Our Approach / Help and advice when you need it the most

Chris came to my rescue a couple of years ago when I realised that I had outstanding invoices owing over £30,000 which was severely affecting my cash-flow. I had a bookkeeper at the time who was less than efficient and certainly wasn’t on top of things.

Initially I had a one-to-one with Chris and he had a brief look at what was happening with my accounts. From there we went on to forge a great working relationship and Chris transformed my method of invoicing and taught our Office Administrator how to manage the accounts.

We had monthly meetings with Chris and he provided monthly reports and offered advice on various aspects of the business including, of course, the accounts. I cannot recommend him highly enough and would urge anyone who is struggling to manage their business to meet up with Chris and see what he can do for you

As a small not-for-profit academic publisher, facing challenges in different areas such as finances, systems and governance, I have found working with Chris very enjoyable and rewarding. He was able to understand our business quickly and bring valuable strategic oversight whilst also focussing on the necessary detail. Crucially he understood the importance of engaging with the whole management team and his sense of humour and humanity made some of the more challenging discussions much easier. He was particularly effective in representing us to our parent institution and played an important part in delivering our strategic plan and in securing positive outcomes for us.

I first started working with Chris in 2013 when my company was a lot smaller than it is now and a lot more chaotic. Since then, Chris, as CFO, has provided valuable insight and guided me through this change, sorting out our accounting processes, providing monthly management accounts which he interprets and explains the parts which I need to be aware of, both good and bad, and completely transforming our cash flow enabling the business to grow in a way that it has never done previously.

Also, Chris has been instrumental in driving a strategic focus for the company, leading discussions which have helped us to identify which parts of the business we need to focus on in order to build the business and become more profitable, and for the first time, I now feel in control of where the company is going, rather than being reactive. I also ask Chris to attend key meetings with me with customers to help provide a professional image for the company. I would be delighted to recommend Chris

I invited Chris to join me at a time of crisis when our bookkeeper resigned after 10 years with the company, and I needed help in identifying the best route forward for the finance function. Since then, we have recruited an excellent replacement bookkeeper who has been trained and developed by Chris to his standards. We have also outsourced our payroll and changed accounting systems to Xero so that we all have real time access to data.

In addition to this, Chris has helped me develop robust plans, budgets and cash flow forecasts and has been an invaluable source of guidance and support. This allows me to focus on the growth and development of the business in the confidence that the finances are in safe hands.

Chris became Manchester University Press’s Finance Director in 2014 when it was celebrating its 110th anniversary. There were a lot of cobwebs around and Chris led the way in sorting out our figures.

He’s made a substantial difference to the timeliness and accuracy of the numbers, and brings a financial perspective to some of the major publishing issues of the day. Chris has also shown endless patience in training non-financial people to understand the significance of the numbers and make better decisions accordingly. It was a great pleasure having Chris by my side.

A huge thanks for the tremendous work you have done in streamlining, simplifying and automating our accounting system and enhancing our management accounts. I am confident that we have a very robust system. You have been a pleasure to work with and your supportive and responsive approach has been much appreciated by our team.

On a personal note, you have saved my sanity – going back to running the accounts on top of the day job was just not working!