What does an outsourced finance function do for a law firm of 20 to 50 fee earners?

It produces monthly management accounts early enough to act on, shows profit by department, matter and fee earner, manages lock up as a number rather than a surprise, reconciles the client account to the SRA Accounts Rules and evidences it, and models decisions such as a lateral hire or a price change before they are made.

How is that different from what our accountant already does?

Statutory accounts are a compliance product built for Companies House and HMRC, filed up to nine months after the year end. They are accurate and they are history. A management accountant works inside the current year, monthly, and answers what should we do next. Both are necessary and they are different jobs.

Do you replace our bookkeeper or cashier?

No. They record and they keep the numbers true, which is essential. We sit above that and turn it into decisions. Most firms keep their existing people and add the layer that was missing.

Rows of deed boxes and archive files filling an office corridor

For owners still building

Your firm grew.
The way it is run did not.

Twenty to fifty fee earners is the size where a firm stops being something one person can hold in their head. The work is there. The numbers to steer it usually are not.

Have a straight conversation

You are almost certainly running on last quarter's information

A partner asks what you can pay to keep a good fee earner. A client wants thirty more days. A department that felt busy all year turns out to have made nothing. Each of those is a decision, and each of them arrives before the numbers do.

By the time the management pack lands, if it lands, the decision has been made on instinct. That works at eight fee earners. At forty it quietly costs you a fortune, and nobody can point at where.

Most firms this size can tell you turnover to the pound. Very few can tell you which of their departments actually made money.

Andrew Isaacs, CIMA Member in Practice

What changes in the first ninety days

Month end lands on the fifth

Not the twenty second. Early enough that the numbers still describe a situation you can do something about.

Profit by department and by matter

Which work pays, which work is subsidised, and which fee earners recover their time. Usually the first time anyone in the firm has seen it.

Lock up as a managed number

Work in progress and debtors tracked and chased, rather than discovered when the current account dips.

Client account, reconciled and evidenced

Monthly, to zero, with the audit trail intact and the Accountant's Report a formality rather than a scramble.

Decisions modelled first

The lateral hire, the second office, the price rise. Run through the numbers before you commit, not explained afterwards.

Someone on your side of the table

A qualified management accountant who knows the firm, sees it monthly, and tells you the awkward thing.

Why us

Corporate grade finance, brought down to a firm your size

Built at national scale

Andrew built the £0.7 billion Openreach full fibre budget from the bottom up to CFO and CEO sign off, and the contract cost forecasting model that went on to be used nationally on the government funded programmes.

Inside a law firm, not just advising one

Head of Finance at a solicitors' practice in a fee earning capacity. Client account, SRA Accounts Rules and lock up done first hand rather than read about.

Regulated, and signed

A firm of Chartered Management Accountants regulated directly by CIMA and AML supervised. A qualified accountant reviews and signs every output.

Thirty minutes, and an honest answer

Tell us about the firm and we will tell you straight whether and how we can help. No presentation, nothing to prepare, and if you do not need us we will say so.

Firm name required We need the firm name.

Your name required And your name.

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What would you most want a straight answer on? optional

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We use these details only to reply to you. We will not add you to a mailing list, we will not pass them to anyone, and we delete them after twelve months unless you become a client.

Your firm grew.The way it is run did not.