Darren Clarke

Darren Clarke is a Director heading up our Business Services department; a team delivering the financial information and support our clients need to run their business successfully. These services include:

• Management information
• Financial forecasting and budgeting
• Accounting system support and training
• Bookkeeping and VAT return preparation.

Management information

Darren has been instrumental in creating bespoke management information solutions, designing reports to meet the needs of our wide-ranging client base. Darren believes it is important that clients have the right information and key performance indicators (KPIs) on a timely basis in order to ascertain how they are performing and enable them to make informed business decisions.

Do not expect Darren to print off a generic report from the accounts software and leave it with you to interpret. He believes it is imperative that business owners are able to understand their financial information and enjoys working with our clients to ensure they do. He specialises in visual design to ensure that information is presented in the most meaningful way. This, coupled with his 20 years’ of accounting experience, means that he is well placed to help our clients understand their business and financials and work with our team to provide business advisory services.

Financial forecasting and budgeting

‘You wouldn’t drive a car by always looking in the rear view mirror’ is a philosophy Darren believes applies to business owners. He is a strong advocate for planning for the future, having financial forecasts and budgets in place, aiding our clients to make more informed business decisions and react more effectively to changes in circumstance.

Darren and his team have assisted a number of our clients in producing budgets and forecasts to aid in cash flow planning, an imperative tool when considering seeking finance from lenders.

Accounting system support and training

Darren has built up a wealth of experience in working with various accounting systems. He puts this to use by supporting our clients with their record keeping systems.

For new businesses, this includes advising on appropriate bookkeeping packages, providing demonstrations leading to support and training as necessary for our clients to successfully get their record keeping right from the outset.

Established businesses may benefit from a systems review, where Darren and his team specialise in reviewing and documenting current accounting systems, before providing recommendations for improvements. These can range from identifying efficiencies in current procedures to implementing new software to gain better business insights.

Darren is accredited in various accounting software and is an advanced user in Microsoft Excel, Xero and Sage Accounts.

Darren is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).