Simon Gregory ACA, Chartered Accountant

I am a Chartered Accountant and a former senior equity analyst and fund manager. Gregory Analytics is my practice. I prepare business plans, business cash flow forecasts, feasibility studies, business loan reviews, due diligence and sale readiness reviews for SMEs, charities and CICs, and I do every piece of work myself.

Career

• Accountancy, six years. I trained as a Chartered Accountant and worked in accountancy, audit, and business and financial analysis.
• Investment, six years and more. I moved into investment as a senior equity analyst for six years, then became a fund manager. My job was to read companies' accounts and forecasts and decide whether they could be believed.
• Gregory Analytics. I now put both sides together for owner-managed businesses: the accountant's view of the numbers and the investor's view of what a lender or buyer will ask.

Qualifications and regulation

• ACA: member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
• ICAEW practising certificate. You can check it on ICAEW's Find a Chartered Accountant directory.
• Bound by the ICAEW Code of Ethics: integrity, objectivity and confidentiality.
• Professional indemnity insurance with Hiscox Insurance Company Limited.
• Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA), EFFAS.

How I work

• Remote, across the UK: a call, a short brief and shared documents. There are no site visits.
• A fixed fee in writing before any work starts, and nothing to pay up front.
• A first draft within 5 working days.
• I do not do accounts, tax returns or bookkeeping, so I do not compete with your accountant.
• I do not give personal financial, investment or pensions advice, I am not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and I take no commission from lenders or investors.

What I write about

The guides are written from the credit team's side of the table: what a bank checks in a business plan and a business cash flow forecast, why loans get declined, and how to read the low point in a forecast.