Feb 29, 2020
This week Tim Warneford is in Stockton-on-Tees to speak to Graham Fitzgerald, general practice and audit director at Baldwin Accountants. As well as dealing with commercial organisations, Graham specialises in the education sector, providing audit and advisory services and working with over forty academy schools including an increasing number of multi academy trusts.
On this episode we cover:
How they entered the academy client market
Rapidly expanding through word of mouth recommendations
Applying passion and expertise to the sector
Charity accounting not being straightforward
Giving clients a lot of free support early on
Retaining clients through this
25% of their work being academy based now
Academies being different to commercial clients
People working in the sector finding it very rewarding
Enjoying making a difference to children’s education
Additional revenue schemes still being available for academies
Many schools being blighted by lack of resources
Other schools renting out their resources for cash
Been frustrated about how few academies do financial due diligence
How can suppliers partner to form collaborations to further help academies
Tim wanting to find a pilot to support as above
Previously been in the SFA’s in the best interest to convert, but are there lessons we can learn from this
If a school transfers and gets into deficit there can be a lot of issues
Do the SFA put money back into schools that are failing or into the larger MAT?
Being governed by accounting standards
Lack of clarity when pushing new projects through
Some academies and schools sitting on next to no reserves
Rewards for schools getting returns in on time
GAG pooling pros and cons
If academy trusts know what their funding is going to be they can play ahead
The change of policy and government being very frustrating
Most of the risks being outside of the hands of the clients
Hoping that his legacy is that they have made a difference, working with schools not against them