FD Solutions was featured in the Finance supplement of a national newspaper in April 2006

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Need a finance director? Louisa Shulman offers a solution

Finance director is an important-sounding role and one that most companies of considerable size keep filled at all times. But in this market of ever-increasing overheads and continually changing needs, it's becoming more beneficial to have part-time staff in certain areas.

FD Solutions is a market leader in the provision of part-time finance directors to companies in the UK and to those based overseas needing assistance here.

Established 15 years ago by Malcolm Durham, the company now boasts a team of 15 finance directors, each with at least 10 years of experience as finance director of substantial businesses. Between them they have first-hand knowledge of most industry sectors, from software to sandwiches.

Based in Docklands, the FD Solutions team spend most of their time at clients' premises, typically each juggling a handful of assignments, best described as "the work that each client's full-time FD would do if they had one."

Simon Walters, managing director, explains: "Some clients are too small to merit a full-time incumbent, others prefer the flexibility of a bought-in resource, charging by the hour, which can be turned on and off like a tap."

Each of the company's finance directors is full-time with FD Solutions but part-time with each client, and time spent with clients range from the odd hour here and there to a day or two a week and even concentrated periods around year-ends, with the added advantage as a team of being able to call on additional resource, if the workload demands two or more people working together.

Simon Ainley, client services director of FD Solutions, claims: "We always have someone available immediately to work as prospective clients' part-time finance director, and this hands-on assistance comes for substantially less than the cost of a full-time director."

Clients vary from those where FD Solutions assist year in, year out to companies needing assistance on a project basis. Recent assignments include a handful of public companies without full-time FD resource to meet the demanding reporting and accounting requirements.

FD Solutions recently assisted CDS Oil & Gas Group plc, a company with exploration interests in Paraguay. It had no full-time financial director in London and required a part-time FD to prepare group accounts prior to flotation on AIM.

The team undertakes work for Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the UK organisation providing funds to enable British students to study in Israel and promoting the work and research of the university in Britain. The client gets hands-on input, with an improved level of accounting control.

The Money Gaming Corporation (MoneyGaming.com), an internet gambling company run by Liad Shababo and Jonathan Caplan, recently required a sophisticated set of projections to complete a new investment round, which FD Solutions prepared, with an extremely fast turnaround. On the back of these figures, the investment is now under way.

At the other end of the scale, the FD Solutions team works with companies in difficulties who can't attract high-calibre FDs from secure employment elsewhere. An FD with the ability to work under pressure and eventually exit without severance pay or notice periods is a considerable advantage to companies seeking a turnaround or to the banks supporting them.

The client base includes small businesses looking for finance and proper financial controls, and medium-sized companies looking to generate more profit or raise cash, with many referrals coming from audit firms whose clients require FD-type assistance that those practices can't provide. If it sounds like FD Solutions offers a service that could be of interest, take a look at their website at www.fdsolutionsltd.co.uk to see what it can offer.