Business Process Consultant, UK

What a UK process review looks at first

The quickest way to see how a business really works is to follow individual transactions from start to finish. I take a recent customer order, a supplier invoice, a payroll change and one month's close, and trace each through every person and system it touches.

Patterns appear quickly. A sales order is keyed into the CRM, then again into the accounts package. Supplier invoices sit in a shared inbox until someone recognizes the name. Purchase orders are raised after goods arrive, which makes three-way matching meaningless. Credit notes are agreed by phone and posted weeks later. A spreadsheet tracks which customers pay by Direct Debit and which by bank transfer.

None of these are dramatic on their own. Together they explain why the close drags, why credit control feels reactive and why the finance team cannot take a holiday at the same time. The review records each issue with its cause, its effect and the person best placed to fix it.

From there we decide what to change. Some fixes are purely organizational: moving a check earlier, giving a step an owner or removing an approval that adds nothing. Others become requirements for systems later. The process mapping method behind this is the same for every engagement; the UK detail comes from the steps described below.

Building the VAT return and MTD route into the close

For VAT-registered businesses, Making Tax Digital means the journey from transaction to submitted return should run through digital records and links, rather than retyped figures. In process terms, that turns the VAT return into the last stage of record to report, and every earlier step affects it.

When mapping this flow I look at:

• Who chooses the VAT treatment on sales and purchase transactions, and how unusual items such as imports, reverse charge or partial exemption are flagged.
• Which adjustments are made outside the system, in what spreadsheet, and how those figures reach the return.
• Who prepares the return, who reviews it, and what evidence of review is kept.
• How errors found after submission are handled and recorded.

The future process aims for coding to be right at the point of entry, reconciliations to be done before the return is prepared, and any spreadsheet step to be digitally linked and owned. Your accountant or tax advisor confirms the VAT rules and how MTD applies to you; my role is to make sure the business process supports their advice consistently rather than relying on a quarterly clean-up.

Getting paid and paying suppliers: Direct Debit, BACS and credit control

UK order to cash often mixes payment methods: Direct Debit for recurring customers, bank transfers for project work, cards for smaller accounts. Each needs its own steps. I map how mandates are set up and recorded, how failed collections are spotted and followed up, how remittances are matched to invoices and when an account moves from gentle reminder to credit hold.

On the payables side, BACS payment runs deserve particular care. The process I design separates the roles where staffing allows:

• One person proposes the run from approved invoices.
• A second reviews it against due dates and cash position.
• Release in the banking portal requires an authorized signatory, often with dual authorization.
• Changes to supplier bank details are verified by calling a known contact, never by replying to the email that requested the change.

Where the team is too small for full separation, I document compensating checks such as a director reviewing the payment report after each run. The aim is a flow that keeps suppliers paid on time, protects against invoice fraud and leaves a trail your auditors can follow.

CIS and project processes for contractors

Construction and building services firms in the UK carry an extra layer in procure to pay: the Construction Industry Scheme. Getting CIS right is mostly a process discipline, because the steps are spread across commercial, site and finance teams.

For contractors, I map a sequence along these lines:

• Subcontractor onboarding, including verification with HMRC and recording the result.
• Receipt of applications for payment, checking against the agreed valuation and any retention.
• Calculating deductions on the labor element and issuing payment and deduction statements.
• Preparing and submitting the scheme returns on time, with review before submission.

Domestic reverse charge VAT on many construction services often sits in the same flow, and the process should make it clear who decides whether it applies to a given invoice.

The same mapping covers the wider project process: tender, contract, budget, commitments, valuations, variations and final account. Where those steps live partly in spreadsheets and partly in the accounts package, cost reports lag behind reality. Your accountant confirms the CIS and VAT treatment; I make sure the process captures the information they need at the right moment.

Ownership, remote delivery and the step after process design

A process redesign lasts only if someone owns it. For each end-to-end flow I agree a process owner, usually a senior manager rather than the person doing the work, who decides on changes and resolves disputes between teams. Desk notes are written for the people doing the tasks and kept where they will look first.

The engagement is remote and runs in UK working hours. Walkthroughs happen over screen share, maps are drawn live and shared for written comment, and decisions are recorded in a log your team can revisit. If a visit helps, it can be arranged.

At the end you receive current and target process maps, an authority matrix, desk notes for critical tasks, a list of questions for your accountant and a prioritized set of requirements. If the main problem turns out to be repetitive manual work, my business automation consultant page explains the next step. If a new system is likely, the requirements continue with an ERP business analyst in the UK. You can read how I approach business process consulting in general, or return to the UK overview for context on the market.