QUAY Croft Financial Services

Contracts
We review existing contracts in order to understand exactly what services the suppliers are due to supply and how often. It is common for these agreements to be lacking in clarity or even non-existent! Our experience is that if a contract or documented service schedule exists, the management the service delivered is more consistent. We use these agreements as the basis of financial planning

Supplier cost management
We closely monitor the service delivered from suppliers to ensure financial compliance with contracts and schedules. Where there are issues or concerns, we work with the suppliers to understand the reason and get them back on track.

Scheduled maintenance
We work with your formal documented diary of maintenance to ensure that sufficient funds are available to cover the cost of works. The last thing we want to have is having to postpone repair works due to cashflow issues.

General maintenance
We monitor the cost of general maintenance. Within our system we allocate expenditure to categories in order to make it easier to review expenditure. We have a comprehensive list of categories, but we are able to add as many custom ones as you like.

Projects
From time-to-time improvement works are required. We assist with the financial management of these works and ensure that the budgeting implications are taken into consideration when works are being planned. We provide financial input into contractual negotiations and manage the expenditure aspects when work is under-way.

Budgeting
We start with a clean sheet of paper when creating budgets for the year. The first step is to create what we call the operational budget. This is the budget for the general day-to-day items, like electricity, cleaning, gardening etc.
Looking at the contracts you have in place and the expenditure you can expect within the year, we create a budget which you can rely on.

Maintenance schedule
With the operational budget for the year ahead set, we move on to the reserve fund budget. Before we can do this, we need to create a the periodic maintenance schedule.
We create a schedule of works that need to be undertaken over a 10 year basis and further, into the future. We look at items like decorating the internal and external parts of buildings, major servicing on lifts, pumps, air conditioners and swimming pools along with the replacement of items like gym equipment. We also add additional funds as a contingency against unexpected events not covered by insurance.

Reserve funds
WIth a maintenance schedule we are now able to determine how much is required over a 10 year period. We are then able to forecast how much is required each year. Of course at this time we have to take things like cashflow and inflation into account.

Service charges
With solid budgets for Operational and Maintenance expenditure we are now able to determine the service charge budget.
We produce a budget estimation. We discuss this with the management committee or directors and agree what will be used for the year ahead. This is then communicated to the owners and leasees.
We prepare regular bills and send them to the owners and leasees. Our customer database is kept up-to-date with the postal and Email addresses for billing in order to make sure they are received promptly.

Payments
We receive payments from your customers and ensure they are paid into your account. We monitor all individual customer payments in order to keep an accurate account balances. Our computer system ensures that the client balance is on the screen whenever we speak to your client, this allows us to discuss any payment issues each time we speak to them. We also have rigorous procedures for chasing any bad debt. We have found these to be effective in recovering funds for many of our clients.

Accounts
There are a number of statutory requirements when it comes to recording the accounts. We will manage this on your behalf and ensure that deadlines are met for completing and filing your accounts with the relevant authorities. We also prepare the statement of expenditure to enable any overspend/ underspend to be communicated to your customers.

Notices
As part of our standard finance service, we prepare the accounts for distribution to your customers as part of the Annual General Meeting. We also provide ad-hoc financial reporting to support other needs as they arise.