I thought this month I would go back to basics. The coronavirus pandemic has caused real financial stress to many organisations and I’m having regular telephone calls asking “what should we do?”.

A short conversation later and I understand the lay of the land. The management information isn’t up to date, and in many cases transactions haven’t been posted for months. Budget holders haven’t been given information and they are free-floating with regard to financial control. Finance subsequently lacks teeth to ask them where spend is, and what spend is on, or to ask budget holders to explain clearly what is going on in their part of the organisation and hold them accountable for income and expenditure.