Hi, I’m Siân. I work with professional services firms who aren’t yet ready to employ (or are in the process of looking for their perfect fit of) a full-time finance director but who would benefit from the advice, support and direction that a finance director can provide.
While I work as an outsourced FD, I like clients to feel like I’m one of their team, a trusted adviser with a vested interest in their business. I take time to understand what drives the people and the businesses I work with and together we create the tailored financial and strategic goals that will take their business to the next level.
I provide calm clarity in a world that can be confusing. Making sense of figures and data, I will provide timely and understandable reports for management, set budgets which plan for the future and work with existing finance teams, providing them with support and direction.
I qualified with ACCA in 2007 and have worked in a variety of industries such as banking, investment management and law, for global companies, UK companies and not for profits. For the last 15 years I’ve worked in senior level financial management roles, often for fast growth SMEs.
I work with every business to identify and tailor a service to meet their exact requirements. These are the services I most often help businesses with
Are you a busy FD who’s struggling to complete all the non-critical projects you have on your ever-expanding list?
I know that pain only too well. While working in my last few jobs there were a number of projects that I knew would make a huge difference to the performance and operations of my team, role and function, but I just didn’t have enough hours in the day to complete them. I often wished that I could clone myself to get the extra capacity I needed in order to tick off some of those important projects. Well I’m here to help you. I can take these sorts of projects off your list, work with you to an agreed project plan and timeframe and let you focus on continuing to be the successful FD that you are, happy in the knowledge that I’m helping you complete more tasks that you know are going to make a difference. Some of the projects I can help you with are:
This is where many clients start. They are often unsure what areas I can help with or even where to start with understanding the state of their current finance processes. A Finance Function Refresh looks into how the finance function of a business currently operates and then provides a roadmap of changes to implement which would be beneficial to operations going forward. This is designed to give leadership a tangible report that gives them greater understanding of what’s working well and what could be working better.
We start with a discussion to understand the business’s goals, ethos and anything else that might be relevant. I then look into your existing systems, processes, data and reporting to understand how the business’s financial operations and data looks. This will involve looking at key things such as debtor and cash management, data records/cleanliness, systems used and processes followed.
My findings are then consolidated into a report which is presented to management. This report gives a clear view on how things are currently operating and provides a roadmap of changes to make which could improve systems, processes and general finance operations for benefits including improved cash flow, profitability and clearer management reports. I can often help with many of these changes, but there will be no obligation to instruct me further at this point. Some of the results these reviews have seen include:
Improved cash flow through automation of invoice production, changes to customer payment options and redesigning credit control processes
Improved profitability through removing inefficient processes and consolidating finance systems
Improved financial control and decision making through redesigning monthly management reports so data is more understandable to leadership
Please get in touch below and I will respond as soon as I can.