Financial support that helps us plan ahead

We need to know where we are financially so that we can plan ahead and make sensible decisions about the organisation.

Since working with Beyond Profit, our finances are much easier to understand. We have clearer information about what is coming in, what we are spending and what funding we have available, and we can talk things through with the team when we need to.

That means we can spend less time trying to make sense of the figures and more time thinking about what they mean for Young Lewisham Project.

About Young Lewisham Project

Young Lewisham Project is an alternative education provider based in Forest Hill, South East London.

We work with young people who may not be reaching their full potential in mainstream education, providing supportive vocational programmes that help them develop practical skills and improve their future prospects.

Beyond Profit has looked after our finance function since April 2025.

Getting a clearer picture of our finances

Before working with Beyond Profit, we found it difficult to get a clear picture from the financial information we were receiving.

We needed to be able to look at the figures and understand where we stood, rather than having financial reports that were difficult for our Managing Director and trustees to make sense of.

Beyond Profit has made the information much clearer and easier for us to use.

We now have a dashboard showing our income and expenditure, how we are doing against budget and the position of our different funds. Beyond Profit also explains the figures and highlights anything we need to be thinking about.

For us, that is really important. It isn’t just about having the numbers – it’s about understanding what they mean for the organisation.

Helping us make decisions

Having a clearer picture means we can use our financial information when we are making practical decisions about what happens next.

We can look at what funding we have available, what our costs are likely to be and whether there are any gaps coming up that we need to plan for.

It also helps us think about things such as whether we need to bring in more grant funding or whether the prices we charge for our services are covering the costs involved.

If we’re planning ahead and want to know what we can afford to do, we can talk it through with Beyond Profit and understand the financial position before making a decision.

Making the day-to-day finances easier

Beyond Profit also looks after the day-to-day side of our finances, including bookkeeping, payroll, supplier payments, management accounts and invoicing.

Invoicing the agencies that refer young people to us is a really important part of this. It can be quite complex because the amount we charge can vary considerably depending on the needs of each young person. Beyond Profit manages this invoicing for us, which has been a massive help.

Collecting the money isn’t always straightforward either. Beyond Profit regularly updates us on outstanding invoices, so we know what is still owed and can keep on top of payments coming in.

This is particularly important because income from referring agencies is our main source of income. Having a clear picture of what has been invoiced, what has been paid and what is still outstanding helps us understand where we are financially and plan ahead.

Having Beyond Profit manage this alongside the rest of our finances makes things much easier for us and means we have a better overall picture of our financial position.

Support we can actually use

What we value is being able to get financial information and support in a way that makes sense to us.

If we have a question about what money is available, what we can afford or what we need to plan for, we want to be able to ask it and get a straightforward answer.

As Anna Lumley, Managing Director of Young Lewisham Project, says:

“Easy to access, jargon free financial support, which has enabled us to be much more efficient and manage and plan our finances better.”

That’s what makes the difference for us. We have a clearer understanding of our finances, we can see where we stand and we have people we can talk to when we need to work out what the numbers mean for our plans.