Today, there are many accounting systems to choose from. In recent years, there has been a move to "cloud" based systems and for those businesses "starting out", this has been a natural choice.
The "cloud" has facilitated the outsourcing, or partial outsourcing model, under which Secantor operates. It has enabled business owners to take advantage of a wide range of financial, commercial and strategic expertise at an affordable price. The trick is to engage the right amount of expertise at the right level and to have this as an "on demand" basis. Accounting systems in the "cloud" help the owner manager, or family business, to control their business, day or night, by having "real time" visibility over the management information.
The fact that the Finance Director might not be physically be at the owners side does not matter. They are on call, on an "as needed basis" . Typically our FDs will visit a business for between 2 days a month and 3 days a week providing a cost effective resource and helping to implement an effective finance function. Whilst the FD may not be "on-site" all of the time the owner/manager has complete and continuous visibility over " real time" management information which monitors the key performance indicators of the business. In many fast moving businesses this is critical to gauge the impact that decision making is having on the performance of the business.
For many established businesses the thought of changing or developing accounting, or management information systems, is full of trepidation. These systems are "mission critical" and the old adage of "why try and fix what is not broken" often comes into play. However, at Secantor we have considerable experience amongst our people of developing and implementing new systems for clients, enabling businesses to remain "cutting edge". We are able to lever off practical experiences of our clients that can provide comfort to taking the next step.
To learn more, please contact Secantor. www.secantor.co.uk
Nigel Bacon
CEO
Secantor
Showing posts with label Dynamic Finance Function. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dynamic Finance Function. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Friday, 6 June 2014
Secantor Supports Equity Investments
As we come to the end of our financial year it is very gratifying to see the number of SMEs where we have helped raise equity funds. From small business angel investments through to organisations such as Oxygen Accelerator www.oxygenaccelerator.com up to the £4m investment that the Business Growth Fund www.businessgrowthfund.co.uk made into Palmer Hargreaves www.palmerhargreaves.com .
We are delivering ongoing support to the SME community...help your business to grow.
www.secantor.co.uk
We are delivering ongoing support to the SME community...help your business to grow.
www.secantor.co.uk
Informed Business Decisions - at the heart of what we do
The intensively competitive marketplace today demands a level and quality of performance measurement unlike any that ever existed. In the not too distant past, making money and winning at business was much easier: Companies could establish a competitive advantage quite easily and keep it for a very long time; market strength was virtually unassailable; customers were much less demanding; and leaders could manage relatively effectively with good-enough strategies and mediocre execution. but today, "good enough" is not good enough.
With thanks to Dean Spitzer
Secantor - supporting businesses to make informed decisions
www.secantor.co.uk
With thanks to Dean Spitzer
Secantor - supporting businesses to make informed decisions
www.secantor.co.uk
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Building Your Finance Function Part 1
The best way to build your finance function is with the advice and expertise of an experienced finance director as provided by secantor www.secantor.co.uk . This could simply be a piece of consultancy work or it could lead to an ongoing role. This role does not need to be full time in businesses up to £50m turnover.
The advantage of using a Secantor FD rather than your external accountants, or other consultants, is that the Secantor FD has practical hands on knowledge of using systems and the sort of people that are required to carry out the various functions. This ensures that the information being produced by the finance function is not only compliant with statutory and other requirements but also suits the needs of the business to help managment teams drive the business forward. The old adage is "what gets measured gets done". The Secantor FD "thinks outside the box" and all are commercially experienced as well as financially qualified. This enables them to look at a whole host of indicators that might be useful for a mangement dashboard not just those of a financial nature.
In building or re-shaping a finance function they are alive to the needs of owners/managers and build it in a bespoke way. This can be from total outsourcing, to parachuting in experienced bookeepers, financial controllers or mangement accountants. This also can be done in a flexible way where Secantor might employ them and deploy them on more than one client all under the wing of their experienced FDs.
The thing that really sets secantor apart is its team based approach and reputation for quality that is recognised by the professional and banking communities and clients where we operate.
Why not book a finance healthcheck and find out the benefits of improving your finance function function. Ring Secantor on 07887 826824.
www.secantor.co.uk
The advantage of using a Secantor FD rather than your external accountants, or other consultants, is that the Secantor FD has practical hands on knowledge of using systems and the sort of people that are required to carry out the various functions. This ensures that the information being produced by the finance function is not only compliant with statutory and other requirements but also suits the needs of the business to help managment teams drive the business forward. The old adage is "what gets measured gets done". The Secantor FD "thinks outside the box" and all are commercially experienced as well as financially qualified. This enables them to look at a whole host of indicators that might be useful for a mangement dashboard not just those of a financial nature.
In building or re-shaping a finance function they are alive to the needs of owners/managers and build it in a bespoke way. This can be from total outsourcing, to parachuting in experienced bookeepers, financial controllers or mangement accountants. This also can be done in a flexible way where Secantor might employ them and deploy them on more than one client all under the wing of their experienced FDs.
The thing that really sets secantor apart is its team based approach and reputation for quality that is recognised by the professional and banking communities and clients where we operate.
Why not book a finance healthcheck and find out the benefits of improving your finance function function. Ring Secantor on 07887 826824.
www.secantor.co.uk
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Cost and the Effective Finance Function
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkdGsZEDCL8&feature=plcp
The above link takes you to a video where I talk about the Effective Finance Function.
The Effective Finance Function starts with the FD. It is his/her responsibility to ensure that the finance function is effective and needs to build a plan to achieve this. We at Secantor are not prescriptive in how we do this. The answer might be total outsourcing a solution we are able to deploy, or might be a senior bookeeper whom we can source for clients as an employee of our clients or as a Secantor employee.
