1. ALLAN DICKINSON FCA
How can Allan help your business?
Allan has wide experience of trouble shooting, change management, profit improvement and
helping various businesses achieve their objectives.
Below are case studies of how Allan has helped various businesses and examples of skills he
could use to help your business.
CASE STUDY 1
Business Type – Division of a UK plc
Business Problem – Division had poor profitability; a lack of proper Management Information to
manage the business and a lack of financial controls. The division was made up of 4 different
businesses operating alone and not achieving economies of scale.
How Allan improved the business.
• In order to get proper control and determine where the business was making and losing
money, Allan put in place a proper Management Information (MI) system together with
full monthly balance sheet audit and other financial controls.
• Over a 2 year period Allan used the new MI and put in place a continuous improvement
approach. Worked with all unit managers and improved GP by 70%.
• Restructured and re-focused the Finance Dept to concentrate on providing all internal
areas with proper targeted MI.
• Established full monthly financial procedures, financial regulations and controls.
• Improved reporting to Group HO and reduced reporting times by 1 week.
• Working with the CEO, Allan turned the previously independently run businesses into a
proper consolidated group achieving various overhead savings.
• Introduced central purchasing reducing costs by over £250K per annum.
• Re-negotiated concession fee contracts which reduced risk and increased profits.
• Over a 2 year period increased profits by over 500%. The company achieved group
targets and became the 2nd
most profitable division in the Group.
CASE STUDY 2
Business Type – European Division of a UK plc
Business Problem – Division had acquired international acquisitions but these had not been
integrated into the division and the benefits from the acquisition were not being achieved.
Integration staff were coming up with all the problems of integration and not the solutions.
How Allan improved the business.
• Allan used an entirely different approach with the integration staff and within 3 weeks had
completed stage 1 of the integration using the same staff who were originally coming
forward with problems, not solutions.
• 2 months later all 3 acquisitions were operating from a European Services Centre.

2. • Allan successfully ran the European Services Centre including 12 operating companies in
8 different European Countries including: responsibility for transaction processing; MI; all
statutory responsibilities in 8 different countries; managing all external advisors.
• Developed the business partner relationship with sales and development teams and
supported total turnover growth of 50% in 15 months.
• Set up costing, pricing and sales approval matrices for the new acquisition’s product lines
to properly exploit the new acquisition’s market dominance.
• Set up all monthly reporting (inc KPIs) to track performance against target. Ensured
approval of capital infrastructure and other mechanisms to support growth.
• In completing the above Allan helped to ensure the benefits from the acquisition were
achieved.
CASE STUDY 3
Business Type – European Division of a US SEC listed Group.
Business Problem – US parent had acquired the new worldwide business Group. The European
Division needed to be integrated into the new US group. All financial processes and regulations
needed to be amended to comply with new reporting requirements, including SOX compliance.
Accounting processes needed to be changed from UK/European GAAP to US GAAP.
The European Finance operation was later to be closed down in the UK with the centre for the
European Finance operation being transferred to Ireland. Whilst this was being done key targets
needed to be achieved and staff motivated who would not be part of the new organisation. The
European Finance operations needed to transferred once all systems were ready.
How Allan improved the business.
• Took over full responsibility for all European Finance matters reporting to the US Head
Office.
• He successfully integrated the European Group (12 operating companies) into the new
US parent, changing all processes and regulations to comply with the new parent’s
requirements. This included re-engineering all month end processes and reducing
monthly reporting times by 4 working days.
• Moved the accounting base from European/UK GAAP to US GAAP. He completed all US
SEC requirements relating to the European acquisition including all impairment reviews.
• Produced SOX roadmap to ensure SOX compliance.
• He ensured key European targets were achieved, and staff motivated, whilst
rationalisation was taking place.
• Successfully transferred all European operations to Ireland once new systems were
ready.
CASE STUDY 4
Business Type – Division of a UK plc (Contract Engineering)
Business Problem – Originally recruited as a “business as usual” role as the SMT member
responsible for all finance matters. The business had poor Management Information (MI) and
underlying profitably issues that it wasn’t aware of. SMT did not have proper visibility of key MI.
How Allan improved the business.

