‘Rachel and I knew Debbie already as we’d collaborated on projects before’ says Chris. ‘At the time, we were using a different accountancy practice, but it’s fair to say they hadn’t set us up for success. We didn’t receive any advice from them. Once we realised our year-end accounts had been filed late, it became clear that we hadn’t been given full sight of our finances and that, in truth, we didn’t really understand them. We were at a bit of a loose end.’
‘Soon after, we had a catch-up with Debbie. She asked us ‘what’s next for Shoo Social Media?’. She wanted to know where we planned to go with the business and what we wanted to achieve, clearly showing us how understanding our goals mattered to make sense of our numbers. We became a Not Just Numbers client from that moment.’
‘From the start, it was clear working with Not Just Numbers would free up so many hours in our working day,’ says Rachel. ‘I was taking far too much time away from supporting our clients by sorting finance admin, payroll issues and account reconciliation. Vicky, Not Just Numbers’ bookkeeper, has been an incredible help with our day-to-day finance issues. In fact, I think the team as a whole has saved us one full day of our time per week, which we’d previously spent dealing with our accounts. It’s given us so much more time to dedicate to our clients.’
‘We were on Xero already’, admits Chris. ‘But it’s fair to say we weren’t really using it. We didn’t know how to make invoicing and forecasting work for us, until Not Just Numbers went through the system in straightforward terms with a good understanding of our business. Now, Xero makes everything easier.’
‘Debbie, Chris and I have quarterly meetings where we get real clarity of our business and our numbers,’ says Rachel. ‘We’re not numbers people, so getting this strong understanding of our figures from an expert in finances is crucial. Worrying about running a business is stressful enough without thinking about your numbers too, so we let Debbie do the worrying for us! She really takes the pain away.’
‘She helps us see the wood for the trees,’ adds Chris. ‘In our quarterly meetings, Debbie sits us down and talks through what we’ve done and if, financially, it’s made sense. She asks us about our plans, shows us what’ll happen if things change, and looks at our successes and challenges with the objective pair of eyes every business needs. Helping us understand our numbers this way puts us clearly on track for growth.’
‘Not Just Numbers practise what they preach: they’re an extension of our business, and feel like part of our team’, agree Chris and Rachel. ‘We can ask them any questions we need to, and we never feel silly for doing so. Payroll and tax, for example, were new issues to us, but we can call them for their advice, and they’ll tell us it straight! It’s a learning curve, but the Not Just Numbers team is there every step of the way.
‘With the support of Debbie and her team, we know everything we do is financially compliant, which is a necessity in challenging times, such as those we’ve all faced with Covid-19. That’s just one example of the way Not Just Numbers take the scary stuff away and make understanding how to manage our numbers for ongoing success so much easier.’
