Excalibur Communications (now part of the Onecom Group) is a South West-based IT and communications provider serving 6,000+ UK businesses. With over 20 years’ experience, they deliver end-to-end solutions and are known for their values-led approach and strong customer service.

Excalibur wanted support that would do two things:

• Stabilise the finance function after the departure of their full-time FD
• Fix the issues created by a new accounting system so reporting could be trusted again

They had previously used a part-time FD provider and found it expensive and slow, with little sense of accountability. This time, they wanted visible progress and someone who could take control.

On review, our Finance Director Tim Marvell found a set of problems that were holding the business back:

• Postings in the system that didn’t reflect reality
• Control accounts not reconciled
• Missing or incomplete information in the accounts
• Journals posted without clear support
• A new accounting system that wasn’t properly documented
• A budget leadership didn’t trust, so it wasn’t being used
• No consistent forecasting for cash flow or balance sheet items

We focused first on restoring the basics, then building a rhythm the leadership team could depend on:

• Corrected and reconciled key control accounts
• Identified and reversed unsupported journals
• Resolved system issues and put clear documentation in place
• Introduced a practical forecasting process
• Improved working relationships with the bank and auditors
• Re-established regular Board reporting
• Kept the engagement actively managed, with oversight from Tectona’s MD, so delivery stayed consistent

During the work, we also identified a VAT processing issue and supported Excalibur to recover £30,000 from HMRC.

Tim worked closely with James and the team, prioritising the most important issues and tackling them one by one. Alongside that, Tectona stayed involved at a leadership level to make sure Excalibur had the right support, visibility, and momentum throughout.

The result was a calmer finance function — and a leadership team that could trust what they were seeing again.

If your business is growing and you need greater clarity, confidence, and control over your financial future, Tectona Partnership provides experienced part-time CFO and Finance Director support to help you scale with certainty.

If you’d like to explore what that could look like in practice, a short, informal conversation with Tectona can often surface insights long before any commitment is made. Email mark.nicholls@tectonapartnership.com and we’ll call you back within 48 hours to have a free, no-obligation conversation to understand your needs and advise you of the best course of action.