“CaFE allows me to see up to 12 months ahead, with all the potential problems and mitigations clearly laid out in a visual format”

About Tech-12 Services

Construction project manager, David Caddick, founded Tech-12 Services nine months ago when he alighted on a specific, but significant problem for contractors in the construction industry – the Tech 12 handover process.

Tech 12 is a framework of procedures designed to ensure a uniform and comprehensive approach to project handover on projects conducted on the Ministry of Defence estate.

In David’s words, the task isn’t difficult, but it is a huge hassle for contractors and requires constant chasing to get all the different information from multiple parties together in the right format and at the right time.

Fortunately, David and his colleague have 30 years’ experience of doing it.

Starting with one client, who quickly realised the benefits of outsourcing the work and handed Tech-12 Services all their projects moving forward, David is now focussed on winning more clients and growing the business organically.

Why CaFE?

According to David, his single biggest reason for adopting CaFE was to understand if and when he was going to run out of money.

As a new business going through a phase of outgoings exceeding income, it was vital for him to understand how quickly he was utilising initial capital and the financial commitments he could afford to make.

By his own admission, notwithstanding many years in construction project management, he has no financial background, and quickly felt out of control without a firm handle on the cashflow.

His first decision was to subscribe to the cloud accounting package, FreeAgent, for his bookkeeping and accounting requirements. On seeing that CaFE integrates with FreeAgent, it was an easy decision to sign-up for a free trial of CaFE too.

“I needed to be able to see further ahead than the 30-day cash forecast that FreeAgent provides,” said David. “CaFE allows me to see up to 12 months ahead, with all the potential problems and mitigations clearly laid out in a visual format. I’m a visual learner, and I much prefer this to trying to comprehend numbers in a spreadsheet”. 

Getting started

On how he went about setting up CaFE, David said it was a breeze.

“Synching FreeAgent with CaFE was easy and completed in just a click of a button.

“My next step was to create a baseline budget so I could test the affordability of new purchases. To be able to forecast 12m in advance and know our cash position exactly has allowed me to make the positive business decisions as well as the difficult ones. In no time at all, I have doubled our cash survival period with the better controls that CaFE provides.

“I’m only on the Essentials package, but it still gives me all of the granular information I need”. 

The service

David is glowing in his praise for the service he has received from the CaFE team, which he describes as “phenomenal”.

“I started with a complementary 30-minute induction into the basics of bookkeeping and the CaFE product. This was packed with useful information and genuine recommendations. I particularly liked the way there was no attempt to persuade me to buy a more expensive subscription. The CaFE team were very honest and said I wasn’t ready for a more complex product yet. I liked that a lot”.

Since taking CaFE on, David has made suggestions for features that he would like to see and has been delighted with how well these have been received. Some have been added to the CaFE development programme for future releases. 

A five-star recommendation

David says he rates the product very highly indeed and will recommend it to every small business owner he meets.

“Once you get over the hurdle of recognising you need some accounting software, you should immediately be looking to CaFE for the cashflow forecasting. After all, why wouldn’t you want to know when your cash is going to run out?

“For just £12 a month, it could well be the one thing that keeps you in business”.

You have to say, he’s got a point! 

Find out more about the exciting new features we’ve added to CaFE, or to book a free 1:1 coaching session with a CaFE ambassador, click here.