Morning all. Starting on the board pack financials today. Will need Q1 actuals from everyone by end of week. @sofia-garcia can you pull the February vendor spend summary?
On it! Quick question — for the vendor spend summary, should I be using GL code 5200 or 5300 for the SaaS subscriptions? They seem to overlap in the chart of accounts.
5200 for recurring SaaS, 5300 for one-off software purchases. If you're unsure on any specific vendor, flag it and I'll check.
Nina — the Meridian invoices for Feb are all in the system now. Had a backlog but it's in hand.
Board pack section 3 (financials) draft by Friday. Marcus — I'll send you a preview Thursday evening.
Confirmed. I'll need the YTD variance analysis alongside the P&L summary this time — the board asked for more granularity on opex movements versus prior year. Please include headcount costs broken out separately.
Vendor summary is taking shape. I'm seeing some invoices from Meridian that look higher than the contract amounts. Should I flag these or just total them as-is?
Flag them separately. Do not roll them into the total until we know what they are. I'll speak to Chris.
I can explain those — Meridian moved us to a higher volume tier in Feb. The invoices are correct per their billing. I've got the email from their account team.
Forward that email to me please. Need to check against what was budgeted.
Q1 actuals checklist updated in Drive. Everyone please review your cost centre and confirm by EOD Thursday. Link in the pinned doc.
Nina, I've gone through cost centre CC-07 (Engineering). There are three line items I can't match to POs. Can I share my screen at some point today?
2pm. I'll send a calendar invite.
Forwarded the Meridian email to you Nina. Also — there are two more invoices in the approvals queue from them for March. Shall I hold those pending your review?
Hold the March Meridian invoices for now. Do not approve.
Good morning! The three unmatched CC-07 items — Nina helped me trace two of them yesterday. The third looks like it might be a duplicate payment to AWS from January. Should I raise a formal query?
Yes, raise a payment query via the standard form. Reference the original invoice number. I'll co-sign it.
Nina — ahead of the board pack deadline tomorrow, can you confirm we have clean numbers on the Meridian cost centre? There was some noise last quarter too and I don't want surprises for the board.
Still reviewing. The volume tier explanation from Chris doesn't fully reconcile with the budgeted figures. Will have a clear picture by tonight.
Understood. Keep me posted. If there's a variance we need to own it clearly rather than bury it in the footnotes.
Board pack financials — draft sent to Marcus. P&L, YTD variance, headcount split all included. Pending final review from him before submission.
Board pack financials reviewed and approved. Good work Nina. One minor comment on the opex footnote — I've tracked changes in the doc. Please incorporate and send final version to Sarah by 10am.
Marcus — I've finished the Meridian reconciliation. The Q1 invoice is £45k over what we budgeted. Chris says it's a volume tier change but the numbers don't add up when I run it against the original contract rates. Something isn't right.
That's a material variance. I'll want a full breakdown — budgeted amount, actual billed, and the contractual basis for the tier change. Can you have that to me before the leadership weekly tomorrow?
Will have it by EOD today.
I can help with this — I have all the Meridian correspondence. It's in hand, I just need to pull together the usage data to show the tier trigger.
Chris — please send me everything you have. Today.
Is the Meridian thing affecting the Q1 close numbers? Should I update my vendor spend summary or keep it as drafted?
Keep the summary as drafted for now. Note the variance as 'under review'. Do not finalise the Meridian lines.
Meridian breakdown sent to Marcus. Budget was £38k for Q1, actual billed £83k. Tier change was not pre-approved per our procurement policy. Flagging this for the leadership weekly.
Thank you Nina. I'll raise the Meridian situation at tomorrow's leadership weekly. We have two options: challenge the invoice and negotiate back to contracted rates, or ratify the tier change with a budget amendment. I'll present both to the group and we'll decide on a path forward.
For context ahead of the meeting — the volume spike that triggered the tier change was driven by the product team running extra load tests in January. I've got usage logs if needed.
Useful context, Chris. That said, any contract tier change requires procurement sign-off regardless of the operational reason. Please bring the usage logs to the meeting.
