Fractional Finance Director · Worcester · Cheltenham · Stroud
You’ve built something worth protecting. Now build the finance function to match.
At a certain point, the once-a-year accountant and the part-time bookkeeper stop being enough. Your business has outgrown them — it hasn’t outgrown the need for proper financial leadership. That’s exactly what this is.
£80k+
Cost of a full-time Finance Director. This isn’t that.
1
Person who knows your numbers as well as you do — available all business hours.
FD-level thinking. Compliance precision. One fixed monthly fee.
Tax Compliance . Management Accounts . VAT & Payroll . Cash Flow Forecasting . Finance Process Design . Strategic Reviews . HMRC Enquiry Support . Lender & Investor Liaison . Bookkeeping & Reconciliation
The inflection point
You’ve outgrown the setup that got you here.
Growing businesses reach a point where the finance function stops keeping pace. It doesn’t announce itself loudly — it shows up as friction. Decisions that take longer than they should. Questions that go unanswered until the year-end conversation. A vague sense that the numbers exist but nobody’s really leading them.
“Most founders I work with have a bookkeeper handling today and nobody handling tomorrow. That gap costs them at every critical moment — the growth push, the investment decision, the opportunity that needs a fast answer.”
The gap Precision Tax Accounting is built to close
The signals
These aren’t crises. They’re the quiet indicators that the next chapter needs a different approach.
- Strategic decisions wait on financial clarity
A new hire, a new market, a major contract — the decision is ready but the financial picture isn’t current enough to commit with confidence. - The finance function runs behind the business
Accounts exist, but they’re always a quarter behind. Management information is retrospective rather than something you lead from. - No one is joined up across the whole picture
Bookkeeper, accountant, payroll bureau — each working in their lane. Nobody sees across all of it, which means the strategic layer sits with you by default. - Tax is managed reactively, not planned
HMRC’s landscape is not static. MTD, R&D changes, employment status — the advice from a year-end conversation may already be out of date before it’s acted on. - A full-time FD isn’t justified — yet
The business needs that level of thinking. It doesn’t need the £80–120k headcount to get it. That’s the gap this service fills precisely.
The service
Three disciplines. One person. Always available.
I’ve worked inside growing businesses — building finance functions under pressure, making decisions with imperfect data. And in practice — tracking legislation, filing precisely, managing HMRC. That combination is what makes this different from hiring either a contractor or a compliance firm.
01 / 03
Tax & Compliance
The foundation — handled with precision
Tax done reactively is expensive. Done well, it’s structured, filed on time, and positioned to your advantage before the deadline arrives. I track the changes in legislation so you don’t have to — and you hear about anything material before it affects your position, not after.
- Corporation tax — structured and filed
- VAT returns — including complex transaction types
- Self-assessment and personal tax
- HMRC correspondence managed directly
- MTD compliance and digital record-keeping
- Proactive review when legislation changes
02 / 03
Management Accounts & Insight
The picture — current enough to lead from
Monthly accounts that arrive on time with commentary that explains what the numbers mean — not just what they are. Profitability by channel. Cash visibility forward. Budget versus actual. The financial picture a growing business needs to direct from, rather than react to.
- Monthly P&L, balance sheet and commentary
- Profitability by product, customer or channel
- 13-week rolling cash flow forecast
- Budget setting and variance analysis
- KPI reporting tied to your business model
- Board-ready pack when needed
03 / 03
Fractional Finance Director
The presence — in the room when it matters
The year-end accountant is not a finance director. A finance director is present when the decision is being made — not called in afterwards to explain it to HMRC. One number. Available all business hours. No meter running when you pick up the phone. That’s what this is.
- Finance process design and documentation
- Quarterly strategic finance reviews
- Scenario modelling for major decisions
- Bank, lender and investor liaison
- Unlimited questions — direct line, no invoice per call
- Payroll and bookkeeping oversight — up to 20 staff
Day to day
What it actually feels like to have this in place.
Not a description of services — a description of how your week changes when the finance function is led properly.
01
A supplier asks for three years of accounts. You send them the same afternoon.
Because the records are maintained monthly, not assembled at year-end. Everything is current, reconciled, and ready — not a project to undertake when someone asks for it.
02
You’re considering a significant hire. You call before you decide.
Not after. The conversation takes fifteen minutes. You know the cash position, the payroll impact, and the break-even timeline before the offer letter goes out.
03
HMRC opens a routine VAT enquiry. You feel nothing.
Because the records are maintained monthly, not assembled at year-end. Everything is current, reconciled, and ready — not a project to undertake when someone asks for it.
04
A big contract lands. You want to know if you can resource it.
The numbers are ready. Cash flow has been modelled. You make the call from a position of financial confidence, not optimism.
05
Corporation tax is due. You already know the number.
Because it was planned, not calculated at deadline. The cash was set aside months ago. The filing is on time. There’s nothing to chase.
In practice
What actually changes when this is in place.
