With the launch of a new finance outsourcing service in Scotland, Hutcheon Mearns is off to a flying start this year.
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The financial services firm has a unique blend of offerings designed to solve complex finance problems for businesses. This includes a successful Specialist team of qualified practice trained accountants with industry experience who provide bespoke interim and project support for companies.
Now, a finance outsourcing service will allow Hutcheon Mearns to provide finance support at all levels, from transactional accounting right the way through to board reporting.
Finance outsourcing for charities, start-ups and more
Headed up by Chartered Accountant Scott Garden, the new team will essentially operate as an external finance department for clients.
Scott explained: “We have the in-house capability to undertake management and statutory accounting for clients as well as the creation of bespoke management packs. The team is also focused on ensuring we have face to face contact with our clients, attending management and board meetings as required, and undertaking cashflow forecasting and budgeting to provide a value add service – the full finance package.
“We are also well placed to offer discreet projects for those who do not require the full management accounting service, such as offering payroll processing, annual statutory accounting work, the completion of annual company tax returns and even iXBRL tagging for HMRC compliance purposes.
“We want to be seen as extension of a client’s business. Traditional virtual finance offerings can often feel very remote and separate to a business, but we want to encourage face-to-face interaction and a collaborative approach to our offering.
“We aim to be fully flexible to the needs of our clients.”
An expert finance team at a manageable cost
The new service will offer finance support to a wide range of industries across Scotland and further afield, with a particular focus on not-for-profits, hospitality, start-ups, renewables and energy.
However, any business that’s in between finance teams or that would prefer to outsource their finance function for any reason is sure to benefit from turning to Hutcheon Mearns for help. They’ll get the full breadth of an experienced finance team without the outlay and cost of full time employees. There’s also an added bonus in that clients will have access to the wider Hutcheon Mearns resourcing and business advisory teams, if ever needed.
Hutcheon Mearns’ finance outsourcing team is also a great option for any businesses lacking general cloud accounting experience. Scott explained: “We’re happy to work with clients who already use an accounting system, but if a client isn’t on one or wants to change, we strongly recommend Xero cloud accounting.
“It’s a very intuitive and flexible accounting package and has hundreds of useful apps that can be connected in a plug and play manner. We can help clients understand what applications they could add to Xero to make things easier for them, to improve reporting and ultimately to improve the quality of finance data available for decision making purposes.”
Quality finance outsourcing in Scotland
Much like its executive search service launched last year, Hutcheon Mearns’ new finance outsourcing service has grown out of customer demand. Craig Hutcheon, founder of Hutcheon Mearns, said: “Clients were asking if we did financial accounting outsourcing, and we didn’t. The thought there was we could do that, and we could build a team to service that work.”
Scott Garden, who initially joined Hutcheon Mearns as a Specialist five years ago, brings over fifteen years of experience to the outsourcing team, having previously worked in practice, group finance and operational finance roles. Joining him are two new employees, Danielle Murray and Reah Cairns, who both have industry experience.
Since soft launching in September 2022, the Hutcheon Mearns outsourcing department has already been working with a number of clients, including a charity in Dundee.
With demand expected to be high, Scott is already planning on expanding the team in future – but providing a quality service for clients is the priority. He said: “It’s exciting. It’s a new venture for the business and new for me. It’s great to have the freedom to build a team within Hutcheon Mearns and I’m excited to see where we can take it.
“We don’t want to grow too quickly, we want to make sure when we take on clients we provide a high-quality service to them, so we’re taking things relatively slowly. We are looking to add to the team though and have ambitions to double its size by the end of the year.”
Find out more about Hutcheon Mearns’ new finance outsourcing service in Scotland and how it could help your business.
