The Finance Director’s primary role in fast growth and mid-cap environments is to support the CEO in delivering the strategic vision by ensuring the business is suitably funded, with balanced controls and flexible process in place to safeguard its assets and underpin anticipated growth. [...]

Even without a Year End looming, Finance and Accounts teams are always busy and it only takes one or two entries on either the sales or purchase ledger to be mis-posted or incorrectly updated before the Finance Controller or Manager has to take time [...]

Once you decide you need a Finance Director for your business, how do you know if you’ve chosen right with so much choice on the market? Genuine passion: make sure your FD is someone with a genuine passion for fast growth. The classic trap is [...]

If there’s one spreadsheet you have to set up, love, and cherish, it’s the cash flow forecast.  Visibility to your income and outgoings as far into the future as possible is like putting your headlamps on full beam down an unlit windy road. The [...]

Once you decide you need a Finance Director, or your backers tell you it's a condition of their investment, how do you know if you’ve chosen right with such an abundance of choice in the market? Technical competency is a given. Here's what fdu's CFO [...]

It was an honour to be asked to judge the 2015 FDs’ Excellence Award for the Private Company FD of the Year – Smaller businesses category. With me on the panel was Liz Rylatt, executive director, finance, operations and members, ICAEW and Naomi Fieldus, BGF [...]

As soon as possible after the month end, beanies working in SME’s all over the world race to produce Management Information for the month. As accurate, consistent, and quickly as possible. The longer it takes, the more ‘stale’ the numbers become. We’ve got to get [...]