Slade and Cooper Consultants
Janet Slade
Janet initially got interested in bookeeping through her involvement in the co-op movement. She worked in a workers co-op for 4 years (Grass Roots Books) and then in the housing co-op which owned her house as a development worker. She decided after this to train as a chartered accountant and qualified in 1983 with a large firm in Manchester. From there she went to work with a small firm in Hebden Bridge and worked with a number of co-op clients. That firm collapsed and she set up on her own in Manchester in 1985/6. The practice grew, working mainly with co-operatives and then subsequently charities and eventually became Slade and Cooper as it is today.
Janet decided to have a change in 2006 and has since been working part time as a Policy Accountant for the Charity Commission in Liverpool. She now feels she is better informed than ever before on the technicalities of charity accounting.
Apart from this she has also been chair of The Ecology Building Society for a number of years.
Ken Brew
Ken is an accountant with a unique skill set combining audit experience, research and presentation skills and in-depth regulatory experience of charities. Since 2001 he has worked in a series of full time roles at the Charity Commission, where he still works part-time. He was the lead investigatory accountant for two years before becoming the principal information accountant during 2006. In this latter role, he was closely involved in the project to improve the display of financial information on the Register of charities – this involved original research, the design of data collection using the Annual Return and interaction with charities to correct and improve their data submissions prior to the new Register launch in October 2008.
Ken has also at different times been a trustee of four different smaller charities since the 1980's; he also worked in the university sector for a number of years and prior to that worked in a variety of roles in both the public and private sector, using his original Big4 audit training. During 2008 Ken was awarded the Diploma in Charity Accounting, qualifying by the experience route.
Services that Ken is able to offer include:
Compliance check - review of existing procedures and suggested improvements for Trustees Annual Report, Summary Information Return and accounts and related matters
Governance review - consideration of the issues covered in Hallmarks of a well run charity
Ad hoc management assignments.
Ann Bitcon
Ann is a chartered accountant based in North Wales, and was an employee of Slade and Cooper until the regular commute to Manchester proved too much. Ann is, however, available for ad hoc pieces of consultancy work including in the field of internal audit, an area in which she has several years' experience.
Internal audit has a different purpose from external audit; internal auditors look at the various risks faced by an organisation and how it manages these risks. They do this by adopting a systematic approach to analysing processes, procedures and activities with the aim of highlighting potential organisational weaknesses and recommending improvements. If you are interested in this service for your organisation then please contact us.