More and more these days the focus is on cost and in most cases we can revamp a finance function to get improved output (in terms of the quality, reliability and timeliness of information) and also reduce the cost by ensuring the skil mix and mix between full time and part time is right. All of this overseen by an "on demand" Finance Director to ensure that quality is first rate.
Nigel Bacon CEO Secantor Limited
The above link takes you to a video where I talk about the Effective Finance Function.
The Effective Finance Function starts with the FD. It is his/her responsibility to ensure that the finance function is effective and needs to build a plan to achieve this. We at Secantor are not prescriptive in how we do this. The answer might be total outsourcing a solution we are able to deploy, or might be a senior bookeeper whom we can source for clients as an employee of our clients or as a Secantor employee.
More and more these days the focus is on cost and in most cases we can revamp a finance function to get improved output (in terms of the quality, reliability and timeliness of information) and also reduce the cost by ensuring the skil mix and mix between full time and part time is right. All of this overseen by an "on demand" Finance Director to ensure that quality is first rate.
Nigel Bacon CEO Secantor Limited
Thursday, 23 August 2012
The Effective Finance Function - a tool to save you money
We have developed a tool for analysing and scoring the effectiveness of your finance function.
How does this help. Most finance functions grow as an administration function to satisfy the needs of compliance, whether this be with HMRC, your bankers, or to enable information to be produced so that your accountants can produce year end accounts. Many of these finance functions are ineffective from a cost/benefit perspective. We can help you streamline them to reduce costs but also to help bring them into the heart of the business so that they generate regular and useful information to help you manage the business.
Ring Secantor on 01564 330676 and find out how.
www.secantor.com
How does this help. Most finance functions grow as an administration function to satisfy the needs of compliance, whether this be with HMRC, your bankers, or to enable information to be produced so that your accountants can produce year end accounts. Many of these finance functions are ineffective from a cost/benefit perspective. We can help you streamline them to reduce costs but also to help bring them into the heart of the business so that they generate regular and useful information to help you manage the business.
Ring Secantor on 01564 330676 and find out how.
www.secantor.com
Sunday, 19 February 2012
How Secantor helps businesses obtain funding
Secantor helps businesses of all sizes up to £100m turnover being the upper of the medium sized business spectrum to obtain funding whether it be debt or equity, or the correct balance of both, to obtain the optimum cost of capital when balanced against risk.
Secantor starts by helping SME organisations to define their strategic direction and to properly articulate the strategy into a business plan to attract funding. This is not a "sterile document" but a way of looking at the future which will become embeded in the organisation and continually reviewed and refined.
The difference with Secantor is that we provide an ongoing role as part of the mangement team acting in the capacity of a finance director. This is an extremely cost effective way of obtaining professional input to a mangement team. In addition, the banks and equity funders, with whom we have great relationships, understand that we will be "staying the course" so we will be there to help the organisation to deliver operational success on the back of the strategy. We are therefore very different from consultants who might come in to do a one off piece of work and who do not necessarily have the vested interest of ensuring that long term success is delivered.
Forecasting is often a pre-requisite for a funding application. However, there is far less value in one off forecasting than there is in continual rolling forecasts, where management are able to demonstrate their expertise and give comfort to stakeholders that they are balancing the risk/reward model in an optimal way. Of course nothing ever goes to plan, and there will always be externalities that were not known about, however rolling forecasts give great comfort that management really understand the basic drivers of the business and that they properly understand and are working on the limiting factors. There is a change occuring within the banks where instead of requesting information they are focussing on the quality of their customers' finance function and ensuring that the propoer processes and systems are in place to deliver business intelligence for stakeholders.
As an organisation expands the proper integration of the finance function into the business as a source of business intelligence is essential to attracting finance and giving attracting the support of existing and future stakeholders.
Secantor specialises in converting a finance function from one that is merely compliant (or perhaps not!) to one that quickly becomes a true business partner and is valued by the rest of the organisation.
Secantor starts by helping SME organisations to define their strategic direction and to properly articulate the strategy into a business plan to attract funding. This is not a "sterile document" but a way of looking at the future which will become embeded in the organisation and continually reviewed and refined.
The difference with Secantor is that we provide an ongoing role as part of the mangement team acting in the capacity of a finance director. This is an extremely cost effective way of obtaining professional input to a mangement team. In addition, the banks and equity funders, with whom we have great relationships, understand that we will be "staying the course" so we will be there to help the organisation to deliver operational success on the back of the strategy. We are therefore very different from consultants who might come in to do a one off piece of work and who do not necessarily have the vested interest of ensuring that long term success is delivered.
Forecasting is often a pre-requisite for a funding application. However, there is far less value in one off forecasting than there is in continual rolling forecasts, where management are able to demonstrate their expertise and give comfort to stakeholders that they are balancing the risk/reward model in an optimal way. Of course nothing ever goes to plan, and there will always be externalities that were not known about, however rolling forecasts give great comfort that management really understand the basic drivers of the business and that they properly understand and are working on the limiting factors. There is a change occuring within the banks where instead of requesting information they are focussing on the quality of their customers' finance function and ensuring that the propoer processes and systems are in place to deliver business intelligence for stakeholders.
As an organisation expands the proper integration of the finance function into the business as a source of business intelligence is essential to attracting finance and giving attracting the support of existing and future stakeholders.
Secantor specialises in converting a finance function from one that is merely compliant (or perhaps not!) to one that quickly becomes a true business partner and is valued by the rest of the organisation.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
The Dynamic Finance Function
Have a look at the Dynamic Finance Function http://www.secantor.com/core-services/dynamic-finance-function
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