You’ll have heard of Paul Heaton? Yes? Beautiful South’s main man. Singer in the Housemartins. He was also owner of pub/performance venue The Kings Arms in Salford. Until it was bought from him by employee Lisa Connor at the tail end of 2015.

A first time pub owner not only had Lisa leapt headfirst from hospitality and leisure management into hospitality and leisure ownership but the day after buying the Kings Arms  she discovered she was pregnant. Interesting times.

“It was stressful enough,” says Lisa, “But being able to delegate the extra work to Tyler was great. Knowing I can just relax and the accounts are in hand is great.”

He does everything now – weekly/quarterly accounts/forecasts/VAT liabilities/Net profit/ gross profit/tax liabilities and also Rising Moon which is the upstairs theatre. He manages my personal tax too.

What’s really good is that he answered questions that I didn’t know needed asking!”

Says Tyler, “Lisa’s not an accountant – she’s got a bar and venue to run – she’s busy being busy. We’re her accountant and it’s our job to make it as easy as possible. We’re nurturing her and showing her where she needs to go and how to get there. To make things as clear as possible what she needs to do.”

And also now with the process standardised using Kashflow for direct data input and real time figures Lisa doesn’t need to do the manual stuff. She just needs to understand the results and use them.”

Real accountancy support

18 months later and Lisa’s starting to see even more value than just the time savings and reporting. Adds Tyler, “Key numbers for bars and restaurants are staff costs – we’ve shown her the trends so she can make wiser decisions. It’s like – we know the numbers now. Let’s use them.”

This is the real world and these things take time as people adopt new and more efficient ways of working. But it’s great what’s happened so far and they’re now in the process of implementing electronic clocking in and out.”

Real business understanding

“It’s more than just accountancy support says Lisa, “Tyler’s introduced me to useful software and even other people who have been able to help.”

But when it comes to accountancy now I can forecast properly. Now I make more money by pre judging what’s going to happen with the business, adjusting staff hours, prices, better product selection and more idea of who’s buying what, what people are spending.”

And rather than just seeing how much I’ve got in the bank I’ve got to know my customers much better.”

Free time…

And having the numbers handled properly has freed up Lisa to do what she loves – programming and marketing – she even (somehow) has time to run the Manchester Fringe Festival as well as a pub, as well as a venue, as well as a family!

“We’ve 12 acts on a day all over the city during the festival, adds Lisa, “It’s going to be great.

See you there!”

You’re on.

Mine’s a pint.