What do you do when your in-house accountant leaves?
For CHESS, a charity providing high-quality accommodation for the homeless, it was a real dilemma.
They had hired their accountant years ago, when they were a much smaller organisation, alongside a bookkeeper. For a long time, the setup worked well.
But as the charity grew — more than doubling its income to over £2 million this year — the CEO and Board became increasingly aware that the reports they received needed to cover much more than they did.
“The reports we needed weren’t coming in — it was very frustrating,” says CEO Rob Saggs. “And we were insecure about some of the projections we received, making it difficult to understand where we were financially and where we were going.
“We knew we were in a huge growth phase. We needed a finance function working with us that could take us to the next level.”
They considered hiring another in-house accountant but worried about being too reliant on one person.
“Contingency planning was important to us,” says Rob. “With just one person in the team, we’d have to cover annual leave and sickness, potentially leaving us with gaps.”
That’s when a mutual contact introduced them to Insight Associates and the idea of outsourcing their financial management to a team like ours. Last April, we began working together.
We started by deeply understanding their organisation — how it was structured and what financial support it needed.
At the same time, we began onboarding them, a process that took longer than usual because their previous accountant had been working solo for years, with systems and files structured in a way that was difficult for outsiders to navigate. This is one of the risks of relying on a single in-house accountant.
Over several months, we built a clear and accurate picture of their finances, working closely with the in-house financial assistant who remained on board.
We also migrated them to Iplicit, our world-class accounting platform, because their previous system could no longer meet their needs. Now, CHESS has unprecedented visibility into its finances, from tracking each property’s financial performance to giving every tenant their own account.
With this in place, we provide CHESS’s Board with monthly management accounts, delivering the financial insights they need to run the charity efficiently and plan for the future. We’ve refined these reports each month based on the Board’s requests, such as breaking down different income streams.
For Rob and his directors, the transformation has been game-changing.
“We finally have factual, quality financial data that we can rely on,” Rob says. “It’s helped us forecast where we’re going and have a lot more confidence in our decisions as we grow.”
He particularly values our reports that show how the organisation is performing against its budget: “This enables us to keep aligned with our mission.”
And for the first time, he isn’t dreading the next audit. The auditors will receive pre-prepared financial packs and direct access to the system, making the process far smoother.
“When we were audited last year, every time the auditors needed something, we had to search all over for it because it wasn’t clear where information was stored…”
The transition from in-house to an outsourced finance team could have been difficult, but Rob says our team’s accessibility has made all the difference:
“Everyone is very personable. I’m not an accountant — there are times when I need to ring Cara and ask what something means. She has all the time in the world for us and always explains everything in a way that makes sense and doesn’t make me feel bad for asking. Just last week, we spent three hours together going through our budget. They are very thorough.”
Is your business also growing, requiring an upgrade to your financial management? If so, could outsourcing your finance function be the smarter move for you too?
Book a call today to find out how we can help. Simply email garry@insightassociates.co.uk or call us on 01279 647 447 to arrange a no-obligation consultation. We’re looking forward to talking with you.
Warmly,
Garry
You might also be interested in: Tedi-London Case Study – Insight Associates Limited