Leadership weekly update: Meridian escalated. Marcus is leading the resolution. Chris to work with procurement on a retrospective approval or negotiation. I'll hold the March invoices until resolved.
Nina, while I have you — for the vendor cost categories, where do we book Stripe fees? I'm seeing them sometimes in 5200 and sometimes in payment processing costs. Inconsistent across months.
Stripe goes in GL 6100 — payment processing. Has always been this way. Whoever put it in 5200 made an error. I'll raise a journal to correct.
Got it, 6100 going forward. Should I flag the months it was in 5200 so you can include them in the journal?
Yes. List the dates and amounts, send to me directly.
Board preparation sync is Friday 20th. Nina, please prepare a one-page financial summary covering: Q4 actuals close-out, Q1 YTD position, and the Meridian situation with options. I'd like a draft by Thursday.
March payroll figures confirmed with HR. Processing on the 25th as scheduled.
Working on the Q1 YTD summary for the board prep. Quick one — are we including the accruals for the two contracts that haven't invoiced yet? I see a note in last quarter's workings but I'm not sure if that's still the approach.
Yes, accrue both. Use the contract values. Note them clearly as accruals in the workings. We've had audit comments before about unaccrued liabilities.
One-page board summary sent to Marcus. Covers Q4 close, Q1 YTD, and Meridian. Three options on Meridian: dispute, partial settlement, or full ratification. Pros/cons on each.
Board prep sync went well. The board has asked for a formal options paper on Meridian by end of month. Nina, I'll need your financial modelling for each scenario — cost exposure, cash flow impact. I'll draft the narrative sections.
Heads up — Meridian's account manager has been in touch asking about the outstanding March invoices. I've said they're under internal review. Was that the right thing to say?
Correct response, Chris. Do not commit to any payment timeline. All Meridian communications should be routed through me or Nina for now.
Understood. I'll direct them to you.
Q1 close schedule posted in Drive. Key dates: 24 Mar — all cost centre confirmations due. 27 Mar — journals deadline. 31 Mar — final P&L sign-off. No exceptions on the journals deadline.
Confirmed CC-07 (Engineering) and CC-09 (Product) numbers submitted. One small query on CC-09 — there's a £2,100 item with no cost centre owner listed. Flagged in the workings doc.
I'll chase the cost centre owner. Leave it flagged for now.
CC-04 (Operations) confirmed. Slight overspend on facilities — heating callout in February. £800 over budget but it's in hand, just an anomaly.
Noted. Include the invoice reference in your submission so we have documentation.
Meridian financial modelling complete — three scenarios modelled. Summary: full dispute saves £45k but carries relationship and service risk. Partial settlement at £22k most likely outcome. Full ratification costs £45k but closes the issue. Sending to Marcus now.
Nina — modelling received, very clear. I'll incorporate into the board options paper this afternoon. My instinct is the partial settlement route, but the board will make the call. Well done on the analysis.
All my cost centre confirmations are in. Just waiting on a response about that unowned £2,100 item — chased once already.
£2,100 item resolved — it was a conference sponsorship paid centrally but posted to the wrong CC. Journal raised to move it to CC-11 (Marketing). Q1 close workings now complete pending journals deadline.
March payroll confirmed processed. Good. On a separate note — the board options paper for Meridian has been submitted. We'll have a decision within the week.
Journals submitted for CC-04. Anything else needed from me before the 27th deadline?
That's all for now. I'll shout if anything comes up in the review.
Journals deadline reminder — 27 March. All outstanding journals must be submitted by 17:00. After that the period is locked.
All my journals are in. Nina, I left a note on the Stripe reclassification journal — just wanted to make sure the description wording was right. Can you check?
Checked. Wording fine. Approved.
All journals submitted and reviewed. Period locked as of 17:00 today. Q1 P&L finalisation in progress — target sign-off Tuesday.
Board decision on Meridian: partial settlement approach approved. We'll negotiate to settle at approximately £22k over budget rather than the full £45k. Nina and I will co-ordinate with procurement to formalise the revised commercial terms.
Understood. I'll update the Meridian accrual in the Q1 books to reflect the £22k settlement estimate. Chris — please keep the March invoices on hold until the commercial terms are agreed.
