Advaita Ltd
Revamping & Setting up the Accounts Department
63%
Reduction in Reconciliation Time
80%
Reduction in Uncoded Transactions
80%
Team compliance in 6 weeks
Sector
Heritage Hospitality & Events
Role
Systems Consultant | Accounts Structure, Optimisation & Automation
Tools
Xero, Hubdoc, Expense Submitters, Excel, Custom Bank Rules
Advaita is the financial and operational backbone of Chilham Castle’s business ecosystem, overseeing multiple revenue streams — from luxury events to estate management. Operating within a historic property with modern commercial needs, Advaita’s accounting system needed to serve as a central hub for clarity, compliance, and decision-making. The scope included reviewing all chart of accounts, general ledgers, bank accounts, and integrations, then implementing structures that improve accuracy, reduce repetitive work, and enable meaningful financial insights across the organisation.
Challenge
Fragmented Bookkeeping The chart of accounts was overly complex, with duplicate and poorly categorised ledgers that obscured visibility of departmental costs and revenue streams.
Slow Reconciliation & Payments The absence of bank rules and automated transaction matching, coupled with informal supplier payment approvals, created delays in month-end close and payment runs and missing bills when it came to reconciliation
Payroll & Compliance Risks Semi-manual payroll processing and dispersed leave tracking increased the likelihood of HMRC filing errors and pension contribution discrepancies.
Misaligned Reporting Reports were not structured to reflect management’s KPIs or operational priorities, limiting the strategic value of financial insights.
In summary, the accounting system lacked structure, automation, and alignment with operational goals. This created inefficiencies, compliance risks, and limited real-time visibility—ultimately impacting decision-making and overall financial performance.
Results
The outcomes of this engagement were transformative across financial operations, automation, and decision-making capability. Prioritised below are the changes that had the highest operational and strategic impact:
Reconciliation Time: Reduced by 63%, from 15 to under 6 hours/month
Uncoded Transactions: Decreased by 80%, from over 40 to fewer than 8 entries/month
Contact Cleanup: Reduced entries by 68%, eliminating more than 130 duplicates
Manual Invoicing: Fell by 65%, with most recurring invoices now auto-generated
Hubdoc Adoption: Jumped from 0% to over 80% team compliance in 6 weeks
Payroll Time: RTI and payroll journals now filed in under 1.5 hours/month (down from 3 hours)
Expense Tracking: 100% of Revolut expenses now logged via Hubdoc before approval
Payment Execution: Average time to run supplier payments cut by 50% through Wise integrations
MIS Readiness: Chart of Accounts and tracking categories now fully aligned for budgeting, events, and department-wise reporting.
The platform now enables proactive cash planning, traceable payment trails, and departmental reporting. Phase 2 will add inventory and fixed asset registry, unlocking deeper cost control across the estate.
4D - Process
Discover
We began with a deep audit of the accounting setup and operational context of Chilham Castle. This involved: A full survey of the Xero system: Chart of Accounts, General Ledger, Bank Feeds, Contacts, Tracking Categories Interviews with operations and finance staff to identify pain points Understanding compliance requirements, recurring inefficiencies, and sources of reporting ambiguity
Define
Key issues were categorised into five challenge zones:
1. Bookkeeping: 85% of entries were manually created Over 650 contact entries with 130+ duplicates No Hubdoc or central bill submission process.
2. Reconciliation: 40–45 uncoded transactions/month Manual matching took over 12 hours No clear owner or cycle for reconciliation
3. Payroll & Leave Management: Manual RTI submission (3 hours/month) Excel-based leave tracking No linkage between rota, payroll, and HR obligations.
4. MIS & Reporting: No budgeting workflows Flat chart of accounts without segmentations No tracking logic by department or event.
5. Payment Runs via Wise & Revolut: No expense-to-approval system No automation between submission, verification, and payment
Develop
We redesigned the financial architecture, focusing on: Simplified Chart of Accounts tailored to estate operations Cleaned and consolidated contacts New tracking categories (Events, F&B, Garden Ops, Retreats) Bank rules mapped for regular suppliers and subscriptions Hubdoc workflows for staff to upload bills directly Set automation rules for recurring journals and depreciation Scoped Wise payment automation linked with Revolut purchase logs.
Deliver (Reinforced)
The cumulative outcome of our interventions has been a shift from reactive, manual bookkeeping to a strategic finance system. With reduced duplication, greater data hygiene, and structured workflows, Chilham Castle’s accounting now supports better planning, cleaner reporting, and long-term scalability. For TheContinuum, this case study exemplifies the belief that a structured, systems-first approach can deliver meaningful efficiency — even in legacy or high-complexity environments like heritage estates.
