Real numbers from real construction businesses. Names shown where clients have agreed; the figures are exact either way.
Some of the construction companies we look after
Cases below are anonymised and figures rounded. Named clients and video are added as each agrees.
A profitable set of accounts and a permanent overdraft. Revenue was recognised on application, retentions sat in ordinary debtors, nobody tracked release dates. We rebuilt job costing on a certified basis, built the retention ledger and a 13-week forecast from each contract's payment schedule.
Result: Overdraft cleared. Margin visible on every job. £210k recovered.
CIS was reclaimed once a year, in October, months after the year-end. Reverse charge was being applied inconsistently so invoices bounced. We moved CIS offset to monthly against PAYE, classified every customer for reverse charge, and switched VAT to monthly returns.
Result: Cash back in the business as earned. No more October overdraft peak.
Four years of plant on hire purchase and not one allowance claimed. The asset register didn't match the yard. We rebuilt the register, amended two years of returns and put a claim process in place for every future purchase.
Result: £140k corporation tax recovered. Own-or-hire decision made on real utilisation.
Company-level margin looked fine at 19%. By customer it ranged from 31% to minus 4%. Two housebuilders with slow payment and heavy retentions were costing money on every job.
Result: Both repriced, one walked away. Margin up to 24% in two quarters.
The scheme was about to go into a single trading company, which would have lost most of the recoverable VAT on the conversion. We set up an SPV per scheme, made the option-to-tax decisions before the first invoice, and built lender reporting in the lender's format.
Result: VAT recovered as planned. Funding drawdowns on time.
No forecast, no retention ledger, CIS reclaimed annually. First fix found £38k of CIS and £54k of retentions with no dates. Second fix showed which customers paid and which didn't.
Result: 90-day cash runway for the first time. Now a Forever Fixed member.
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