Part-Time Management Accountant

Every business needs financial clarity on which to base strategic and operational decisions.  This means having financial plans in place that reflect the business goals and accurate reporting to present actual performance against these forecasts.  Essential though these responsibilities are, in most SME businesses this is not a full-time role.  This is where a Secantor Part-Time Management Accountant comes in, providing your senior leadership team with crucial financial analysis and reporting so you can make informed decisions.

Management Accounting vs Financial Accounting

Every business has a financial accountant to produce its annual statutory accounts and provide tax advice.  But it’s what happens in between times that really matters to your business.  This is where management accounting comes in.  Whilst in many SMEs the accountant works externally, a Secantor Management Accountant becomes part of your team, getting to know you and your business from the inside.  This means we gain an in-depth understanding of the everyday commercial, operational and people aspects of your business.  Using this insight combined with our financial expertise, your Secantor Management Accountant will develop bespoke, practical financial reporting designed around your business.  This is essential Management Information (MI) for running your business successfully so Secantor won’t just deliver it to you, we’ll also provide interpretation and guidance to help you understand it and we’ll help you use it to make good commercial decisions.

What Does a Management Accountant do?

A Management Accountant carries out several key financial tasks:

Financial Forecasting

Management Accountants are responsible for preparing budgets and forecasting future financial performance. By liaising closely with the directors and senior management team, analysing past financial data, identifying trends, and making informed projections, a Management Accountant will help you plan for the future. Once you have created your business plan (a Secantor Finance Director or Non-Executive Director can help you through this process), a Secantor Management Accountant will turn your plan into figures giving you a financial roadmap for your company’s future success.  Many business plans include various strategic options so your Management Accountant can prepare several alternative scenarios to show you the potential outcome of each.  This will enable you to decide which is the best course of action to take and help you avoid potential pitfalls.  If you’re looking to borrow money, your completed financial forecast model is the perfect tool to help your bank to decide to lend to you.  Secantor will prepare a full pack of information with commentary to support your borrowing application and we’ll even help you present it to your bank relationship manager.  Depending on the complexity of your business it typically takes around a week’s work for a Secantor Management Accountant to create your financial forecast model.

Management Accounts

Your Secantor Management Accountant will provide you with an accurate set of meaningful management accounts each month.  This essential piece of MI provide a detailed picture of your business’ financial performance showing your actual performance compared against the budget created by the Financial Forecast Model described above.  Whilst your annual accounts produced by your financial accounts are required to comply with statutory reporting requirements, your management accounts are designed to reflect the commercial performance of your business each month and for the year to date.  This allows you and your senior team, guided by your Secantor FD or NED to examine variance between budgeted and actual performance in a manner that helps you understand the financial health of your business. Management accounts are essential for monitoring and measuring performance, and for making informed decisions to improve financial strength and profitability.

Cost Management

Management Accountants play a key role in helping organisations control costs. By analysing costs a Secantor Management Accountant will highlight areas of waste and inefficiency and recommend improvements that will reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Financial Training

Management Accountants have a detailed knowledge of accounting systems and processes and are therefore in an excellent position to train more junior members of your finance function. Secantor’s Management Accountants are able to train your accounts team in all aspects of bookkeeping from basic to advanced ensuring they input information in the correct way to ensure efficient and accurate production of Management Accounts each month. Depending on your team’s ambition and capability, we can even train them to prepare Management Accounts themselves.

Boardroom Support Package

Every SME board should have a financial forecast in place and monthly management accounts to show actual performance against plan.  A Secantor Management Accountant is a very cost-effective way to achieve this.  With your existing finance team completing the finance administration using your accounting software, a Secantor Management Accountant can turn this into Management Accounts in approximately one day per month.  With a Secantor Non-Executive Director or Finance Director facilitating your monthly board meeting and helping you develop strategy and make sound commercial decision based on your management accounts, you’ll ensure you have best corporate governance in place.

Free Business Review

Since all businesses are different and may have varying financial requirements, it makes sense for one of our experts to get to know your company in greater detail so we can create the perfect package for you.  To do this, we provide a free business review or site visit, enabling us to obtain all the relevant information we need to improve and manage the financial side of your operations.  Contact us today to start the conversation.

What Our Customers Have To Say

Over the years we have helped hundreds of businesses take control of their finances.  By working closely with owners and directors we become an integral part of the management team and as a result have long-standing relationships with our customers, many of whom have relied on our expert knowledge, advice and guidance for many years.  Why not review some of our case studies or listen to what our customers have to say?

How Do I Recruit a Part-Time Management Accountant?

Organising Management Accounting services with Secantor is easy - simply get in touch and we'll manage the rest.  As well as providing expert financial services, we can improve your business with Non-Executive Director and Operations Director services too, so why not take a look at the other pages of our website to see how we can help you in more ways than one?

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