Caroline Harridence is a Director of Counting Clouds Cambridgeshire. Caroline is a Fellow of the ICAEW and member of the ACCA and, with over 20 years of accounting experience.
The ripple effect of the pandemic had more businesses asking Counting Clouds Cambridgeshire for help managing company spend. Learn which challenges they saw in the past few months and the practical advice they gave their clients to get through this crisis.
As Technology Accounting Specialists, Counting Clouds Cambridgeshire (CCC) found that the priority with clients was to look at cash coming in and coming out of each business.
They also scrutinised loans – which loans were available and useful to their clients, what they were needed for ultimately how they were going to be spent.
Cutting down unnecessary spend was inevitable for most businesses, and CCC helped them managing their cash flow, looking into options such as staff furlough.
With the future in mind, CCC were keen to understand and suggest how clients were planning to spend cash in the longer term, including how they were planning to repay loans.
Counting Clouds’ value increased significantly during lockdown, as more businesses and people needed help adjusting to the new normal.
Caroline herself became much more involved and hands-on, giving clients practical advice and helping them sort through accounting challenges.
As companies and people started working from home, contact with CCC increased. Caroline helped many choose accounting apps, for instance, as clients struggle with the huge range of software available, as well as moving their systems to the cloud.
Caroline helped her team by picking up the phone and being someone clients could talk to when they needed accounting support through this difficult time.
When businesses don’t use apps to manage cash flow and create forecasts, Counting Clouds initially sets them up with an Excel spreadsheet.
It’s a quick and simple way to effectively track money coming in and coming out of a business – especially in a time that requires frequent forecasting.
Businesses can immediately get a grasp on how the business is doing without needing to use a more complex forecasting tool. But in the longer term, Caroline suggests upgrading to an app which lets you see a longer time frame and track company-wide spending more closely.
It’s always important to have a solid short-term and long-term view of your business. This way, should a new crisis come, you’ll be ready to survive it.
