Charles Ardor & Company

FINANCE OPERATIONS & ADVISORY · NIGERIA

Financials you can rely on, and a senior team to interpret them.

We are the senior finance layer above your accounting team: led by a chartered accountant, and closely and continuously involved. Everything we do is so you can make decisions with confidence. It is senior financial oversight, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO. What you need depends on the state your finance function is in today, so that is where we begin.

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30+

Organisations served

₦5bn+

Transactions reviewed

10+

Industries

WHO WE HELP

Which of these sounds like your business?

Most growing businesses reach a point where someone is keeping the books, but no one senior is making sure the financials are right, or explaining what they mean and what to do next. If you can no longer carry the financials in your head, and the person keeping your records cannot answer the questions you are asking, you are at that point.

When your records cannot yet be relied on

Your accounting is behind, or the figures do not match what is actually happening, so the picture you are working from is not accurate.

When your team needs someone above it

Your books are being kept, but nobody checks the work before it reaches you or turns it into reporting you can act on.

When you are putting your own finance person in place

You are ready to hire someone to run your accounting day to day, or to replace someone who has left, and you want to get the hire right and their work held to a standard from the day they start.

When outside scrutiny is coming

An audit, an investment round, or a sale is on the horizon, and informal accounting will not stand up to people examining it from outside.

HOW WE HELP

Everything you need to make business decisions with confidence.

Financials that have been checked

Your team keeps the books, and we sit above them, reviewing all of it before it reaches you, from the month-end figures and the reconciliations behind them to the payroll and tax they prepare. That discipline runs through the year, so year-end arrives with no catching up to do.

A monthly report you can act on

It says what has changed in the business, why it changed, and what it means for the decisions in front of you, written in plain language rather than accounting terms.

A view of what is coming

We keep a forward view of your cash, track performance against the budget you are working to, and analyse your margins, so you can see which parts of the business are actually making money. Each quarter we step back with you for a strategic review of where the business is heading.

Advice before you decide

You have a point of contact you can reach directly. When a decision comes up, a price, a hire, a loan, a new location, you can put it to us and take our advice before you commit, so you are not weighing it alone.

Where you do not yet have a team

If you have no one keeping the books yet, or are still hiring for it, we can run the accounting directly for a time while your team comes into place, then step back into the layer above it.

Specific work, as you need it

Some work sits outside the monthly rhythm, and we take it on as it comes: cleaning up records that have fallen behind, building a pricing model, recruiting into your finance team, or, as a Certified Zoho Finance Partner, setting up the systems your finance function runs on and training your team to use them.

We do not offer statutory audit, complex tax disputes, personal tax, or software development. Where these are needed, we refer you to trusted specialists.

OUR RESULTS

Each of these businesses started somewhere different.

01

AGRICULTURE & SUPPLY CHAIN

Rebuilding clarity after a leadership gap

Investor-ready reporting in three months

An agritech business scaling toward a capital raise lost its Head of Finance, and its junior team could not produce reporting the board and investors could trust. We reconciled the records and rebuilt the reporting to that standard, and within three months the business was ready to present its financials to investors. We have overseen its accounting team each month since.

02

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Built to institutional standard

Controls and treasury built across the branch network

A fast-growing microcredit institution had a finance team across a multi-branch network but no Head of Finance, and a board that needed more than the function could deliver. We strengthened the controls, brought discipline to the treasury function, and rebuilt the reporting, including documented finance policies, daily liquidity monitoring, a rolling cash flow forecast, and management reporting with compliance flags. We also recruited and transitioned a Head of Finance to hold the function internally.

03

LOGISTICS & WAREHOUSING

Oversight restored

Monthly reporting within two to three weeks of month-end

A logistics business had a four-person finance team but nobody above it, and when we came in part-way through the year the prior year's books were still not closed. We oversaw the reconstruction of those records to audit standard, then took over the monthly review of the team's work. That team still runs the day-to-day accounting, while we review it and deliver monthly reporting within two to three weeks of month-end.

04

HOSPITALITY & LEISURE

Established correctly from the outset

Eight revenue lines and thirty-plus cost categories, tracked from day one

A new hospitality business engaged us before its first transaction. Through the launch we built out the finance function in full, including accounting, payroll, tax, a pre-launch budget, and inventory and cost of sales tracking eight revenue lines and more than thirty cost-of-sales categories. From its first month of trading it has run on accurate financials and a real-time view of its position.

OUR DIFFERENCE

Why not a bookkeeper, an adviser, or a CFO?

These are the routes most owners weigh. Here is what they do well, where they fall short, and where we come in.

A bookkeeper or accounting firm

WHAT THEY DO WELL

Keeps your records, files what has to be filed, and costs the least of these routes.

WHERE THEY FALL SHORT

Nobody reviews the work, interprets it, or tells you whether it can be trusted, so you outgrow it as the questions you are asking grow.

An adviser or consultant

WHAT THEY DO WELL

Brings experience and a view on the decisions you face.

WHERE THEY FALL SHORT

The advice rests on records nobody has checked, so it can only be as sound as they are.

A full-time CFO

WHAT THEY DO WELL

Sits inside the business full-time, represents it to investors and the board, and leads the whole finance team.

WHERE THEY FALL SHORT

This is a permanent hire and an officer of your company, which most growing businesses cannot yet justify. A CFO also needs reliable finance operations beneath them, and that is not a layer they can be themselves.

WHAT WE BRING

We make the financials reliable, tell you what they mean, and show you what is coming, from one senior layer above the team you already have.

WHO WE FIT

Growing, owner-led businesses that need senior oversight above their accounting, without the cost or the permanence of that hire.

WHO WE ARE

Charles Ardor & Company is a finance operations and advisory firm, founded in 2019 to give growing businesses the standard of finance that larger companies have always had. The work is carried by chartered accountants, tax practitioners, and operations specialists, and you work with a consistent team that comes to know your business, your financials, and your context.

Stephanie Anyamele, ACA

Founder and Managing Principal

The standard the firm works to is set by its founder, who stays personally involved across its clients. Stephanie began her career at Ernst & Young in the UK, where she qualified with the ICAEW. She also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Addosser Finance, chairing the Board Risk Management and Audit Committee.

ICAEW Chartered Accountant

EY (UK) background

14+ years in finance

BUSINESSES WE HAVE WORKED WITH

WORK WITH US

We understand your business before we recommend anything.

Different businesses require different finance operations, so we scope and price the work to what yours needs, not to a set package.

1 You complete the assessment

A few minutes of questions to understand the current state of your finance function.

Take the assessment

2 You receive our proposal

We review your answers and send you the work we would recommend, with an indicative scope and cost.

3 We talk it through

A short call to finalise the scope and answer your questions. If the proposal works for you, we start.

4 The work begins

Your monthly reporting cycle starts, with any cleanup or setup alongside it. If anything differs from what the proposal assumed, we agree the change with you in the first month.

OUR PURPOSE IS TO GIVE GROWING BUSINESSES THE SAME FINANCIAL CLARITY AND JUDGEMENT ONCE RESERVED FOR THE LARGEST COMPANIES.

Start by knowing where you stand.

The assessment takes a few minutes. Within one business day you will have our proposal, with an indicative scope and cost, and there is no commitment until you accept it.

Take the assessment