A few real clients, with details adjusted so nobody’s identifiable.
Transportation business network · Midlands
The challenge
A transport business with a small office but a much larger workforce of drivers. Timesheets and direct costs were tracked apart from revenue, so the management team was always working from a picture that was months out of date.
What changed
A monthly process now matches costs to revenue as it happens. Decisions about hiring or cutting costs get made against a current number, not a guess.
Franchise massage salon · London
The challenge
A fast-growing, multi-site treatment business where sales data from the booking platform didn’t reliably reflect what had actually happened — and the in-house team had lost confidence in the numbers.
What changed
Moving revenue onto an accrual basis gave management a genuine picture of trading, not just cash movements — and rebuilt trust in the numbers behind commission and package sales.
Trades & Field Services
The challenge
A small, family-run trades business where bookkeeping had been handled in-house without formal training. VAT was the biggest risk — nobody was confident what could legitimately be reclaimed — and expense receipts routinely went missing before they reached the books.
What changed
Moved onto Xero with mobile receipt and mileage capture, so nothing gets lost between the job and the ledger. VAT is now reclaimed accurately within the rules, and the directors spend their time running the business instead of chasing paperwork.
Long-Established Family Business
The challenge
A long-standing, family-run business that had been through several bookkeepers in quick succession. Records had fallen out of order, PAYE hadn’t been filed for several months, and the entire financial history of the business depended on one ageing computer.
What changed
We brought the VAT return and months of unreconciled banking current, then moved the business onto cloud accounting and cloud document storage. The owner can now see live sales figures from anywhere, nothing depends on a single machine, and year-end no longer means boxes of paper receipts.
The value case
FD-level leadership without the full-time cost.
A Finance Director employed full-time costs £80–120k in salary alone — before employer NI, pension, benefits, and the overhead of managing another senior hire. This service delivers the same calibre of financial leadership, available from day one, at a fraction of the commitment. No recruitment. No notice period. No desk.
£80k+
Minimum salary for an employed Finance Director
£20k+
Employer NI, pension and benefits on top
From £750/mo
Full financial leadership — tax, accounts, strategy, and a direct line. Fixed monthly fee. No overhead.
Transparent pricing
Start where you need to.
Fixed monthly fees — agreed upfront, no time-billing, no invoice when you pick up the phone. Every plan includes a single direct contact with access all business hours. If you already have a bookkeeper, we start from the management accounts layer upward.
Already have a bookkeeper? Start at Financial Controller Building your finance function from scratch? Start at Foundation.
Ready for a full strategic partner? Start at Fractional FD.
Foundation
Bookkeeping & Compliance
From
£450
/mo
Clean records, VAT handled, payroll managed. The base that everything else depends on being right.
- Bookkeeping and bank reconciliation
- VAT return preparation and submission
- Payroll — up to 5 employees
- HMRC correspondence managed directly
- Xero setup and monthly maintenance
- Digital receipt capture and filing
- Direct email and phone support
Most chosen
Financial Controller
From
£750
/mo
Everything in Foundation, plus monthly management accounts and the financial picture to lead from.
- Everything in Foundation
- Monthly management accounts with commentary
- Profitability analysis — by product, customer or channel
- 13-week rolling cash flow forecast
- Payroll — up to 10 employees
- Quarterly business review
- KPI reporting and budget vs actual
Full function
Fractional FD
From
£1,200
/mo
The presence — in the room when it matters
The complete outsourced finance function. Tax, compliance, accounts, strategy — one person, year-round.
- Everything in Financial Controller
- Corporation tax — planned and filed
- Self-assessment and personal tax
- Finance process design and documentation
- Payroll — up to 20 employees
- Monthly strategic finance review
- Bank, lender and investor liaison
- Unlimited direct access — no meter running
All fees fixed monthly and confirmed after a free discovery conversation. Prices vary by transaction volume and complexity.
Sector expertise
Every sector has its own financial complexity.
High transaction volumes, sector-specific tax rules, and the compliance traps that catch growing businesses out. Each sector page spells out exactly what those are — and how we address them.
Sector
E-Commerce & Retail
Marketplace VAT, multi-currency reconciliation, stock valuation, platform fees obscuring true margin.
Sector
Transport & Logistics
Fuel and fleet costs, weekly driver payroll, CIS overlap, margin visibility by vehicle or client.
Sector
CIS Subcontractors
Verification, deductions, gross status, project-level costing, reclaims for sole traders.
Ready to build the finance function your business deserves?
A first conversation is free, focused, and useful regardless of what you decide afterwards. Bring the question you can’t currently get a straight answer to — that’s usually where we start.
- Fixed monthly fees— agreed upfront, no surprises mid-month
- One direct contact— available all business hours, no invoice per call
- Present year-round— not just at year-end when it’s already too late
- No lock-in— if it isn’t working, you say so
- Free 60-minute discovery— no obligation, no sales pitch