We help charities automate the complexity of fund accounting – so you spend less time reconciling and more time delivering impact.
Charities with income up to £10m are large enough to have real fund accounting complexity – but too small for an enterprise IT department. The result is skilled finance teams doing work that should have been automated years ago.
Every engagement follows the same proven structure – from understanding where you are today to a finance function your trustees can rely on.
The Assessment anchors Stage 1. Implementation spans Stages 2–3. The Fractional retainer drives Stage 4.
Four interconnected service areas – built specifically around the complexities of charity finance.
Here is what the same seven finance tasks look like before and after working with us.
| Stage | ❌ Manual – The Old Way | ⚡ After Digitisation |
|---|---|---|
| Fund Tracking | ✗Restricted vs unrestricted funds tracked in separate spreadsheets nobody fully trusts | ✓Real-time fund balance visible at the click of a button – per grant, per restriction |
| Month-End Close | ✗Close taking 3–4 weeks, manual journal entries, reconciliations done twice | ✓Automated close cycle – departmental workflows cut close to 3 days |
| Gift Aid | ✗Claims built manually from spreadsheets, errors missed, submissions delayed | ✓Automated Gift Aid calculation and submission – no missed claims |
| Grant Reporting | ✗Weeks rebuilding restricted spend from raw ledger data, high error risk | ✓Real-time restricted fund dashboard – report generated in minutes, audit-ready |
| VAT Returns | ✗Pulling figures from multiple spreadsheets, manual cross-checking, late filing risk | ✓Auto-populated return from coded transactions, reviewed and filed in hours |
| Payroll | ✗Manual calculations, re-keying into multiple systems, chasing approvals by email | ✓Automated payroll run with integrated approvals and same-day exception alerts |
| Audit Prep | ✗2 weeks of "finding the folders" | ✓1 digital link to a verified, board-ready audit trail |
| TOTAL SAVING | Across all 7 stages of your finance function | £25k – £50k / year |
Real outcomes from real charity engagements – anonymised but fully costed.
A community charity running its entire finance function on legacy software and manual spreadsheets. Month-end was slow, restricted fund reporting was unreliable, and the team spent the majority of their time on data entry rather than analysis.
Following a Finance Digitisation Assessment and full implementation programme, the charity digitised its core finance processes end-to-end – automating invoice processing, fund tracking, and board reporting.
A charity supporting trafficking survivors had a month-end close process taking a full calendar month – driven by manual data entry, fragmented systems, and no standardised departmental workflows.
Phase 1 introduced departmental workflow automation and process redesign, reducing the close to 12 days. Phase 2 implemented a cloud ERP with automated bank feeds, cutting the close to just 3 days.
Complete the Finance Digitisation Assessment and we guarantee your charity will identify sustainable cost savings of 10–15% of your current finance operating costs – or you pay nothing.
Not a vague report. Not generic best practice. A specific, costed plan built around your team, your systems, and your budget – backed by 20 years of senior finance experience.
Three steps. No jargon. No surprises.
A qualified accountant with over 20 years of finance experience, including 11 years in senior leadership within the charity sector. We have a proven track record of transforming finance departments by identifying and implementing digital solutions that deliver lasting, measurable results.
We have worked hands-on with ERP migrations, process redesigns, automation programmes, and governance frameworks – always with the same goal: giving finance teams the tools and time to do their best work.
Book your free 30-minute discovery call. No obligation. No jargon. Just an honest conversation about where your finance function is today and what it could look like.
Contact Us ✉ sylvie@zemaconsultancy.com www.zemaconsultancy.com