Muneeza Baig

Partner

I joined HW Fisher in 2001 as a trainee and became part of the charities team in 2002.

My clients are active across a variety of charity sectors, from grant making, membership, independent schools, arts, disability and religious organisations.

The key focus of my role is to work with my clients to deliver accounting solutions and business advice for their organisations so that they can focus on their charitable activities and making a difference. Our accounting solutions include audit, independent examination, preparation of accounts including consolidations, bookkeeping, payroll, preparation of management accounts, detailed analysis of investment portfolios, preparation of forecasts and business plans and services of Chief Financial Officer. We can take on as much or as little as needed.

I advise my clients on the best structure when setting up a charity, including trading subsidiaries, maximising Gift Aid claims, exposure to corporation tax and VAT, implication of changing from an audit to an independent examination and dissolution of charities.

I regularly advise clients on the latest cloud-based accounting software. Analysing what their needs are, streamlining the processes, seamless transfer to the new cloud-based accounting package and providing support and training for trustees and staff.

My aim is to apply my expertise and knowledge of the charities sector to deliver quality services, practical advice and support for all my clients’ whether big or small.

As well as my client-focused role, I am actively involved in the training, education and professional development of the firm’s trainees.

Outsourcing the finance department for a major client is a recent highlight of my work.

A client was not able to hire the expertise needed due to staff shortages. This impacted the day to day running of the finance function having a detrimental effect on the timely reporting of financial data to enable management to make decisions.

We analysed the processes within the finance department. Identifying with the client the processes that could be standardised and outsourced and those which would needed to be retained. We set up the standardised inputs, training and support to the outsourcers staff, standardised quality outputs and mechanisms to monitor.

This enabled the client to use existing staff efficiently, save on recruitment costs, standardise the processes and the quality of data produced. Reports were delivered to the management on time and the client was able to focus on growing the organisation.