case study – Utopia
Getting financial management back on track and demonstrating financial stability
Background
Utopia is a design and build firm specialising in commercial interiors, with offices in Bristol and Exeter. Founded in 2004, their imaginative, thorough and ethical approach has helped differentiate them from their competitors, leading to work with a wide range of businesses across the South West. The company employed a full-time financial controller and a management accountant to handle the day-to-day finances.
The issue
F-works started working with Utopia in the middle of the recession. Utopia’s management accountant had left the business at relatively short notice and they needed help with ensuring their management accounts were up-to-date.
How F-works helped
F-works assisted Utopia in finding a new management accountant/book-keeper, attending interviews with them and helping them ensure they recruited an individual with the right knowledge, skills and experience. Alongside this, F-works put together financial projections in order for Utopia to plan their future strategy. By using F-works at this critical time, Utopia’s financial controller was able to concentrate on important day-to-day aspects of the business’ finances, such as ensuring suppliers were paid and clients made payment on time.
The nature of Utopia’s business means they regularly go through a formal tender process to win new clients. For one very important pitch, Utopia were competing against a much bigger firm and a number of the questions asked were in relation to their accounts and finances. F-works attended tender presentations with Utopia, helping to demonstrate their ongoing financial stability and being on hand to answer any finance-related questions.
“The over-riding thing that struck me about F-works was that they talk my language, rather than ‘finance speak’. We always turn to F-works whenever we need advice on any financial aspects of our business and really value their strategic input. They’re also very good at reigning in people like me, which can only be a good thing!”
Kevin Mashford, Managing Director
Utopia
