Co-operative Assistance Network Limited

Focusing on finance

From assisting clients setting up financial management systems, to helping them raise finance for their enterprises in the first place, CAN’s raft of finance-related products and services has seen a surge in demand over recent years.

CAN has years of experience consulting with co-ops and community enterprises over their finances.

And we regularly help organisations define their needs for the future, whether they’re in the early planning stages or building resilience and planning for future growth.

CAN also offers highly-regarded training for people with positions of financial responsibility, or for those in other roles perhaps simply needing a more general financial understanding.

We’re frequently called in to help with areas such as:

• Producing year end accounts
• Finding sources of finance
• Setting up financial systems
• Financial projections

We’ve also seen significant recent demand from organisations wanting to move on from there and review their accounts systems. This change can help them to keep the cost of year end accounts down as well as improve their financial management of the enterprise. Sometimes CAN will set up a simple spreadsheet system to maintain the bookkeeping, while it may be more appropriate for other clients to be set up with Xero accounting software and provided with training and ongoing support.

Lead finance worker Brian Titley said that CAN’s biggest finance contract is currently with Low Carbon Gordano (LCG), a community energy organisation in North Somerset. CAN provides a number of services including bookkeeping, financial management and projections for LCG’s £3.5m of community-owned assets.

LCG are aiming for growth, and CAN is part of the team that is enabling the growth to happen by providing development, including feasibility financial modelling of proposed new sites.

“Having come through what was for many a very difficult 2020/21, we’re now seeing many organisations beginning to look forward and even planning for growth, and wanting to outsource more of their financial work so they can really focus on where they want to get to,” said Brian.

“The good news is that CAN is also planning ahead, with work already underway to increase the capacity of our finance team by recruiting a new team member to take on some of the year end accounts work and support with developing bookkeeping systems. This will free up time within the team for work on projections and training work, so we can help more organisations get to where they need to be in 22/23 and beyond.”

To find out more about how CAN can help with your organisation’s finances, please contact Brian: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Read more on the CAN website

Setting it up for you (Financial Management)

Doing it for you (Financial Management)

Training you (Financial Management)

Support & consultancy (Financial Management)

Other CAN products and services

Photo by Dan Dimmock on Unsplash