Financial controller and finance director services built for trade and contract services businesses. From retention tracking to tender pricing, I understand the money side of project-based work.
You win a contract, spend money on materials and labour upfront, and then wait 30, 60, sometimes 90 days to get paid. Meanwhile your suppliers want their money now, payroll doesn't wait, and the next project needs funding before the last one has paid out.
On top of that, your main contractors are holding back retention money on every job. Two and a half percent on completion, another two and a half percent a year later. Somebody needs to be tracking every single one of those and chasing them when they're due. If nobody's doing that, you're giving away five percent of every contract you deliver.
Most accountants file your returns and keep things compliant. But they don't understand how money moves through a contracting business. They don't know about retention schedules, CIS deductions, invoice finance management, or how to price a tender so you actually make money on it rather than just winning the work.
That gap between what your accountant knows and what your business actually needs is costing you money every month.
Retention money going uncollected. One client's previous finance person wasn't chasing any of it. They were giving away five percent of every job, year after year, because nobody was keeping track. Once we put a proper system in place to track and chase retentions, the money started coming back in. That's bottom line profit that was being given away for free.
No visibility of the actual financial position. Another client told me that for the first time in 22 years of running his business, he could actually see where things stood. Before that, everything was grey. He didn't know how much he owed at any point, couldn't put a business plan together, and cash flow was a constant fire to put out.
Overstaffing that nobody's spotted. When I plugged into the numbers, we could see certain areas were carrying more people than the work justified. Trimming that down made the business significantly more profitable without affecting delivery.
Tenders being priced on gut feeling rather than real data. If you haven't properly calculated the full cost of delivering a contract, including travel, waste, downtime, and the admin hours nobody tracks, you could be winning work that's actually costing you money.
And the relationship with your invoice finance company or bank. If you can't walk into those meetings with clear numbers and confident answers, that relationship gets harder. Someone needs to be across it properly.
Your retention money is tracked properly. I track every contract, every percentage held back, and every due date, so nothing slips through. I put systems in place so nothing gets missed and the money comes back when it should.
Your cash flow is forecasted around the reality of how your business works. A forecast built around your actual contract payment terms, seasonal patterns, supplier commitments, and the lumpy nature of project-based income, rather than a generic template that doesn't reflect how your business works. When you're deciding whether to bid for more work or take on more staff, you'll know what that does to your cash position before you commit.
Your CIS compliance is handled. Your invoice finance relationship is managed properly, and I'll be there with you in meetings with the bank or the finance company with the answers they need, ready to go.
Your bookkeeping, payroll, and VAT are all taken care of without you thinking about it. And every month you get a clear picture of where the business stands, explained in plain English, so you can make decisions based on actual data instead of guessing.
I got one client's business from chaos to clarity within three months. He'd been running it for 22 years without ever having a proper financial picture. Now he knows exactly what's coming in, what's going out, and where things are headed.
Most business owners in this sector are spending hours every week on financial admin that's keeping them away from the work that actually wins contracts and grows the business. That time has a cost, and when you add it up, it's almost always more than what you'd pay me to handle the lot.
“He's like an extended part of the team. If you've got a problem, you ask Leigh. He doesn't overcomplicate things.”
“For the first time in 22 years of running the business, everything is clear. You can see what's coming in, what's going out. Before it was always grey.”
A quick guide to making sure your business isn't giving away money on completed contracts. Covers what to track, when to chase, and how to set up systems so nothing falls through the cracks.
There's no hard sell, just a conversation about your business and whether I can help.
Let's talkOr call 07899 296 552 · leigh.cooke@virtufin.co.uk