On it. Will hold until I hear from you or Marcus.
Q1 P&L draft looks solid. Revenue slightly ahead of plan, opex up mainly due to Meridian. Everything else within tolerance. Ready for Marcus to review when he has time.
Q1 P&L reviewed — good result overall. Revenue 3.2% ahead of plan. Opex £22k over due to Meridian (noted and provisioned). I'll sign off on Tuesday once I've had a final read of the narrative. Good work this quarter, team.
Q1 close complete. Final P&L signed off by Marcus. Archiving workings now. Well done everyone.
April priorities: Q1 Business Review prep (10 Apr), April payroll (25th), and starting Q2 actuals tracking. Sofia — can you set up the Q2 actuals tracker in Drive using last quarter's template?
Q2 actuals tracker is live in Drive — same structure as Q1. I added a tab for vendor anomalies given last quarter. Let me know if the format needs adjusting.
Good thinking on the vendor anomalies tab. Approved.
Quick one — Meridian's account manager is chasing again. Should I refer them to Marcus?
Yes, direct all Meridian commercial queries to me. Procurement and I have a call with them Thursday. Don't give them any indication of our position.
Done. Referred them to you.
Q1 Business Review deck — financial slides started. Will share draft by end of day Thursday for Marcus to review ahead of the 10th.
For the Q1 Business Review — should I prepare a vendor cost breakdown by category, or is the P&L summary sufficient?
Prepare both. The vendor breakdown is useful context. Keep it to one slide — top 10 vendors by spend.
On it. Will have it ready by Thursday.
Meridian negotiation update: the discussion with their team went constructively. They've agreed in principle to a credit of £23k against the disputed amount, which is very close to our modelled position. Formal paperwork to follow next week.
Meridian credit noted. I'll update the provision in the books once the paperwork is confirmed. Good outcome.
Q1 Business Review financial slides shared with Marcus. Covers P&L summary, revenue vs plan, opex breakdown, Meridian resolution update, and Q2 outlook. 8 slides total.
Slides reviewed. One change: slide 5 — please show the Meridian situation as 'resolved in principle' rather than 'under review'. The credit is agreed even if paperwork is outstanding. Everything else is good.
Updated. Final version in Drive.
Hey Nina — I was looking at the budget lines for April and I noticed there's a Salesforce renewal coming up. I can't find a budget allocation for it anywhere. Is it covered under the software licences line or is it a separate approval?
Good spot. I don't have a specific Salesforce renewal line in the approved budget either. When is it due?
The contract end date shows 30 April. I saw a note in the contracts register but no corresponding budget line.
Escalating to Marcus. This needs to be picked up before it auto-renews.
Marcus — the Salesforce renewal is due 30 April. Sofia has identified no budget line for it. Do you know if it was included somewhere in the plan that we're not seeing?
Checking with the commercial team. I believe it may have been rolled up into the broader CRM budget line but I want to confirm. Please don't let it auto-renew until we have clarity.
Understood. I'll flag it to the contract owner in the meantime.
I got a reminder email from Salesforce about the renewal — auto-renew is set to on in the account settings. Should I turn it off?
Yes, turn off auto-renew immediately. We need to review before committing.
Q1 Business Review tomorrow. All financial materials are ready and in the shared drive folder. Good luck all.
Q1 Business Review completed. Finance section landed well. The board noted the Meridian resolution positively — credit to Nina for the clear options analysis that got us there. Revenue numbers were well received.
Thanks Marcus. Salesforce renewal — any update on the budget question? We're now 3 weeks out from the contract end.
Still waiting on confirmation from the commercial team. I'll chase today. What's the renewal value?
The last renewal was £34k annual. I'd expect a similar figure or slightly higher.
At that level it's within delegated authority. I'll confirm the budget line today and get back to you.
Meridian credit note received — £23,000 as agreed. I've uploaded the documentation to the contracts folder.
Meridian credit note booked. Provision released. Updated in the April actuals tracker.
Salesforce budget confirmed — it sits within the CRM software line (CC-06). The allocation is £36k for the year. Nina, please proceed with the renewal approval process.
