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You've reached the Skills Hub! Take a look around; here you'll find all the episodes and supporting resources. These will make it easier for you to help all SMEs plan for their immediate survival and future growth. It's time to take action!
Welcome to the movement! It starts here. Have a read through the purpose, the actions, and how it all works. Whether you fast track or let us guide you through the programme following our regular emails, it’s up to you. We’re all working towards the same goal to rebuild the SME economy.
This year has not been what we expected. Whilst we can't control what has happened, we do have the power to help businesses look forward and plan for how to move on, survive, to thrive.
#LeaveNoBusinessBehind is a collaboration across the accounting industry, calling on accountants to help business owners with their immediate survival and then their future business health. Accountants have a huge role to play to save the SME economy and we want to support you to do that. So we have created this free skills hub with both training and practical resources for you to use as you need.
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival, to prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. It is too risky a strategy for them to just hope for the best without a written plan. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
Resources at your disposal
All of our collaborators have pulled together to create a free training programme to help you with any knowledge gaps and to give you the confidence to have these conversations with every single client.
This Skills Hub will remain live for several weeks but as we expect the CBILS deadline to be 30th September, and many clients may need to use that scheme, (although perhaps they don’t even know that yet) we don’t have the luxury of time. Feel free to choose how you use this content - pick and choose which resources you need, dip in and out or absorb it quickly.
There are 9 short videos covering a multitude of topics, plus several supporting resources. Check out the Tips for Success before you start – you can find it with Episode 1.
| TOPIC | Content | author/s | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction | 1. How to avoid insolvency | Kirsty McGregor, CFN & Dave Fleming, Duff & Phelps |  Watch video |
| Glossary | Familiarise yourself with any terminology or acronyms we may use | View PDF |
|
| Useful tips | How to agree a “Time to Pay” arrangement with HMRC | View PDF |
|
| Tips for Success | To help you really make a difference to your clients during this campaign | View PDF |
|
| Outgoings timeline | A ready reference to show clients when significant outgoings are due to be paid | View PDF |
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| Recording | First Community Catch-up, here are the slides | Watch video |
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| 2. What are the best accountants doing? | Kirsty McGregor, CFN & Shane Lukas, AVN | Watch video |
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The Finance |
3. Few understand funding now - do you? | Kirsty McGregor, CFN & Paul Surtees, Capitalise | Watch video |
| A note from Paul Surtees |
Short article useful background reading on COVID-19 | Read more |
|
| 4. What if your client isn't AAA rated? | Kipp Noble, Capitalise & Phil Hobden, Capitalise | Watch Video |
|
| Slidedeck | Slides to accompany Kipp's presenation in episode 4. | View PDF |
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| Funding cheat sheets | To simplify the process | View PDF |
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5. Don't write off |
Olly Cummings, Capitalise | Watch video |
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1 pager |
Learn more about Capitalise Recovery | View PDF |
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| 6. Kirsty vs Paul on Invoice Finance | Kirsty McGregor, CFN & Paul Barnes, MAP | Watch video |
|
| Cheat sheets | To make invoice finance simpler | View PDF |
|
| Case studies | Successful invoice finance deals | View PDF |
|
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7. Cashflows in |
Phil Hobden, Capitalise & Kirsty McGregor, CFN | Watch video |
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Useful list |
Suggested software and apps |
View PDF |
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Preparing |
Information needed from the client | View PDF |
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Comfort letter |
For when preparing projections |
View PDF |
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Useful tips |
For when preparing projections |
View PDF |
|
| Communicating with clients | 8. The one conversation that matters |
Kirsty McGregor, CFN | Watch video |
| Webinar recording | Kirsty and Paul's conversation with psychologist Emma Kenny | Watch video |
|
| Critical Assessment for Clients |
Structure your conversations with clients and prioritise work | View PDF |
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| List of helplines | Available for somebody who is struggling | View PDF |
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| 9. But my client won’t pay for cashflows | Aynsley Damery and Steven Briginshaw, Clarity & Kirsty McGregor, CFN | Watch video |
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| Telephone script | For speaking to clients about cashflows | View PDF |
For any questions or suggestions, just send us a message and we'll be happy to help.
