Management accounts
The financial story of your business,
written for the people running it.
Not for HMRC. Not for Companies House. For you.
Where does your firm sit today?
Six questions, about two minutes, and it runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and no cookies are set. You will see where your finance function sits on the curve from running on instinct to running on your numbers, and the next move in each area. The six layers below are what good looks like.
Take the two minute self assessmentMost firms at the £500k to £5m mark get some version of this. Usually a profit and loss account produced a few weeks after month end by somebody who is already stretched. The numbers arrive. They are broadly correct. But nobody is interpreting them, stress testing them, or using them to look forward rather than back.
A proper set does all of that. We think about it in six layers. The first four are the foundation every business needs. The last two are where the real value sits, and they are the layers most firms this size have never had.
Layer 1
Performance, did we make money
Where most businesses start, and many stop. A profit and loss account that tells you whether the firm made money this month.
There is a difference between a profit and loss account and a useful one. A proper performance layer shows the numbers monthly across the current and prior years, side by side with a detailed budget, with variance analysis. That simply means comparing what happened against what you expected, and flagging the differences that matter. You are not reading every row hunting for what changed. The analysis does it, in plain language.
What this includes. Monthly profit and loss over 36 months, annual budget with monthly detail, actuals against budget and prior year with plain English commentary, and trend charts.
Commentary. EBIT ahead of budget on overhead underspend rather than revenue. Two roles unfilled since January. Recruit and the margin normalises.
Layer 2
Position, where we stand right now
Performance tells you how you did. Position tells you where you stand. In accounting terms it is the balance sheet, but all it means is a snapshot of what the business owns, what it owes, and the difference.
This is where two of the most important numbers become real. Debtors are the people who owe you. Creditors are the people you owe. Most businesses only ever see them as a single line. A proper position layer gives you a named list: who owes you, how much, how long they have owed it, and what that means for cash this month. That turns a number on a report into something you can chase today.
What this includes. Monthly balance sheet, asset register and depreciation, named aged debtors, named creditors, director loan tracking, and a monthly check that the accounts agree to the bank.
A number on a balance sheet you cannot act on. A named list you can chase this afternoon.
Layer 3
Cash, and where it is going next
Profit and cash are different animals. Plenty of profitable businesses have run out of cash because nobody was watching the timing.
The forecast is where this gets genuinely useful. Modelled weekly within each month, it shows the highest and lowest cash points across the year. You can see the month where VAT, corporation tax, payroll and rent all land in the same fortnight, and plan for it in March rather than scrambling in October.
What this includes. Monthly cash flow over 36 months, a weekly cash forecast for the year ahead showing your highest and lowest points, and a calendar of every payment obligation by date.
Three obligations landing in one fortnight, visible in March rather than discovered in October.
Layer 4
Compliance, running quietly in the background
Not glamorous, and essential. Everything the business needs to stay on the right side of HMRC, Companies House and its own governance. In most firms this work is scattered across different people, systems and spreadsheets. It should not be.
Handled properly it runs in the background. VAT prepared quarterly. Dividend paperwork and board minutes produced when dividends are declared. Payroll, pensions, corporation tax workings, statutory accounts and registers all in one place, always current. You stop worrying about what you might have missed.
What this includes. VAT returns, dividend paperwork, board minutes, the statutory accounts filed at Companies House, the director's report, company registers, corporation tax workings, payroll, pensions, and a calendar of every deadline.
Every obligation, dated, in one place. You stop wondering what you have missed.
The two layers most firms have never had
Everything so far tells you what happened and where you stand. These two tell you what it means and what to do about it. This is the part a bookkeeper was never engaged for and a year end accountant was never asked to provide.
Layer 5
Insight, an early warning system
This is where numbers stop being a record and start being a warning. The insight layer shows you the failure points before they become failures.
KPIs are simply the handful of numbers that tell you whether the firm is heading in the right direction or drifting. They are different for every business. For one it is how quickly clients pay. For another it is how much revenue sits with a single customer. For a third it is whether margins are quietly eroding. The point is not to measure everything. It is to measure the things that matter and flag them clearly when they move the wrong way.
There is no one size fits all here and we do not hand over a generic dashboard and call it insight. We build it around how you actually run the firm.
What this includes. A KPI dashboard built around your business, margin trends, revenue mix, client concentration with risk flags, and early warning indicators.
Flagged. Client concentration at 41 percent is the risk, not the margin. Training is growing fastest and nobody had noticed.
Layer 6
Narrative, what it means and what to do
The layer that sits on top and ties everything together. It answers the question every MD actually wants answered: what happened, why, and what it means for what we do next.
Not a printout and not a dashboard nobody reads. A plain English summary written by a qualified accountant who has looked at the data and formed a view. Revenue drivers, cost drivers, working capital, break even and revenue quality.
This is the layer most firms this size have never had, because it needs something a spreadsheet cannot provide on its own: commercial judgement. It is also the layer that makes every other layer useful. Without it you have data. With it you have direction.
What this includes. An MD summary with a KPI scorecard, business drivers analysis across revenue, cost and working capital, a profit bridge, break even and revenue quality. Tailored to the decisions in front of you.
