I'm the senior finance partner for UK SMEs that need more than a bookkeeper — but aren't ready for a £130k in-house finance director. Think of me as the strategic finance person inside the business. Not filing the past. Planning the future.
Every engagement starts with a live cash-flow forecast built around your business — not a template. Here's the shape of one we set up in week one.
Every one of these is a sign your finance setup has run out of road. Not a crisis — just the point where an accountant alone isn't enough anymore.
Your bookkeeper can tell you what's in the bank today. Not what it looks like in six months under a bad quarter.
A salary isn't a salary — it's national insurance, pension, equipment, ramp-up time. Without a model, you're guessing with other people's wages.
Your accounts show one gross margin. Real life has five. Most SMEs discover their biggest customer is their worst margin once someone actually looks.
Investors and lenders can tell in 30 seconds whether your model was built by a founder or a finance pro. They act accordingly.
Layer any one on top of your existing accountant, or combine all three. What you get is the strategic finance brain a full-time FD would bring — sized for where you are now.
The person inside the business thinking about the money — not just filing it. Monthly reviews where we step back from the day-to-day and look at where you're going. Someone to call before you make a big decision.
Real forecasts and management accounts that tell you what's coming — not just what happened. Built around how YOUR business works, not a generic template. Updated monthly so you're never making decisions on last year's information.
When a bank, investor, or board starts asking questions, your numbers need to survive real scrutiny. I build models the way I built them at VW and Mercedes — so when someone pokes, they hold up.
Each tier is built around the outcomes you need at that stage — not a shopping list of deliverables. Move up as the business grows.
You've got a bookkeeper. The accounts get filed. But you can't confidently answer "am I making money this month?" or "will I have enough cash in Q4?" — and that's costing you sleep.
You've got traction. Now you want to raise, borrow, or put the foot down — and you need the numbers to survive scrutiny from someone who'll test them.
You've been running a while. You're doing well. Finance is now a real bottleneck — you need something closer to an in-house finance team, without the £130k hire.
I'm Ish. I'm an ACCA-qualified finance leader with 13+ years inside FTSE-listed and high-growth businesses. I spent six years inside Volkswagen Financial Services running £600m of annual budgets and 5-year forecasts — cutting £14m of costs, halving our forecasting cycle, and writing a £60m business case that got adopted across European markets.
Before that, I ran financial planning for IT and HR at Mercedes-Benz Financial Services — owning the variance analysis on a £120m budget.
I started C8 because SME owners kept asking me the same finance questions their accountants couldn't answer. Now I do for UK SMEs what I used to do for blue-chips — just on a budget that makes sense for a growing business.
Names anonymised where the client prefers it. The point isn't the logo — it's what changed after I got hold of the numbers.
One underperforming product line. Pulled the numbers apart, restructured the pricing model based on actual margin data, relaunched — 34% more gross profit within a quarter.
Built the driver-based model, wrote the pitch narrative, and led investor calls alongside the founders. Every question got a real answer — not "let me come back to you on that".
No layoffs, no cuts to anything customer-facing. Just three months of "where does this £ actually go" and a few structural changes. Costs down 20%, profit up, same team.
From first call to working with me as your embedded finance lead — here's what it actually looks like.
20 minutes. You explain where you're at. I tell you honestly if I can help — and if I can't, I'll point you at someone who can.
I write a short scope and a fixed monthly fee. You know exactly what you're getting and what you're paying before we start.
First two to four weeks. I build your forecast, reporting and model from scratch — shaped around your business, not a template.
Monthly review meeting, live model updates, email and Slack access between times. You focus on the business. I focus on the numbers.
A 13-week rolling cash-flow template in Excel. Same structure I set up for a new client in week one. Scenarios, sensitivities, visual warnings when you're heading for trouble. Yours free.
No spam. One-click unsubscribe. Occasional short emails on SME finance that you'll actually want to read.
A fractional finance director provides senior finance leadership on a part-time or outsourced basis, typically monthly, instead of being hired full-time. It gives small and medium-sized businesses access to the strategic finance thinking of an experienced FD — forecasting, management reporting, investor-ready modelling — at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire (which in the UK typically runs £100,000–£130,000+).
C8 works alongside your existing accountant, not instead of them. Your accountant handles compliance work — bookkeeping, VAT, year-end accounts, tax. C8 provides the forward-looking commercial finance layer: forecasting, management reporting, modelling for fundraising, pricing and margin analysis, and strategic decision support. Most SMEs benefit from having both.
C8 works primarily with UK SMEs in the £200,000 to £5 million turnover range, across both owner-led smaller businesses and growth-stage scale-ups. Engagement tiers are structured around where the business is in its financial maturity — from foundational visibility (Clarity) through to finance function build-out (Infrastructure).
No. C8 deliberately focuses on commercial finance and FP&A work — forecasting, modelling, management reporting, strategic advisory. Bookkeeping and statutory accounts are handled by your existing accountant. Tax planning and VAT are handled by a tax specialist. M&A advisory is handled by specialist deal advisors. C8 will prepare the financial models and numbers but does not execute deals.
C8 offers bespoke monthly fees per engagement, scaled to the tier (Clarity, Momentum, or Infrastructure) and the specifics of the business. The first step is a free 20-minute intro call to scope the engagement, after which a written scope and fixed monthly fee is proposed — and agreed — before any work starts. No surprises.
From intro call to first engagement week is typically two to three weeks. First fortnight on any new engagement is the setup sprint: building your forecast, management reporting and any initial models from scratch. After that, we move into the monthly rhythm — review meeting, live model updates, ongoing access.
No pitch, no pressure. Twenty minutes to hear where you're at and share how I'd help. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so — and point you at someone who is.