Practice 02
Financial Management and Advisory
Accounting and reporting systems, internal controls, cash-flow analysis, budgeting and management reporting, so that leaders can see what their figures mean and act on them.
The problem
Decisions made on figures that nobody fully trusts
In many organisations, operational activity and finance are recorded separately. Services are delivered in one place, payments recorded in another, and reports assembled at month end from whatever can be collected. Unpaid services, stock losses and margin erosion become visible only after the fact.
Without a clear line from activity to money, it is difficult to price services, control cost, manage cash, prepare credible reports for owners, boards or funders, or plan growth with confidence.
Capabilities
What this practice covers
- Accounting and financial reporting systems
- Charts of accounts, posting rules and reports designed around how the business trades.
- Internal controls and financial governance
- Approvals, segregation of duties, reconciliations and audit trails.
- Cash-flow and liquidity analysis
- Visibility of cash and bank positions, receivables, payables and short-term commitments.
- Budgeting, forecasting and management reporting
- Budgets owners can use, forecasts updated from actual results and monthly reporting routines.
- Financial intelligence
- Margin, profitability and performance analysis that explains what the numbers mean.
- Operational performance improvement
- Linking activity, cost and revenue so that operational decisions are financially informed.
What we deliver
Financial control and insight built into how the business runs
We review how money and activity are recorded today, identify where control is weak and design the financial rules, controls and reports the organisation needs. Where a system is being built, those rules are designed into it from the start rather than added later.
We then help management use the information: a reporting routine for monthly review, cash-flow and liquidity visibility, budgets compared with actual results, and analysis of where margin is earned and lost. The aim is not more reports but better decisions.
Typical deliverables
- Review of financial processes, controls and reporting
- Chart of accounts and transaction mapping
- Control design: approvals, segregation of duties, reconciliations, audit trail
- Cash-flow, liquidity and working-capital analysis
- Budget, forecast and monthly management reporting pack
- Written findings and recommendations for management
Typical scope
How the work is usually structured
- 01
Review
Understand how money and activity are recorded and where control is weak.
- 02
Design
Define the financial rules, controls and reports the organisation needs.
- 03
Implement
Put the controls and reports in place, in new or existing systems.
- 04
Use
Introduce the reporting routine with management and refine it in use.
Scope, timing and cost are agreed for each engagement after an initial conversation.
Existing systems and staff
Working with what is already there
We work with the organisation’s existing accounting arrangements, whether accounting software, an external accountant or a spreadsheet ledger, and design the flow of information into them rather than assuming a single tool.
Finance staff and managers define the reports they need. The result fits existing meetings and responsibilities, rather than a dashboard nobody opens.
Relevant experience
What this is based on
Financial design runs through our three named projects: billing, VAT and receivables at Bidhaan Clinic, revenue reporting at Waaberi Hospital, and the ERP and financial-intelligence requirements for Ocean Healthcare. We have also supported businesses with financial control improvements.
Next step
Talk through your financial reporting
Tell us what management needs to see and where the numbers currently come from. We will suggest how to connect the two.