Finance leadership for growing Irish companies
The stage where year-end accounts stop answering the questions being asked — pricing, hiring, funding, margin by product — and a full-time finance director is not yet justified.
In short
Growing companies need monthly management accounts, rolling cash flow forecasting and board-grade reporting, not just statutory compliance. We provide that on a fixed monthly fee alongside the compliance work, so the tax position is built into the forecast rather than arriving nine months later.
The signals that you have outgrown compliance-only accounting
- You are profitable and short of cash, and cannot explain the gap precisely.
- Nobody can tell you which contracts or product lines actually make money after delivery cost.
- Pricing is being set by instinct because the margin data does not exist.
- A hire is being considered and nobody has modelled whether the business can carry it.
- A bank or investor asked for forecasts and there is no model to produce them from.
- Board meetings run off a profit and loss printed from the accounting software.
A company can be profitable and insolvent at the same time. Cash flow ends businesses, and statutory accounts tell you least about it.
What changes structurally as you grow
Audit exemption
You lose it by exceeding two of three thresholds in the current and preceding year — turnover of €15 million, balance sheet total of €7.5 million, or 50 employees. Far more often, companies lose it by filing the CRO annual return late more than once in five years. The first is a growth problem worth planning for; the second is avoidable.
Preliminary corporation tax
Once the prior-year liability exceeds €200,000 the company moves from a single instalment to two, with the first due in month six of the accounting period. That is a real cash flow event and it arrives without warning if nobody is modelling it.
The close company surcharges
Undistributed investment and rental income attracts a 20% surcharge unless distributed within eighteen months of the period end, and professional service companies face a 15% surcharge on half of undistributed professional income. Both bite exactly when a company starts retaining profit — which is what scaling looks like.
Funding, and what lenders actually test
Whether you are approaching a bank, Enterprise Ireland, Microfinance Ireland or an equity investor, the question is whether your numbers survive scrutiny. We prepare the model, the historical figures and the forecast, and handle the questions directly.
- Three years of clean historical figures, consistent between the statutory accounts and the management accounts.
- A forecast with assumptions you can defend line by line.
- Cash flow showing the funding requirement and what it is actually for.
- Evidence of tax compliance — nothing outstanding with Revenue or the CRO.
- Where equity is involved, a documented cap table and a clean share structure.
Structure and equity
Scaling companies usually hit two structural questions at once: whether a holding company makes sense, and how to give key people equity without triggering an immediate tax charge on them.
Both reward planning years ahead of the event they relate to. A holding structure put in place before value accumulates is straightforward; the same structure imposed afterwards can crystallise tax. The same is true of share schemes, and of retirement and entrepreneur relief on an eventual sale.
What it costs
A fixed monthly fee covering both the compliance cycle and the management reporting, set by scope and the depth of reporting you need. It scales up around a raise or an acquisition and back down afterwards, which a full-time hire does not.
Sources
Questions we get asked
- When does a company need more than a compliance accountant?
- When decisions are being made faster than the annual accounts can inform them. In practice that is usually somewhere between €1 million and €20 million of turnover, or at the point a funding round, a fast hiring phase or an acquisition arrives.
- When do we lose audit exemption?
- By exceeding two of three thresholds in both the current and preceding year: turnover of €15 million, balance sheet total of €7.5 million, or 50 employees. Companies more commonly lose it by filing the CRO annual return late more than once within five years.
- What changes about our corporation tax as we grow?
- Once the prior-year liability exceeds €200,000 the company moves to paying preliminary corporation tax in two instalments, the first in month six of the accounting period rather than one payment before the period ends. It is a significant cash flow change.
- Can you help us raise debt or equity?
- Yes. We build the financial model, prepare the historical figures and forecasts, assemble the pack the lender or investor wants, and handle their questions. Where EIIS is in scope we advise on structuring before investors commit.
- Should we set up a holding company?
- Sometimes, and the timing matters more than the decision. A holding structure put in place before value accumulates is straightforward; imposed afterwards it can crystallise tax charges. We look at it against your actual growth path rather than as a default.
Read more on this
Corporation Tax
Corporation tax in Ireland
The 12.5% and 25% rates, what counts as trading, preliminary tax, and the close company surcharges that catch owner-managed businesses.
Tax Planning
R&D tax credits in Ireland
What qualifies as R&D under Irish law, the 35% rate, the three-instalment repayment, and the documentation that decides whether a claim survives review.
Tax Planning
Capital gains tax in Ireland
The 33% rate, the €1,270 exemption, the split payment deadlines almost nobody expects, and the reliefs that actually reduce the bill.
Who else we work with
Talk to us about your scaling companies
Tell us about your business and we will send a fixed-fee proposal within 48 hours.