Practical guidance for Finance Directors at PE-backed and growth-stage businesses.
Build a documented post-balance-sheet events review that distinguishes year-end evidence from new events before accounts are authorised.
Prepare for revised FRS 102 Section 20 with a complete lease register, supported assumptions and a clear transition evidence file.
Connect acquired-business performance, forecasts and valuation assumptions to a defensible goodwill impairment assessment under FRS 102.
Strengthen manual journal evidence with supported entries, meaningful independent review and scrutiny of unusual or late postings.
Use supplier statements, unmatched receipts and subsequent payments to investigate payables discrepancies and strengthen year-end evidence.
Management fees, shareholder loans and shared directors all create related party transactions. Why they cause late audit adjustments and how to stay ahead.
Capitalising software and product development flatters EBITDA, which is why auditors challenge it hard. How to build a defensible position from day one.
Small finance teams cannot split every duty. Here is how to design compensating controls that auditors accept and that genuinely reduce risk.
A 13-week cash forecast is only useful if people believe it. How to build, review and evidence a rolling forecast that holds up under investor and lender scrutiny.
The failure to prevent fraud offence is now live. Here is what reasonable procedures look like for a growing business, and why finance owns more of it than legal.
Leveraged businesses report to lenders as well as investors. The compliance certificate is a control point, and treating it as an admin task creates avoidable risk.
Unreconciled intercompany balances and undocumented transfer pricing are the two issues that turn a group audit into a long one. Here is how to close both before fieldwork.
Revenue is the first number an auditor tests and the most common source of adjustments in growth-stage businesses. Here is the evidence that closes the question quickly.
Option schemes are easy to grant and hard to account for. What auditors expect to see on share-based payments, and why cap table hygiene affects far more than the accounts.
An inventory count that fails audit scrutiny cannot be repeated after the year end. What the auditor needs to see, and how to plan the count so the evidence holds.
Finance teams are adopting AI tools faster than they are controlling them. Here is a proportionate governance response.
Buy-and-build strategies create control gaps fast. Here is a practical sequence for integrating financial controls after a bolt-on acquisition.
Going concern assessment has become one of the most scrutinised areas of the audit. Here is what strong evidence looks like.
Most payment fraud in UK SMEs exploits process gaps, not technology failures. Here are the controls that actually hold.
Outsourced payroll, cloud accounting and managed IT do not outsource your control responsibility. Here is how to evidence it.
By the time most PE-backed businesses start exit prep, the easy wins have gone. Why exit readiness is a holding-period governance posture, not a deal-room sprint.
Too large for informal risk management, too small for a full-time CRO. How the fractional model solves the governance gap for £15m–£100m UK businesses.
ITGC failures are more common and more damaging at mid-market level. The blind spots auditors find first — and how to fix them proportionately.
Why the textbook three lines model collapses in a £20m PE-backed business, and the practical adaptation that restores genuine independent assurance.
Internal audit is not just for large corporates. For PE-backed SMEs at the right stage, a proportionate internal audit approach can protect value and sharpen governance without a dedicated team.
Most PE-backed SMEs produce accurate investor reporting. Fewer produce reporting that actually answers the questions investors are asking. The difference is a governance and communication problem as much as a finance one.
When critical finance knowledge sits with one person, the risk is not just operational — it is a governance and audit concern that investors take seriously.
The decision is less about headcount and more about whether your finance function can keep pace with what investors and auditors are starting to ask of it.
Most audit problems are created months before fieldwork. A structured preparation timeline helps finance teams stay ahead of what is coming rather than reacting to it.
With £190bn of UK private equity dry powder ready to deploy in 2026, here is what PE-backed businesses must do to attract capital, perform through the hold, and exit at premium.
If your board or investors asked these questions tomorrow, would your evidence stand up? A practical guide to the questions that matter most.
Most audit findings have predictable causes: unclear ownership, weak evidence, late review or system access gaps. Here is how to address them before they appear.
If your ERP changed recently, auditors will want comfort over data completeness, accuracy and access controls. Here is what to prepare and why it matters.
A 90-day sequence for moving from reactive evidence gathering to a controlled, board-ready audit process. Practical steps for finance teams facing their first institutional audit.
A clean close process is one of the strongest signals that finance controls are mature enough for scrutiny. Here is what good looks like and how to get there.
A better PBC pack reduces auditor queries, protects the finance team and gives management more control over the audit. Here is how to build one that actually works.
A practical checklist for Finance Directors who need clean evidence, clear ownership and fewer audit surprises before auditors arrive.
Readiness does not guarantee lower fees, but it can reduce avoidable overrun, rework and query churn. Here is what actually makes a difference.
A useful risk register is current, owned, action-focused and connected to board decisions. Here is how to build one that holds up to scrutiny.
ITGCs underpin financial reporting. Here is what finance leaders need to know — without the technical jargon.
