TEDI-London
The challenge
When a brand-new educational institute approached us for help setting up their finance function, we jumped at the chance. Usually, we have to undo years of bad financial habits, but this time we had the opportunity to set them up for success right from the start.
An unusual client
TEDI-London isn’t one of our more typical client for several reasons.
Firstly, we usually work with commercial businesses; TEDI-London is a school of engineering that opened to students in September 2021. Secondly, the businesses we work with usually already have an accountant and various financial systems and processes in place (although whether they’re up to the job is another question). Unlike with these organisations, we didn’t come in to professionalise their existing financial management.
With significant funding in place and plans for high growth, TEDI-London needed a smoothly functioning finance department right from the off, which would deliver what they needed both now and in the future.
TEDI-London
“We wanted solid financial foundations, so our finance department would be fit-for-purpose in the future.”
Getting things right from the outset
“The point was to help us set up correctly right from the start,” said TEDI-London’s interim Finance Director, Lesley Baliga. “We wanted solid financial foundations, so our finance department would be fit-for-purpose in the future.”
She continued, “Our entire ethos is about challenging the norm and looking at better ways of doing things, from academic delivery through to back office support functions. We didn’t want any financial bureaucracy – just efficiency.”
Lesley looked at several models to manage the finance department, including keeping things in-house.
“Other businesses didn’t get it”
“We decided on an outsourced model because I came across Insight,” she explained. “I did my research and found a few other companies who claimed to do the same thing, but they were really just accountants who did bookkeeping; they didn’t get what I was looking for.”
She went on, “Insight understood immediately that we wanted a finance department that would seamlessly integrate into our organisation. They needed to be able to answer all the day-to-day questions that might arise – but we also needed a wider service and the kind of support you wouldn’t normally be able to afford in a small organisation.”
“Our finances are run so smoothly, it’s practically under my radar!”
A few months into our partnership, Lesley gave the Insight team what we consider the ultimate compliment. She said that she didn’t really think about how TEDI-London’s finances were being run, because she knew it was being taken care of efficiently.
“It’s the kind of thing that’s high on your agenda when there are problems,” she said. “In the past, I’ve had cases where there were big financial to-do lists, issues that weren’t getting resolved, or simply lots of inefficiencies. But at TEDI-London, our finances are run so smoothly, it’s practically under my radar.”
She added, “The Insight team also does so much work behind the scenes I’m hardly aware of! They’re like swans gliding over the water elegantly, but underneath the surface they’re churning away. Just last week, I discovered that they were setting up something complicated to do with becoming a supplier for someone in the US. I didn’t even know they were doing it – and I didn’t need to, because I trust them so implicitly.”
It was music to our ears, because making our clients’ financial management so smooth and painless that it’s practically unnoticeable is a large part of our raison d’être. We always say that when your finances are a mess, everything in your business feels messy, too!
TEDI-London
“Insight understood immediately that we wanted a finance department that would seamlessly integrate into our organisation”
TEDI-London
“Insight understood immediately that we wanted a finance department that would seamlessly integrate into our organisation”
“Our finances are run so smoothly, it’s practically under my radar!”
A few months into our partnership, Lesley gave the Insight team what we consider the ultimate compliment. She said that she didn’t really think about how TEDI-London’s finances were being run, because she knew it was being taken care of efficiently.
“It’s the kind of thing that’s high on your agenda when there are problems,” she said. “In the past, I’ve had cases where there were big financial to-do lists, issues that weren’t getting resolved, or simply lots of inefficiencies. But at TEDI-London, our finances are run so smoothly, it’s practically under my radar.”
She added, “The Insight team also does so much work behind the scenes I’m hardly aware of! They’re like swans gliding over the water elegantly, but underneath the surface they’re churning away. Just last week, I discovered that they were setting up something complicated to do with becoming a supplier for someone in the US. I didn’t even know they were doing it – and I didn’t need to, because I trust them so implicitly.”
It was music to our ears, because making our clients’ financial management so smooth and painless that it’s practically unnoticeable is a large part of our raison d’être. We always say that when your finances are a mess, everything in your business feels messy, too!
So, how did we achieve it?
Since we started working together in early 2020, our focus has been to implement all the basic financial systems and processes that make a finance department run efficiently.
For example, we set up their payroll and pension schemes and handled all the administration that came along with them; raised invoices to funding partners; and put in place tried-and-tested purchase ledger processes and treasury/cash management procedures.
TEDI-London also had the privilege of being the first client to use iplicit – the world-class accounting platform we use for all clients – right from the start. All our other clients have migrated to iplicit from a variety of other platforms.
All set up in just three months
And you know the best indication out of everything that their new finance department is working well?
“I’m an interim FD who was drafted in to set up the finance team,” Lesley comments. “I expected it to take me a year. It actually took me three months, and I can now move on knowing that I’m leaving behind a highly efficient finance function for my successors.”
We can do it for you, too
Whether you’re a start-up in rapid growth mode, or an established business turning over more than £1 million per year, we can institute all the same critical systems and processes in your business that we put in place for TEDI-London.
And, as you can see, it doesn’t even matter if you have an FD (or even a trusted accountant or bookkeeper) in place who you want to keep. We can work with your existing team to create a truly world-class finance function – and make your own life as a business owner so much easier.
“I did my research and found a few other companies who claimed to do the same thing, but they were really just accountants who did bookkeeping; they didn’t get what I was looking for.”
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