Salesforce renewal approved and submitted. Effective from 1 May. Chris — you can close the contract renewal task.
Should I add the Salesforce renewal to the April actuals or May? The payment is likely to fall in May but the commitment is April.
Accrue in April (commitment date), payment in May. Accrual basis. Note it clearly.
April mid-month check — actuals tracking well. No material variances so far. Meridian credit booked. Salesforce accrued. Payroll on track for 25th.
I noticed we have a line item in March actuals for cloud infrastructure that's higher than I expected — around £18k. Is that normal? I want to make sure I'm interpreting it correctly for the Q2 baseline.
Let me check. What cost centre is it under?
It's under CC-07, GL 5400. AWS charges I think.
That does look elevated versus prior months. I don't have any context for a step-up in cloud spend in March. I'll raise it with the engineering cost centre owner. In the meantime don't use that figure as your Q2 baseline — use the February run rate instead.
Okay, that's a bit confusing — do we not know why cloud spend went up? Has something changed in the infrastructure budget?
Not that I'm aware of. Nothing has come through finance. I'll find out.
Followed up on the cloud spend spike with the engineering team. Apparently there was some additional infrastructure activity in March but I still don't have a clear explanation for the cost level. Nothing has been approved through finance for a cloud spend increase. Monitoring for April.
Let me know what you find. If there's unbudgeted cloud spend occurring I'd like to understand the source.
Will do. Nothing approved from our side.
Operations cost centres confirmed for April week 1–2. All within budget.
April payroll confirmed with HR. Processing 25th as scheduled. Headcount unchanged from March.
Nina, I've been building the Q2 budget vs actuals template. Should I include a cloud/infrastructure sub-category given the questions last week? Might make it easier to track.
Yes, add it. Break out cloud specifically under CC-07. Better visibility going forward.
Reminder: Q2 budget review meeting is scheduled for 29 April. Nina, please prepare a brief on Q1 actuals versus budget with a view to whether any Q2 allocations need adjusting. Particular focus on vendor costs and software licences given recent activity.
Quick question on the Q2 budget brief — should we include the Meridian credit as a one-off or adjust the Q2 Meridian budget line down? I'm not sure which treatment is more accurate.
Treat the credit as a Q1 one-off. Don't reduce the Q2 Meridian budget — we don't know yet if volumes will stay at the new tier. I want headroom in the budget.
Cloud spend update — April figures starting to come through. AWS charges for first half of April look higher than the February baseline again. Around £9k for the first two weeks. Still no explanation from engineering that satisfies me. Marcus, are you aware of any infrastructure projects that would drive this?
I'm not aware of anything that has come through the formal budget process. Let me make some enquiries at my end.
Should I flag this in the Q2 actuals tracker as a variance for investigation?
Yes, flag it as 'under investigation'. Don't assign a cost centre owner yet.
April payroll processed successfully. Confirmed on my end.
Q2 budget brief draft sent to Marcus. Covers Q1 actuals vs budget, proposed adjustments, cloud spend anomaly flagged as item for discussion.
Nina — received and reviewed. Good brief. On the cloud spend anomaly: I've had some conversations and there may be context I'm not yet in a position to share. Let's discuss at the Q2 budget review on Tuesday.
Understood. I'll hold further investigation until Tuesday.
Is there anything I should prepare for the Q2 budget review tomorrow? Happy to pull additional analysis if useful.
Bring the cloud spend breakdown by month (Jan–Apr) and the vendor anomalies log. That's all we'll need from you.
Done. Both prepared.
Q2 budget review complete. Headline outcomes: Q2 budget stands largely as planned with one adjustment — the cloud infrastructure line in CC-07 is being revised upward to reflect anticipated spend. Full details and revised budget sheet to follow from Nina. The cloud spend context will be communicated separately through the appropriate channels.
Revised Q2 budget uploaded to Drive. Cloud infrastructure line in CC-07 updated. All other allocations unchanged. Sofia — please update the actuals tracker baseline.
Actuals tracker updated with new Q2 baseline. Out of curiosity — the cloud line has gone up quite significantly. Is that just to cover what's already been spent or is more expected? I want to make sure I'm tracking it correctly going forward.
