Tea Times Trading, Dragonfly Tea & Wistbray

This case study entity brought their Finance function in-house after a disastrous outsourcing exercise. A qualified accountant was appointed on interim contract to bring accounts and systems up to date, prior to our commencement. Although great strides were made in the space of a year, the financial reports available to owners were totally inadequate to effectively manage the business. We identified and resolved the following issues:

• Cash flow model failed to capture all factors affecting cash. On developing a new custom model, cash shortfalls of £25k for the next quarter and £80k for the half year were identified. The business owner thus had advance warning of cash injections required to keep company afloat. Cash flow model was integrated with accounting system and also included production planning requirements to present the true cash requirements of the business 6 to 12 months in advance. It also allowed the owners to delay incoming raw material shipments which still satisfied production requirements, but eased the cash requirements.
• No detailed sales and margin analysis available to measure contribution of product categories and individual SKUs to bottom line. Numbers were not properly measured against prior year or budget numbers, so trends were difficult to spot. The appropriate models and reports were designed and integrated directly to the accounting system.
• Designed improved management accounts pack and budget / forecast models, again linked to accounting system. This provided owners with adequate information to manage the business efficiently.
• Upgraded EDI interfaces with major retail customers: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, ASDA, Waitrose and The Co-operative Group.