Industry-Specific Advice

Introduction - Fix GRN and PO Bottlenecks If you’ve ever had a site manager call the office saying  “materials are on site but the PO hasn’t been raised”  , you’ve felt the frustration of a  GRN (Goods Received Note)  bottleneck. It’s one of the biggest operational slowdowns in construction and engineering businesses. For most SMEs, these delays don’t just cause admin headaches, they affect  cash flow, supplier relationships, and project margins . Materials get delivered befo

Introduction - Five Tools Your Team Needs Now Construction moves fast: site changes, supply delays, subcontractors, RAMS, plant, traffic management, and a constant stream of calls from site. If your tools don’t connect, operations stall and costs creep. At  Jones Financial Accounts (JFA) , we help UK  construction and engineering SMEs  choose a  joined-up tech stack  that keeps sites moving, protects margin, and gives directors live visibility. Below is the  top 5 operations

Introduction - 5 Finance Tools Lift engineering businesses move fast: call-outs, PPM contracts, installs, subcontractors, vans, parts, and a blizzard of invoices, receipts and payments. If your systems don’t talk to each other, cash slows and margins drift. At  Jones Financial Accounts (JFA) , we help construction and engineering SMEs build smart finance stacks that connect field, finance and banking, so data flows from  receipt → bill → approval → payment → board KPIs  with

Introduction - Efficiency and Business Growth Every construction and engineering business wants to grow, but not every one of them is built to sustain that growth. While most directors focus on turnover and project wins, the real difference between businesses that expand profitably and those that struggle lies in  overhead efficiency . At  Jones Financial Accounts (JFA) , we often tell clients:  you don’t grow by spending less; you grow by spending smarter.  Overheads, your r

Introduction - Prove You’ve Got Capacity Saying “yes” is easy. Delivering profitably is hard. Construction and engineering SMEs don’t usually fail for lack of demand, they stumble when they take on work without the  capacity  to deliver: people, cash, equipment, suppliers, and control. At Jones Financial Accounts (JFA), we help owners answer a simple question before they sign a contract:  Do we genuinely have the capacity for this job, without hurting margin, cash flow, safet

Introduction - Dashboard for Your Lift Business In the lift industry, small inefficiencies quickly become big costs. Engineers running overtime, delayed valuations, unbilled callouts, and rising parts prices all chip away at margin long before anyone notices. For most lift companies, the biggest challenge isn’t lack of data, it’s that information is buried across multiple systems, from service logs to Sage or Xero. That’s why the  right business dashboard  isn’t just a report

Introduction - Protect Your Cash and Margins For construction and engineering companies, every project carries a level of uncertainty, from fluctuating material prices to client payment delays. That’s where  sensitivity analysis  becomes a vital decision-making tool. It allows business owners and finance leaders to test “what-if” scenarios before those risks become costly realities. At  Jones Financial Accounts (JFA) , we use sensitivity analysis to help SMEs understand how s

Introduction - Value Your Construction or Engineering Business When it comes to  succession planning , one of the biggest questions every...

Introduction - The Tax Gap Explained In plain English, the  tax gap  is the difference between what HMRC  should  collect and what it ...

Introduction - Invoice vs Asset Finance Cash flow is the lifeblood of any construction or engineering business. You can have profitable...

Introduction - Stress-Tested Forecasting for SMEs In construction and engineering, no project is free of risk. Payments are delayed,...

Introduction - Should You Take That Opportunity Every construction and engineering business faces moments when a new opportunity looks...

Introduction - CIS Returns Made Simple If you run a construction or engineering business in the UK, you’ve almost certainly heard of the...

Introduction - Job Costing in Construction In construction and engineering, every job tells its own financial story. Some projects...

Introduction - Use KPIs to Drive Growth Many construction and engineering SMEs feel like they’re constantly chasing problems rather than...

Introduction - Bad Traits of a Finance Director Hiring a Finance Director (FD) is one of the biggest decisions a construction or...

Introduction CFO-Level Thinking In the world of construction and engineering, projects can move quickly, deadlines shift, costs change,...

Introduction - Grow Your Construction Business Safely Scaling a business is exciting, new projects, new staff, and bigger contracts. But...

Introduction - Tax Year Checklist For many construction and engineering businesses, the end of the tax year can feel like an uphill...

Introduction - Gross CIS Status For many construction and engineering businesses in the UK, the  Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)  is a...