Listen to some advice from a restructuring expert to help your client avoid becoming a business in distress.
Kirsty McGregor and Dave Fleming explore the state of the UK economy post-lockdown and how businesses can take steps to regain control and recover their business.
Additional resources
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
How the role of accountants changed in lockdown to support business owners.
Kirsty McGregor, CFN, and Shane Lukas, AVN Accounting Network discuss the evolving role of the accountant in lockdown and how the profession might change going forward.
Additional resources
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
Unravel the recent changes in the funding market and how they will affect business owners going forward.
Kirsty McGregor, CFN, and Paul Surtees, Capitalise, discuss government support, changing lending practices and resolving working capital requirements.
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
What if your client can't get CBILS and they don't have AAA credit rating? Here is non-CBILS lending explained.
Kipp Noble, Head of Lender Relations explains how CBILs and BBLs work, and gives a speedy run through all the other key products in the normal commercial lending market – which could be most appropriate for your client?
Additional resources
The slidedeck to accompany Kipp's presentation
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
With average debtor days increasing, recovery could give business owners a lift when they need it most.
Olly explains the reason why the Capitalise Recovery product was recently launched and describes how the majority of disputed debts in SME businesses are dealt with. He explains how this product can now provide a no-risk debt recovery solution, escalated all the way to the High Court if necessary, for yourselves and your clients so these debts are not simply written off. You can include debts up to three years old. It is, thefore, an ideal solution for any businesses to consider, but especially those who are cash-strapped.
Additional resources
Learn more about Capitalise Recovery
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
Drilling into the misconceptions around invoice finance.
It has to be said, Invoice Finance isn’t the most popular product in the SME economy. However, should it have such a poor reputation, or is it misunderstood?
As we come out of lockdown, many businesses may find that Invoice Finance is the perfect solution to fill the gaps in their working capital requirements, and grow again. But can Kirsty persuade award-winning accountant, Paul Barnes, that this is a product he should encourage his clients to consider?
Additional resources
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
Whether for 13 weeks, 12 months or 3 years, and whether you call them cashflows or financial projections, you need to get to grips with preparing them for clients. Let's explore how to do that.
Phil Hobden, Capitalise and Kirsty McGregor, CFN, discuss the importance of businesses having a written plan, how to prepare them quickly and effectively and which software to use. Plus tips from Kirsty regarding the regulatory issues which accountants need to remember.
Additional resources
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
Checking in on your clients is important to find out who might need your support. Here we discuss how to navigate the conversation.
Kirsty McGregor considers why many clients may not have responded to our offers of help, why we should be more proactive in supporting clients, and why we decided this campaign needed to stress that accountants had to speak to every client individually. She then explores how to have a conversation which may be challenging.
We don’t want to have any regrets as we look back in six or twelve months’ time – Kirsty shares a simple process which you can follow.
Additional resources
Telephone script for speaking to clients about cashflows
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
Addressing the topic of fees, value add and possible alternative payment structures which may make this conversation easier.
What is it about our culture being embarrassed to discuss fees? Aynsley Damery, Steve Briginshaw, and Kirsty McGregor discuss how we can avoid this issue becoming awkward with clients, but also the importance of knowing how or whether you are going to charge for cashflow preparation and any follow-on work.
They have some wise advice and also practical suggestions.
Additional resources
Taking action
Businesses need to plan for survival. Prepare a cashflow forecast and ensure they know how they will survive this period to thrive again. We are asking accountancy firms to join our campaign and commit to have a dialogue with every single client to:
Only 27% of business owners have prepared a cash-flow in response to COVID. They could be one surprise away from insolvency.
Capitalise is running a host of live briefings to help accountants navigate the current climate and support their clients.
On-going
Online