3. • Allan first put in place a clear, simple and transparent MI system which gave SMT full
visibility of all key financial matters and highlighted the company’s true trading
performance and the underlying profitably issues.
• Designed and implemented new costing and pricing systems which highlighted true
project costs of current contracts and future new bids.
• Monthly reviews of all contracts with Project Managers ensuring agreed targets were
achieved. Business partnered Project Managers and increased GP.
• Agreed with Divisional MD and Group CEO a recovery plan to move from a 12% loss to a
10% profit in 12 months. Later implemented and delivered the plan. This included GP
improvement, financial turnaround, restructuring, major overhead reductions and
transitioning the operation into separate parts of the parent Group.
• Set up revised cash flow arrangements with key customers increasing cash flow by
£250K per month.
• Refocused the finance function to be outward facing to properly support the operation
and re-engineered finance processes and controls.
• Successfully completed the rationalisation programme and transitioned the business into
different parts of the parent group.
CASE STUDY 5
Business Type – Private Equity (PE) Parent Company.
Business Problem – PE company wanted to form a Property Group from assets recently
acquired from one of its new investments. It had the “concept” of what it wanted to achieve but
needed a “completer finish” who had both the strategic vision and the hands-on approach to turn
the “concept” to a “reality”.
How Allan improved the business.
• Initially working with the Group CFO, designed and implemented a targeted monthly
Management Information (MI) system for the main Board together with all monthly
controls and processes.
• Set up all the relevant infrastructure necessary to support the Property Group including
special purpose vehicles; overcoming legal and technical issues; budgets; reforecasts.
• Business partnered the new Property MD in all financial matters.
• Implemented a new group accounting system to produce all information (MI, KPIs etc)
efficiently on a monthly basis.
• Trained all relevant group accounting staff.
• Successfully turned the “concept” into a reality”.
CASE STUDY 6
Business Type – Family run, owner managed leisure Group.
Business Problem – The Group had exceeded its borrowing limits. It was nearly 12 months
behind in the production of monthly management accounts and nearly 2 years behind with its
statutory accounts. Group needed to re-establish proper Management Information (MI).
Continued bank financing was dependant on getting all financial reporting up to date. It was put
into “special measures” by the relevant bank.

4. How Allan improved the business.
• Initially re-established proper MI and proper monthly controls which restored trust in the
MI and enabled problems to be highlighted and tackled.
• Worked with the Groups external advisors and bankers to gain confidence in the MI.
• Cleared outstanding statutory accounts, again gaining the confidence of the bank and
other internal and external stakeholders.
• Worked with the Groups external advisors to clear all outstanding tax matters, including
outstanding VAT returns. Agreed time to pay arrangements with HMRC.
• Group did not have proper back up information for previous VAT returns. Allan also
believed Group had previously overpaid VAT. Allan performed a detailed forensic
exercise for all items in the last 2 years. Allan proved that the Group had overpaid VAT
by over £80,000 and had unbilled income of nearly £30,000. Allan recovered the overpaid
VAT and unbilled income.
• Allan’s positive and pro-active personality had a major impact on staff morale which was
incredibly low prior to Allan’s appointment. Complimented by both the Chairman and
Managing Director for changing the attitude and outlook of staff in very difficult
circumstances.
• The business overcame its problems and restored its profitability. It came out of the
bank’s “special measures” and traded normally.
CASE STUDY 7
Business Type – Family run owner managed business services Group.
Business Problem – The business was not getting timely and quality management information
(MI) to enable the owners to properly manage the business. The owners and senior management
team (SMT) had only received 3 sets of management accounts in the last 11 months. They did
not trust the information they were being given.
The company had recently had a PAYE inspection and were awaiting findings from HMRC.
How Allan improved the business.
• Allan first put in place proper monthly controls to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the
information being produced.
• Quickly produced proper monthly management accounts and other key MI. Over the next
3 months restored the trust and confidence of both the owners and SMT in the accuracy
and reliability in the information produced. This enabled key problems to be tackled.
• Restored confidence in, and morale of, the finance department.
• Put in place proper costings and systems to set up and monitor all business contracts.
• Did a forensic exercise to look at previous contract payments. Discovered and recovered
previous overpayments on key contracts, including one for nearly £100,000.
• Allan went through every point produced by HMRC relating to the previous PAYE
inspection. He had detailed discussions with HMRC over the findings and eventually
reduced the PAYE liability by nearly £30,000.
CASE STUDY 8
Business Type – Large education establishment with complex funding from many different
funding bodies.

