Growing businesses need finance leadership long before they can justify a full-time finance director. Our fractional finance director service gives you that senior financial input — forecasting, reporting and planning — on a flexible, part-time basis.

Financial forecasting

We build the forward view your decisions depend on — cash-flow forecasts, annual budgets, and scenario planning — so you can invest, hire and manage cash with confidence rather than guesswork.

• Cash-flow forecasts — see exactly when money comes in and goes out
• Annual budgets — a target to run the business against, reviewed through the year
• Scenario and 'what-if' planning — model a new hire, a site, a rate rise or a downturn
• 13-week rolling cash-flow for tighter-margin businesses

Monthly and quarterly reporting

We prepare regular management accounts and financial reports — monthly or quarterly — with clear commentary, so you always know how the business is performing and where to act. We use that same information to plan ahead for growth and tax.

Why it matters

A fractional FD gives you board-level financial thinking without the overhead — turning your numbers into decisions, keeping you ahead of tax, and giving you room to grow.

How a fractional finance director works in practice

The work runs on a monthly or quarterly rhythm. Before each meeting we close the books for the period, prepare the management accounts and roll the cash-flow forecast forward with what actually happened. The meeting itself is about decisions rather than a tour of the numbers: what the margin movement means, whether the hire planned for next quarter is still affordable, and whether cash will be there when the VAT, PAYE and corporation tax payments fall due.

Between meetings you have a direct line to us by WhatsApp or email for the questions that cannot wait: a supplier asking for new terms, a customer who has stopped paying, a bank that wants figures by Friday.

• First month: a review of the books, the chart of accounts and how your figures are produced, and agreement on the handful of measures that matter to your business
• Each period: management accounts, written commentary, an updated forecast and a short list of actions
• Before the year end: tax planning on the forecast profit, so decisions on pay, dividends and investment are made while they still count
• Once a year: next year’s budget, built with you rather than for you

Who a part-time finance director is for

Most of the businesses we act for as a part-time finance director are owner-managed companies that have outgrown the “accountant does the year end” model but are nowhere near needing a full-time hire. The trigger is usually one of these: turnover is growing but cash is not, a second site or a large contract is on the table, a lender wants forecasts, or profits are moving through the corporation tax bands, where the rate is 19% up to £50,000 and 25% over £250,000 with marginal relief in between, so the timing of spending starts to matter.

Sectors where this input pays for itself quickly include restaurant groups adding sites, recruitment agencies that pay temps weekly but are paid by clients a month or more later, online sellers carrying stock and waiting on platform payouts, and construction firms whose cash is held back by CIS deductions.

Mistakes that cost growing businesses money

• Treating the bank balance as profit. VAT collected and PAYE deducted belong to HMRC, and a healthy balance a fortnight before a VAT quarter is often not what it looks like
• Forecasting sales but not timing. Customers on 60-day terms and suppliers on 30 days can put a profitable business into overdraft
• Finding out the tax bill after the year end. Corporation tax is due nine months and one day after it, and most of the ways to reduce it have to be decided before the year closes
• Management accounts built on unreconciled books, which makes every decision based on them unreliable
• Growing faster than the working capital allows, and then paying for it with expensive short-term borrowing

The cost is rarely a single large bill. It is interest, late-payment penalties, finance taken on poor terms and opportunities turned down because nobody could say with confidence that the business could afford them.

How we work with you

The fee is agreed in writing before we start, and set by how often you want reporting and how complex the business is. We work on Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent, so the figures we discuss are the same ones you can see. Meetings take place at our Finchley office on Regents Park Road, at your premises or by video, and we work in English, Turkish, Persian and Italian.

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