I 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 me.
| 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 I 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.
All engagements scoped and priced before work begins. You know the cost before we start.
All engagements scoped and priced before work begins. No surprises, no scope creep.
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. I have a proven track record of transforming finance departments by identifying and implementing digital solutions that deliver lasting, measurable results.
I 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.
Book Your Free Discovery Call ✉ sylvie@zemaconsultancy.com www.zemaconsultancy.com