Business owners have become accustomed to the new normal and the government-funded reliefs are doing most of what they were intended to do.

Allowing people to cover unavoidable overhead, keep people employed and stay on lockdown until further notice. As we enter June, there has definitely been a step change in the urgency of our contact with clients.

How it looks now

This will undoubtedly change as the amendments to the Job Retention Scheme are made and relief is tapered. In the interim there now seems to be a calm before the next inevitable storm and that has given us at Linford Grey an opportunity to look back at the last few weeks and review.

What have we done?

Linford Grey has secured in excess of £730,000 in Interruption and Bounce Back Loans for clients. This is also by no means over and we expect that before the scheme is set to cease in November, this will increase to nearly £1.5m.

We have also secured more than £165,000 in other HMRC-funded grants for small businesses through the Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Scheme.

We have spent hundreds of hours working overtime to prepare three-year, three-way cash flow forecasts for our clients, not just so they can satisfy the lending criteria of banks but so they can have peace of mind over the sustainability of their business post-pandemic.

We have dug deeper and deeper into our client services and implemented new checks and balances that offer clients a multitude of touch points throughout the month to be in contact with us. Chief amongst these changes is the implementation of a regular monthly Xero Health Check Appointment for all clients included as standard. We really took the opportunity to look inward and improve ourselves, in service of doing the best job we can do and we’re proud, now more than ever, of the business we’re building and the vision we are realising.

How did we do it?

Our commitment to technology and the ecosystem of assets we have in place has meant we have been able to respond swiftly and meaningfully to the crisis. We have no doubt that we contributed to the continued and overall well-being of dozens of business owners and families, as the stability and advice provided by Linford Grey ripples through the UK economy. This is true of anyone who has been well served by their accountant. The confidence and assurance provided to business owners has undoubtedly improved confidence and given people the assurance they needed to hang on in there.

Our partners

Key to our success in managing the crisis was the support we received from our partners. In particular, the webinars run by Helen Cockle and Hannah Dawson over at Futrli and their partnership with Swoop really helped us to see a way through the complicated and seemingly insurmountable mountain of work that was ahead of us 2-3 months ago.

Practice Ignition, Xero, Karbon and Loom have also offered resources and advice that have kept us on track, kept us communicating and provided insights into the infrastructure required to act optimally for clients. The best part of all this was the validation for us that we had in fact chosen the right people and partners to work with.

Moving Forward

As we continue to move forward into an uncertain future we know that our clients will make it through and go on to growth and success in the future. Our advice to them is to proactively engage with our systems and processes to ensure that when the hammer next falls their financial data is present, correct and understood.

If anyone is feeling uncertain or anxious about the future our message is that together we can take positive action to secure the future.

And if you need any support then please get in touch with out team.