As a former Senior Partner with top international accounting firms, Kevin has the experience to provide a wide range of expert assurance services to his clients, large or small, including accounting advice, internal controls reviews, IR35 assessments, operational efficiency reviews, and financial accounting system implementation.

Accounting and financial reporting rules and standards are becoming more and more complex. Companies frequently need to deal with complex accounting and financial reporting issues in their operations as well as when transitioning to new accounting standards, undergoing a re-organisation or optimising business processes.  We can help resolve these issues by providing accounting advisory services, including UK GAAP to IFRS reporting.

Due to ongoing changes in various accounting standards and industry regulations, CFOs and chief accountants need to spend more time analysing business processes and operations. We use our knowledge, long track record and innovative tools to develop practical accounting recommendations and solutions in accordance with the requirements of various accounting standards. We will help to align your accounting systems with the financial reporting standards and significantly improve the quality of your financial statements.

An internal control review is an overall assessment of your internal control system throughout all your business units to determine if it’s working as intended and if it can manage the risks your company might face on a daily basis. The term can also refer to the review of a small subset of controls, such as those around a specific process or processes. An internal control review by AWK is an independent, objective assurance, and consulting activity that aims to help organisations accomplish their goals by evaluating and improving the effectiveness of control, risk management, and governance processes.

Kevin has significant experience leading IR35 reviews and providing independent advice to clients. IR35 Contract Reviews are the first step in determining IR35 status. Contractors who are, or are hoping to operate outside IR35 should have their contracts reviewed by a professional. It is important that any necessary amendments are made to the written terms as early as possible and it also shows that you have taken ‘reasonable steps’ to ensure that your contract is outside the IR35 legislation. In an enquiry, the written contractual agreement will be the first thing HMRC will want to look at to ascertain whether you are operating compliantly with the legislation. As part of a contract review, your working practices should also be reviewed.

Kevin utilises his experience as a Finance and Operations Director to review the operational effectiveness of his clients. Operational effectiveness comes down to all the work that gets executed to provide a customer or client with what the business promises to provide. By establishing best practices and managing knowledge, resources, infrastructure, and communication, an organisation can optimise this to set in place processes that reduce costs, reduce risk and maximise output. Excellent operational effectiveness focusses on:

  • Create clear communication internally and externally, fostering collaboration – Your organisational effectiveness is driven by people. Prioritise its accessibility and communication so that they can work together to ensure business runs smoothly.
  • Understanding delivery management – There needs to be a responsible party involved throughout all business processes to oversee execution and efficiencies.
  • Focusing on knowledge, operational learning and infrastructure management – To improve operational effectiveness, define goals and create infrastructures that supports successful outcomes. Use data and analytics to assess if processes are optimised.
  • Leveraging technology with resource management – Your resources are only as good as the people who use them. Invest in training and tools.

Improving employee and customer retention – Employee and customer satisfaction should be a primary concern as their happiness and retention reduces costs and drives business forward.

Identifying and continually reviewing your financial accounting system is critical to businesses of all sizes, particularly high grown entities, where the regular production of accurate financial data is key to managing profitability and cash. Our accounting system design and implementation consulting services consist of:

  • Review of business and financial accounting & related system requirements
  • Identification of appropriate software
  • Assess requirements of the internal control environment
  • Internal control documentation
  • Tailoring accounting system based on requirements
  • System implementation
  • Internal training