Edinburgh World Heritage - Case Study
Edinburgh World Heritage is a charity dedicated to the protection of the city's historic environment.
EWH came to us looking for an interim finance team to assist with their accounts and management reports, while they looked to recruit internally.
Our Approach
We got up and running quickly as we were conscious there was a backlog. Rosie and Justis met with the client to establish a clear plan of action – and we assigned an Accounts Senior, Junior Bookkeeper and Payroll Manager, ensuring EWH had dedicated contacts for each service area.
The Delivery
Initially, our engagement focused on project work to include:
Loading EWH’s budget into Xero - breaking it down per month, so that the client could have accurate comparisons between actual and forecasted figures
Creating custom reports for budget variance reporting - making it easy to track how your actuals are comparing to the budgeted figures per period you are reporting on e.g., monthly/ quarterly, with the variances shown in £s and %s
Xero training sessions and provided process maps for tasks such as:
Creating and allocating credit notes
Working with tracking categories
How to enter an overpayment
How to add and process documents in Hubdoc
On an ongoing basis, we:
Processed payroll
Reconciled accounts
Processed payment runs
Completed management accounts for their board
Used softwares - Xero, Hubdoc and payment platforms
The Result and the Handover
Once EWH recruited a Finance and Operations Manager, we began a structured handover. We introduced Fiona to our processes and communications; provided Xero training and process maps and had meetings to ensure the client felt confident and comfortable stepping into the role. We wanted to ensure a comprehensive handover and made ourselves available for any queries and support throughout the process.
How the client feels:
The client described our team as an “endlessly calm and understanding force” and appreciated our non-judgemental approach.
“We approached Accountability after our Head of Finance left. We had been unable to recruit a replacement first time which left a period without an in-house finance function. The Accountability team quickly got to grips with the issues, tackling the backlog and ensuring staff, creditors and grantees were paid.
Throughout their period with us, the team were supportive, understanding and always open to evolving processes in light of feedback.
Accountability stayed with us for a further month after our new Head of Finance joined, which allowed our new joiner some breathing room to get up to speed. The handover provided was excellent and the team provided some handy tips on Xero to get the most out of its functionality.”