Case Study: Outsourced bookkeeping and preparation of group management information for international company
Exus Software Limited (Exus) is a global leader in debt collection and recovery technology, with headquarters in London and operating R&D in Athens. They designed, and now implement and monitor, a unique software in the financial services sector. Exus Financial Suite (EFS) is a comprehensive suite of software applications that manages credit risk along the whole lifecycle of accounts, from the moment of disbursement until write-off or debt sale. A secondary part of the work they do involves a significant amount of research and support of grant funding projects for a large scale of activities.
Exus engaged with Armstrong Watson in 2017 following a reorganisation in their financial control department.
"We were looking for a provider that could cover all aspects of financial control, the Armstrong Watson partnership with Xero was important to us. Their ability to provide R&D tax work and on-demand access to ad hoc accounting advice was also an important factor in the engagement." David Rampling, Exus.
How we helped
Senior Accounting Manager Lauren Cannar and Accounting Supervisor Katy Consterdine have been heavily involved in supporting Exus since they engaged with Armstrong Watson. The company is a full-service accounting client and our scope of work includes all aspects of accounting compliance; year-end accounts, corporation tax, company secretarial, VAT returns and payroll. Our main service is to provide fortnightly multicurrency bookkeeping for the UK company and most recently consolidated management accounts to satisfy banking requirements. Over the years, under separate engagement, we have also provided Audit and R&D tax claim work.
Over the last 12 months, we have worked closely to streamline the bookkeeping process to aid the preparation of the consolidated management accounts. We introduced Autoentry, a great time-saving app for scanning invoices, which made it easier for all purchase invoices to be centrally managed and accounted for. Together we then looked over the current working papers prepared and used by us both. Our focus was collaboration on cost centres and any revisions here but also on the information and how we could adapt this to be most useful for Exus’s internal reporting and our work too. The introduction of Autoentry provides efficiencies and, for the size of the business and its locations, means it’s easier for us as accountants to access. More importantly, it made the process much timelier which was necessary for the preparation of the consolidated accounts.
Results
As a diverse client, the team at Exus is in contact regularly with the core accounts team at AW, which is important. Due to the nature of the company they also have relationships with specialists in the firm. They are well connected and able to trust in our abilities as a medium tier firm to service their needs.
“The professional services stamp provided by AW compliments the Exus finance function, enabling them to focus on core corporate goals.” David Rampling, Exus.
Key benefits of our outsourcing services include:
- Outsourced function to qualified accountants skilled in UK company legislation
- Extension of their finance team
- Access to specialists for ad-hoc queries
- Embraced time-saving technology in line with the business sector
- Clear group financials
- Fulfilling bank requirement
- Review of group position throughout the year
