Our catch ups with Genus provide us with renewed focus every month, and we get really useful Management Accounts to work with that adapt depending on what we need to focus on. Wayne Ballance, Apex Consulting Engineers Ltd
Our catch ups with Genus provide us with renewed focus every month, and we get really useful Management Accounts to work with that adapt depending on what we need to focus on.
The Shorts team has worked with Wayne Ballance and Apex Consulting Engineers Limited for several years. This includes accounts, tax and Corporate Finance services. Alicia Williams, Director of the Genus team, caught up with Wayne to discuss his experience as a Shorts client.
I started using Shorts services around 2018/2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. I was introduced to Shorts through the Sheffield Tigers Rugby Club and have been working with them ever since.
We had some challenges with my previous accountants and so were looking for new advisors. At the time we had no proper sight of what was happening with the numbers other than at the year-end.
We originally used TAS before moving to Sage for the accounts, but still didn’t have any visibility over the numbers. When we moved to Xero, I found that I could start to see more useful data as it was easy for me to dive in and find out what I needed.
Easy! Because I didn’t do it.
It was much smoother than when we moved from TAS to Sage. We had lost a lot of information about the debt and why, so unless we had all the hard copies, it was difficult to backtrack. Since transitioning to Xero, we have not lost anything.
Alicia and Peter provided support during the integration of Xero, Catherine prepares our Monthly Management Accounts and I have monthly catch ups with Alicia.
For the last 12 months, the business has had much better visibility of the numbers. You can see where we’re going, what’s going right, target what’s going wrong, and make changes.
I find the regular catch-ups very useful. They provide us with renewed focus every month and we get really useful Management Accounts to work with that adapt depending on what we need to focus on.
We can see and understand where the business currently is financially, but also what we are working towards over the next 12 months.
Before Genus, there weren’t any Management Accounts. It was just a couple of Excel spreadsheets recording what had happened and we used that to estimate where we might be. The real benefit is that when I’m no longer here, it will all be visible to successors.
I can now see what we’re doing and how we got there. A lot of the numbers aren’t surprising to me—we understand where they are and where they’re going.
I think the biggest benefits will be seen in 2-3 years when we have a team with no idea where the numbers come from, the Management Accounts will help them understand.
Over the last 6-7 months, the business’s value has grown nicely. We have a plan of action to deal with debt. These reports are beneficial for every part of the business that needs financial help.
Yes, I would.
Enlightened, Focused, Direction.
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Wayne Ballance describes his experience as a Shorts client, focussing on Genus
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