What matters this month. Debtor days up from 28 to 34 across the quarter. Collection is slowing and it is the only thing moving the wrong way.
Reviewed and signed by a qualified accountant. Every month.
Why the last two matter most
The first four layers make your numbers true. The last two make them useful.
A bookkeeper can get you layer one and part of layer two. An accountant will handle layer four. Nobody in that arrangement is being paid to do five and six, which is why most owners have never seen them, and why so many run a growing firm on a bank balance and a feeling.
Every set that leaves us is reviewed and signed by a qualified accountant. Every month.
How often
A line in the sand
Management accounts give you the shape of your business at a point in time. They are a line in the sand, and in a fast moving firm that line ages quickly.
By the time most owners receive their monthly accounts, the world has already moved on. The numbers are accurate. The moment has passed.
What you actually want is management accounts that are live. Always there, whenever you need them, rather than waiting for a month end process to finish or for somebody to pull a spreadsheet together.
But what is the minimum? That is your call. Most firms work on a monthly cycle and it is a sound foundation. There are things in every business, though, that need constant attention rather than a monthly glance. Pipeline. Working capital, which just means who owes you money, who you owe, and when it all lands. Staffing levels. In a professional services firm, something as practical as who is on leave in which week can make or break a delivery date. And cash does not wait for month end.
So the real question is not how often should I get management accounts. It is which parts of my business can I afford not to see until next month. For most owners, the answer is fewer than they think.
Where to start
You do not need all six to begin
Six layers might look like a lot. We do not have to do all of it.
We want to help you with the thing that will move your business forward right now. Maybe that is a proper cash forecast because you are tired of being surprised every month. Maybe it is getting compliance sorted so you stop wondering what you have missed. Maybe it is finally having somebody who can look at your numbers and tell you what they actually mean.
Whatever you start with, we help you understand what the numbers are saying, where you want to get to, and what it takes to get there. Then we put plans in place and monitor them with you, so you actually arrive rather than setting a target and hoping.
Start wherever the gap is. Just know we can do the rest when you are ready.
Honest comparison
What does your firm have today?
Most firms in the £500k to £5m range have layer one and part of layer two. The numbers exist, but the forward look, the insight and the narrative do not.
| Layer | Bookkeeper only | Part time accountant | AI Finance Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| PerformanceP&L, budget, variance | Basic P&L | P&L and budget | Full, with commentary |
| PositionBalance sheet, debtors, creditors | Not covered | Balance sheet only | Named ledgers with ageing |
| CashCash flow, forecast, key dates | Not covered | Basic cash flow | Weekly forecast with obligations |
| ComplianceVAT, payroll, dividends, registers | VAT only | VAT and basic payroll | Everything in one place |
| InsightKPIs, early warning indicators | Not covered | Not covered | Built around your firm |
| NarrativeMD summary, drivers, forward view | Not covered | Not covered | Written by a qualified accountant |
Neither of the first two columns is doing anything wrong. Nobody in those arrangements is being paid to do layers five and six.
The gap between what most firms have and what is possible has always existed. What has changed is what it costs to close. A full time finance director delivering all six layers is £80,000 to £120,000 a year before you have hired anybody around them.
We deliver the same depth by pairing a commercially minded qualified accountant with tooling that handles the mechanical work at speed. The accountant does the thinking, the judgement and the narrative, and signs every set that leaves us. Because the reporting is built rather than bought off a shelf, you get a finance function shaped around your firm instead of one you have to reshape your firm to fit.
We are not a cost. We are an enabler.
What this looks like
The kinds of problem we get called about
Every firm starts somewhere different. These three come up again and again.
Professional services
A month end that runs itself
The problem
Month end takes twelve working days. No variance analysis, no cash forecast. The team works weekends to close the books and the managing director still gets a profit and loss account three weeks late with nothing attached to it.
What changes
Closed by working day three. The full pack lands that morning with commentary, budget comparison and a rolling cash view. The team spends its time on credit control and client analysis instead of matching transactions by hand.
Legal
A practice that starts thinking like a business
The problem
Six partners, £2.8m of fees, excellent at the work. The finance function is a bookkeeper and a spreadsheet. Partner drawings bear no relation to profitability by team, and nobody can answer what happens if we lose our biggest client with a number.
What changes
Client concentration scored, profitability by team visible, and indicators that flag when the firm is drifting. Drawings aligned to what the business actually earns. Decisions backed by evidence rather than precedent.
Construction and trades
Seeing the crunch three months out
The problem
Lumpy revenue and long payment terms. The profit and loss account shows a profit and the bank account disagrees. VAT, corporation tax, payroll and a large subcontractor invoice all land in the same fortnight and nobody saw it coming.
What changes
A weekly cash forecast showing the high and low points across the year, and a calendar carrying every obligation by date. The crunch is visible three months out, which is the difference between planning and scrambling.
Book us
Tell us about your firm. We will tell you honestly whether and how we can help.
Thirty minutes, no preparation needed, no obligation. You speak to a partner, not a call centre.
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