5. Business Problem – The business was being run on purely educational lines. The CEO wanted
to bring commerciality into the College and needed a finance person who would put finance at the
heart of the College. The Board and senior management team (SMT) were not receiving accurate
and timely management information (MI) that could be relied upon.
Unknown at the time, the College had financial difficulties and had significantly overclaimed
funding.
How Allan improved the business.
• Allan first put in place proper monthly controls to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the
information being produced.
• He quickly restored confidence and morale in the finance dept and produced proper
monthly management accounts and other key MI. Over the next few months he restored
the confidence and trust of the Board and SMT in the MI.
• He quickly discovered that the College had inadvertently over-claimed funding over the
past 2 years by nearly £2M. By looking at key performance indicators Allan believed that
the College had also not claimed all income it was due.
• Allan performed a detailed forensic exercise on all funding claims over the past 3 years
and eventually proved that the College had under-claimed funding by over £2.5M. After
detailed negotiations with the relevant funding bodies, Allan recovered the net amount
due of over £0.5M.
• The detailed MI showed that the College was overspending and needed to reduce costs.
He worked with the CEO to restore the financial viability of the College and cut costs by
over £2M.
• Over the next 10 years he steered the Board and the College to take early and effective
financial action. He ensured that the organisation became, and consistently remained,
financially strong in turbulent funding environments.
• He re-structured the finance area to enhance skill set and focus on the customer; re-
engineered finance processes; implemented business improvements including a new
finance and MI system.
• Developed integrated costing models for all 1,200 courses which determined course
viability.
• Originated and project managed various rationalisation programmes.
• Project managed all aspects of a 3 stage, £11M new building project including all funding
matters. He ensured the building programme was delivered on time and within budget.
• Successfully gained approval and relevant finance for a future £38M building programme.
• Set up central purchasing and VFM reviews which saved over £500K per annum.
• Implemented and embedded the Risk Management, Corporate Governance and VFM
processes which were confirmed by the NAO as models of good practice.

6. Business Problem – The business was being run on purely educational lines. The CEO wanted
to bring commerciality into the College and needed a finance person who would put finance at the
heart of the College. The Board and senior management team (SMT) were not receiving accurate
and timely management information (MI) that could be relied upon.
Unknown at the time, the College had financial difficulties and had significantly overclaimed
funding.
How Allan improved the business.
• Allan first put in place proper monthly controls to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the
information being produced.
• He quickly restored confidence and morale in the finance dept and produced proper
monthly management accounts and other key MI. Over the next few months he restored
the confidence and trust of the Board and SMT in the MI.
• He quickly discovered that the College had inadvertently over-claimed funding over the
past 2 years by nearly £2M. By looking at key performance indicators Allan believed that
the College had also not claimed all income it was due.
• Allan performed a detailed forensic exercise on all funding claims over the past 3 years
and eventually proved that the College had under-claimed funding by over £2.5M. After
detailed negotiations with the relevant funding bodies, Allan recovered the net amount
due of over £0.5M.
• The detailed MI showed that the College was overspending and needed to reduce costs.
He worked with the CEO to restore the financial viability of the College and cut costs by
over £2M.
• Over the next 10 years he steered the Board and the College to take early and effective
financial action. He ensured that the organisation became, and consistently remained,
financially strong in turbulent funding environments.
• He re-structured the finance area to enhance skill set and focus on the customer; re-
engineered finance processes; implemented business improvements including a new
finance and MI system.
• Developed integrated costing models for all 1,200 courses which determined course
viability.
• Originated and project managed various rationalisation programmes.
• Project managed all aspects of a 3 stage, £11M new building project including all funding
matters. He ensured the building programme was delivered on time and within budget.
• Successfully gained approval and relevant finance for a future £38M building programme.
• Set up central purchasing and VFM reviews which saved over £500K per annum.
• Implemented and embedded the Risk Management, Corporate Governance and VFM
processes which were confirmed by the NAO as models of good practice.