Track it at the new budget level going forward. If actuals exceed the revised figure we'll flag it. The reason for the increase is being communicated separately — not something we have full detail on yet.
Got it, noted. Feels a bit odd not knowing the driver but I'll track it as instructed.
April month-end — actuals close starting. All cost centre owners please confirm your April figures by Wednesday 6 May.
CC-04 April figures confirmed. Operations costs within budget across the board.
CC-07 and CC-09 April figures submitted. Cloud spend in CC-07 came in at £19.5k for April — above even the revised budget. Should I flag that now or wait for the full actuals close?
Flag it now. I'll escalate to Marcus.
Marcus — April cloud spend came in at £19.5k. That's above even the revised Q2 budget line. Are you able to share more context now? We need to understand if this is a known ramp or an overspend.
Acknowledged Nina. The infrastructure team is running a migration project that was approved at the appropriate level. The finance team will receive a formal notification with full details this week. I appreciate your patience — I know this has been frustrating from a tracking perspective.
Understood. I'll hold the variance flag pending the formal notification. We'll need full documentation for the audit trail.
So there IS a project running — that explains the spend pattern. Glad we'll get the details soon.
May payroll confirmed with HR. Processing 23rd. Headcount unchanged.
Checking in — has anyone seen the formal notification on the cloud migration project that Marcus mentioned? Want to make sure I update the actuals tracker correctly once I have the details.
Not yet. I'll chase Marcus today.
April actuals close — on track. All cost centres confirmed. Cloud infrastructure variance documented as 'formal notification pending'. Journals deadline 8 May.
Formal notification on the cloud migration project will be with Nina by end of day today. Apologies for the delay — the project briefing note was only finalised yesterday. The finance team will have everything needed for a complete audit trail.
Cloud migration project briefing received from Marcus. £120k approved infrastructure project. I now have the documentation. Sofia — update the cloud infrastructure line in CC-07 actuals tracker. The April overspend is now explained and documented.
Actuals tracker updated. £120k project noted as the driver of cloud spend from March onwards. That makes the numbers make sense — I was quite puzzled by the pattern. Is the full spend expected to fall in Q2 or will some spill into Q3?
Per the briefing note, most spend is Q2 with a tail into early Q3. I'll model it out and share a forecast. For now just track actuals as they come in.
April journals deadline reminder — tomorrow 8 May by 17:00. Any outstanding items please get them in today.
All CC-04 journals submitted. Good timing — had a few to catch up on but it's in hand.
April journals closed. Period locked. Good clean month-end close — the clearest one this quarter. Will start on the April P&L summary for Marcus early next week.
Good work on April close, everyone. With the cloud project now properly documented in finance, we have a cleaner picture going forward. Nina, please include a forward-looking cloud spend forecast in the April P&L summary — the board will want visibility on the full project run rate.
For the cloud spend forecast — should I pull together month-by-month AWS actuals from January to April so Nina has a clean starting point for the model?
Yes, please do that. Send me the monthly figures in a table. Include both the GL 5400 entries and any under GL 5200 that we reclassified.
Quick heads up — we've got two vendor contract renewals coming up in June: HubSpot and Zendesk. Should I flag these to finance now so we're not in the same situation as Salesforce?
Yes, flag them now. Good initiative. What are the renewal values and contract end dates?
HubSpot — £18k, renews 15 June. Zendesk — £22k, renews 28 June. Both are in the contracts register.
Both within budget allocations as far as I can see. I'll confirm and come back to you. Turn off auto-renew on both in the meantime.
AWS actuals Jan–Apr sent to Nina. Summary: Jan £12k, Feb £11.5k, Mar £18k, Apr £19.5k. Clear step-up from March consistent with the migration project. The Jan/Feb figures look like the normal run rate.
Cloud spend forecast model complete. Baseline run rate ~£12k/month. Migration project adds estimated £8–10k/month for remainder of Q2 and £4–5k/month in Q3 as infrastructure stabilises. Full model shared with Marcus.
Cloud forecast received — exactly what I needed for the board narrative. The cost profile makes sense given the project timeline. I'll incorporate into the May management report. Good modelling, Nina.