including larger asset purchase advice | Not included | Included | Included |
| Cash flow forecasting and planning, so you can sleep at night | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Board Meetings that take you off the Dance Floor and up onto the Balcony! | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Strategic support for hiring, growth, structure and bigger decisions | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Help Me Stay On Track |
If you already work with a bookkeeper or payroll provider, we can work alongside them.
Part of every Benson Wood package
Whichever package is right for you, these are included throughout the year to give you practical support when you need it.
Let’s Get Started
Management accounts are financial reports prepared for you regularly, not HMRC. They give you a clear picture of how the business is performing right now, rather than waiting until year end to find out. They typically cover profit and loss, cash flow, and a breakdown of where the money is coming from and going. At Benson Wood, we call these Growth Reports, we go through them with you so you understand what the numbers are telling you, not just what they are.
Annual accounts are prepared once a year for HMRC and Companies House, they’re a legal requirement, and by the time you see them, they’re already history. Management accounts are prepared regularly throughout the year and are designed to help you make decisions now, while there’s still time to act on them.
Profit and cash are not the same thing. You can be profitable on paper while cash is tied up in unpaid invoices, and upcoming tax bills. Management accounts help you see that gap early, before it becomes a problem.
Cash often lags behind activity in professional services firms because work gets done before it’s billed and invoices take time to be paid. If nobody is tracking that gap, you can be fully booked and still feel financially stretched. Getting a view of billing against work done is usually the first step to fixing it.
Your accountant should be reviewing your numbers with you throughout the year and planning ahead for tax, not just getting in touch when something is due.
A Business Roadmap is a financial plan for the year ahead that gives you targets to measure against month by month. Rather than reacting to how things look at year end, you can see early when things are drifting and make adjustments while you still have time to do something about it.
In our world, it’s about more than numbers, it’s about spotting the details others miss, counting what really matters and discovering hidden value! If you can find them all, you might be exactly the kind of client we work best with.
Find Out More
You’re now entered into our quarterly Tunnock’s hamper draw and have unlocked a complimentary financial health check.
Our free monthly eNEWS email keeps you up to date with the latest news from the world of accountancy.
Take our 2-minute assessment and find out how prepared you are.
Answer 8 yes/no questions. Each answer is weighted equally and you’ll see your growth readiness score at the end.
Question 1 of 8
This gives you a starting point for seeing how ready your business is for growth, and where a few gaps might be making things harder than they need to be.
Book a call with us and we’ll talk through your results properly.
CEO BA CA
And... how do you eat yours?
Straight down the hatch, nae messing about!