Who we work with
You see the management accounts, the aged creditors and the HMRC arrears months before anyone else does, and you are usually the one the director calls.
The difficulty is knowing when a cash flow problem has become a legal one, and being confident that the person you hand the client to will treat them properly and give them back.
We take referrals from accountants across London and the South East, and a good proportion of those conversations end with us saying no formal process is needed. That is not a bad outcome for us. It is the reason the next call comes.
When to pick up the phone
None of these require you to have decided anything. They are simply the points at which a conversation is still worth having, rather than a post-mortem.
You are being asked to sign off accounts where the going concern basis is no longer comfortable, and the directors have not grasped what that means for them personally.
Likely route: An options review, before the accounts have to be filed.
VAT or PAYE is being used as working capital. A Time to Pay arrangement has already been broken once, and enforcement is now a matter of time.
Likely route: Negotiation with HMRC, with credible figures behind it.
The DLA has grown to a level the director cannot repay, and nobody has explained that a liquidator will pursue it as a debt due to the company.
Likely route: An honest conversation about exposure, early enough to plan for it.
This is the one where days matter. Once a petition is advertised the bank account is likely frozen and most of the alternatives disappear.
Likely route: Immediate advice, the day you hear about it. What a petition means →
Trading is fine, or would be without the legacy debt. The company needs the debt compromised rather than the business closed.
Likely route: A CVA, or a restructuring inside an administration.
The trade has been sold, or the client is retiring, and the company is sitting on reserves. Striking off is rarely the tax-efficient answer above modest sums.
Likely route: An MVL, planned alongside you and the client’s tax adviser.
Our undertaking
How a referral works
Talk it through with us first, without naming the client if you would rather not. We will tell you honestly whether there is anything worth doing and how urgent it is.
We meet the client with you, in person or on a call. You know the history; we know the options. It works better together, and the client is reassured by seeing you there.
A short written summary of the realistic routes, the likely outcome of each, and what it costs. Copied to you as a matter of course.
If the client instructs us we handle the process end to end, updating you as it goes. When it concludes, the client is yours again.
Where we add most
MVLs for clients with reserves to distribute. Planned with you and the client’s tax adviser, so the tax treatment is considered before anything is done rather than after.
Members' Voluntary Liquidation →Time to Pay arrangements and creditor standstills, put together with figures that stand up. Frequently this is all that is required.
Managing financial distress →Where there is a business worth saving, administration buys the protection to sell or restructure it, and usually returns more to creditors than a closure.
Administration →For your practice
Simon has run these sessions for accountancy networks for years. They are short, practical and built around the questions your people actually get asked, not a pitch. We come to you, in person or online, at no cost.
Tell us which of these would be most useful, or suggest your own. We will build the session around it.
Both of our licensed insolvency practitioners take referral calls directly. You will not go through a switchboard or a business development team.
No name needed at first if you would rather not. We will tell you whether there is anything worth doing, and how quickly it needs doing.
