A finance function that powers your mission.
Charity Accounting Partners designs strategic finance functions for ambitious UK charities. Our flagship Finance Function Review delivers a board-ready 12-month roadmap in 4 to 6 weeks, built by ICAEW Chartered Accountants who work exclusively with the charity sector.
Fixed pricing. Fixed scope. Limited capacity each quarter.
- ICAEW Chartered Accountants
- KPMG-trained
- Charity-only specialism
- Fluent in SORP 2026
Does any of this sound familiar?
If two or more of these resonate, you have a finance function design problem worth fixing.
- Your management accounts arrive late, and trustees ask the same questions every quarter.
- Restricted fund balances are reconciled at year-end rather than in real time, and you suspect some of them are wrong.
- Your reserves policy was set five years ago and has never been challenged or revisited.
- Your finance team is firefighting compliance and grant reporting, with no capacity for strategic work.
- SORP 2026 is approaching and you are not yet confident how the new lease and revenue rules will affect your accounts.
- Trustees receive financial papers that are too detailed to digest, so strategic questions go unasked at board meetings.
- Your auditor is excellent on compliance but cannot help you redesign the function, because they audit it.
The Charity Finance Function Review
A single time-boxed engagement that gives you, your CEO and your trustees a clear, defensible, costed plan for the next 12 months of finance function development. Delivered by Carl, ICAEW Chartered, supported by a UK-based team of qualified finance analysts.
Finance Function Diagnostic
An eight-dimension assessment of your finance function (chart of accounts and fund accounting, reserves methodology, management reporting, budgeting and forecasting, full cost recovery, controls, team and technology) scored against a charity-specific maturity model.
12-Month Finance Roadmap
A prioritised, time-phased plan for what to address, in what order, with what effort and what cost. The artefact your FD takes to the board for budget approval.
Board-ready presentation
A 12-slide deck your CEO or FD takes straight to trustees, designed for board consumption rather than finance team review.
SORP 2026 readiness module
Built-in: lease accounting impact, five-step revenue recognition impact, three-tier reporting requirements, lender covenant exposure, and 'Financial Narrative Risk' assessment.
Two tiers, fixed pricing, no surprises.
All pricing fixed and stated upfront. 50% on engagement, 50% on delivery. No hourly billing. No scope creep.
£10m to £25m income
Built for charities ready to turn finance from compliance burden into strategic advantage. Covers full diagnostic, 12-month roadmap and board-ready presentation.
£25m to £50m income
For established charities that need a finance function as sharp as their mission. Deeper diagnostic, wider stakeholder coverage and full SORP 2026 readiness module.
£50m+ or group structure
Group structures, multiple entities, international operations. Scoped individually.
Here's exactly what the four to six weeks looks like.
Pre-week: Intake
You complete a structured intake questionnaire and upload three years of accounts, current management accounts, your finance team org chart and current finance policies. Approximately 3 hours of your team's time.
Week 1: Strategic Finance Workshop
A 90-minute workshop with the CEO and FD. We surface the strategic context, the trustee-level concerns, and the questions the Review needs to answer.
Week 2: Finance Function Workshop
A 90-minute workshop with the FD and finance team lead. We go deep on the operating model, covering fund accounting, reporting, controls and team capability.
Week 3: Diagnostic delivery
We run interviews with two to three of your finance team, review documents, and score your finance function against our eight-dimension maturity model.
Week 4: Draft delivery
We deliver the draft diagnostic and 12-month roadmap to you for asynchronous review.
Week 5: Working session
A 75-minute working session in which we walk you through the draft, refine the roadmap, and lock the priorities.
Week 6: Final delivery
Final report, board-ready presentation, and (optional) attendance at a trustee meeting to present findings.
Why Charity Accounting Partners?
Charity Accounting Partners was founded by Carl, an ICAEW Chartered Accountant who trained at KPMG within the public and charity sectors and now works exclusively with UK charities. Carl has served as fractional CFO to founders, multinational businesses, and a growing portfolio of charities, and is the founder of CAP's wider charity-only accountancy practice.
Every Review is led personally by Carl and supported by a delivery team of qualified finance analysts. This structure allows us to serve charities up to £100m income while preserving the partner attention the work demands.
- Partner-led
- Audit-ready
- Confidential
- Independent
ICAEW Chartered • ACA • KPMG public sector audit alumnus
Frequently asked questions
Ready to design a finance function that fits your mission?
Book a 30-minute exploratory call. We'll tell you whether the Review is right for you, and if it isn't, what you can do instead.
Or email carl@charityaccountingpartners.co.uk directly.