Commercial Property Company
Our client is a portfolio of commercial property companies in the U.K. They reached out to us wanting to review their accounting processes, and gain the confidence to pivot into a more efficient and productive way of working.
Partnership highlights
End-of-period reporting has been streamlined enabling more timely review of trading results
More detailed management reports and forecasting have enabled the senior leadership team to make better strategic decisions
Adopting technology has strengthened overall accounting controls and the audit trail.
The challenge
Our client first reached out to us when they were going through a restructuring, which was the ideal time to review their accounting and financial processes.
Their core challenge was to be able to seamlessly integrate their main accounting processes with those of their outsourced property management company.
“Repetitive manual processes made for a huge manual workload, which really slowed our accounting team down. Producing meaningful management information was extremely difficult, and made budgeting and forecasting very challenging” our client’s Finance Director told us.
The accounting team were so busy with basic day-to-day processing of information that they found there was never any time to spend thinking ahead or planning strategically.
Our approach
We first conducted a finance health check to identify our client’s areas of concern and suggest solutions. It was clear that our client needed to transition from a manual and almost 100% paper-based accounting system to a more streamlined process that would empower the in-house team to elevate into more strategic roles.
We began a staggered process of converting the various companies in the portfolio to Xero - an accounting platform in the cloud - training their staff members as we went. Moving to the cloud allowed us to design and automate accounting processes for everyday book-keeping and payroll tasks that freed up the team’s time whilst strengthening financial control.
Finling services used
Finance health check
Conversion to Xero across the portfolio
Implementing batch payment processes
Statutory accounts and tax returns
Payroll
All bookkeeping and period end work including VAT returns
Outcomes and benefits
Working with our client to transform their business processes, improve efficiency and empower their in-house teams with technology has been very fulfilling. Each member of the Finling team is encouraged to actively look to adopt new technology and software, which we can use to maximise our productivity and pass any savings onto our clients.
“The Finling team are always looking for ways to improve - they don’t stand still. Technology moves fast, so they’re proactive and are always aware of what’s coming. That said, they don’t innovate for innovations’ sake. Jennifer, in particular, is extremely mindful of maintaining full accounting controls and an audit trail at all times. She always listens to our particular issues carefully in order to provide the right solution for our needs at a pace that suits us”
Our client also benefitted from being able to tap into the specialities of our small but multi-skilled team. “Having access to generalist and specialist support from the most junior book-keeper to the senior Financial Controller is invaluable, and enables us to be so much more agile in our ways of working and how we manage our business.”
Now two years into our partnership, our goal is to continue to innovate on our client's behalf and support them in to achieve a paper-light accounting environment.
“We like working with Finling because they let you work at your own pace, there’s no hard sell. On more than one occasion, we simply weren’t ready to implement their recommendations. When we felt confident enough to make the changes, they were there to support us on our timeline. It’s that respect and the appreciation for our working relationship that makes the difference.”
- Finance Director