Financial controller and finance director services for tech companies between £1M and £5M turnover who need proper financial infrastructure without the full time salary.
You've gone from a small team to 15 or 20 people and the bookkeeping that worked when there were three of you can't keep up anymore. You're hiring developers, taking on contractors, paying for cloud infrastructure that scales with usage, and trying to work out which projects are actually making money versus which ones are keeping the team busy for thin margins.
Cash flow gets lumpy. A big project comes in and you invest heavily in delivery, but the payment terms mean you don't see the money for 60 or 90 days. Meanwhile payroll doesn't wait, and neither does your AWS bill.
Your accountant files your returns and keeps things compliant, but when you ask them to help you model what hiring three more developers does to your cash position over the next 12 months, that's where the conversation tends to dry up.
And if you're thinking about raising investment at some point, the first thing any serious investor asks for is your management accounts. If they're a mess, or worse, if they don't exist beyond a Xero profit and loss report, it doesn't matter how good the product is.
Project profitability is the big one. You're delivering multiple projects across different clients, but unless you're properly tracking time and costs against each one, you're guessing at your margins. I've worked with tech companies who discovered their biggest client was actually their least profitable once the real delivery costs were factored in. That changes everything about how you allocate your team's time.
R&D tax credits are another area where money gets left on the table. Most tech companies know they're eligible, but fewer have their books structured in a way that maximises the claim. The difference between a well-documented R&D claim and a hastily put-together one can be tens of thousands of pounds.
Then there's the subscription creep. SaaS tools, cloud hosting, development platforms, testing environments. They accumulate month on month and nobody reviews whether they're all still necessary. One client found they were spending over £3K a month on tools that half the team had stopped using. That's £36K a year on software nobody needs.
And if you're using a mix of permanent staff and contractors, the IR35 considerations alone need proper attention. The financial implications of getting that wrong go well beyond a tax bill.
Your bookkeeping and VAT are handled without you thinking about it. Your management accounts go beyond a basic profit and loss and actually show you which projects and clients are profitable and which ones aren't, so you can make better decisions about where to focus your team's time.
Your cash flow is forecasted properly. When you're thinking about hiring, I'll model what that looks like over the next 12 months so you're making the decision based on real numbers rather than a feeling that you're busy enough to justify it. Same goes for any major investment, whether that's new infrastructure, an office move, or expanding into a new market.
Your R&D tax credit claims are structured from the start to maximise what you're entitled to. I work with you throughout the year to make sure the right costs are captured and documented properly, not scrambled together at the last minute.
If you're heading towards an investment round or an acquisition, your financial reporting will be ready when someone asks to see it. Clean management accounts, proper forecasts, and clear visibility of your financial position, so when an investor opens the books, they see a business that's got its act together.
I also handle payroll, contractor payments, and the IR35 considerations that come with a mixed workforce. Everything gets explained in plain English and I'm there when you need to talk something through, usually the same day.
Most founders I work with were spending hours every week on financial admin before we started. Hours that should have been spent building the product or winning new business. That time has a real cost, and it's almost always more than what you'd pay me to take it off your plate entirely.
“Leigh is our external financial controller. I trust Leigh to deal with all our finances whilst I work on growing and developing the business strategy. He helps me gain understanding on how financial information can be used as a useful tool in the business.”
“I trusted Leigh to take care of our finances to ensure that everything was done on time and accurately with minimal involvement from my side, which meant I could be left to concentrate on the strategic activities of the company.”
Covers management accounts quality, R&D credit optimisation, project profitability tracking, cash flow forecasting, and investor readiness. Written for tech founders, not accountants.
There's no hard sell, just a conversation about where your business is now and whether I can help.
Let's talkOr call 07899 296 552 · leigh.cooke@virtufin.co.uk