About the Client

Plastic Collective UK Limited is a social enterprise committed to empowering communities to turn plastic waste into opportunity across Asia-Pacific and Africa. Their mission includes creating sustainable plastic recycling micro-enterprises, advancing plastic-offset programs, and developing traceable systems for plastic recovery initiatives.

Challenges

Plastic Collective required full-service financial operations support, including:

• Migrating from Xero to QuickBooks Online (QBO) while building a bespoke general ledger (GL) and project tracking system.

• Delivering timely, insightful reporting to guide decisions across weekly and quarterly horizons.

• Developing financial models to help their project operators negotiate funding.

• Building robust cash forecasting, budget vs. actual variance analysis, and cash burn visibility.

• Managing UK payroll, payment runs, and compliance including VAT, year-end reporting, payroll submissions, and pension re-enrollment.

• Preparing critical World Bank submissions, and serving as their finance team during stakeholder engagement.

• Streamlining revenue recognition and spend management processes.

Our Approach

1. End-to-End Finance Function Delivery

• AccoutUp stepped in as their complete in-house finance function—customizing every part of the financial process to match their evolving needs.

  
  

2. Technology Migration & Reporting Infrastructure

• Migrated them from Xero to QuickBooks Online, designing a GL and project tracking system to deliver real-time insights.

• Established a weekly reporting cadence, paired with a quarterly reporting pack for project operators.

  
  

3. Strategic Financial Modeling & Forecasting

• Created financial models to support project partners in securing financing with lenders.

• Implemented cash flow forecasting, highlighting burn rate, future cash positioning, and conducting variance analysis against budgets.

  
  

4. Operational Finance & Compliance

• Set up monthly payment runs, approval workflows, and UK payroll processing.

• Handled all compliance—from quarterly VAT filings and payroll submissions to year-end reporting packs and pension re-enrollment.

  
  

5. Stakeholder Representation & Reporting

• Acted as the finance team for stakeholder meetings, ensuring clear financial communication.

• Streamlined review of project operators’ management accounts and financial models, enabling informed quarterly performance evaluation.

• Delivered ad-hoc reporting for World Bank funding applications.

  
  

6. Operational Efficiency in FinOps

• Enhanced processes around revenue recognition and spend management, aligning practices to their scale and strategic objectives.

Results & Impact

Summary

Since December 2024, AccoutUp has run Plastic Collective UK Limited's entire finance function—from system migration and reporting frameworks to financial modeling, forecasting, compliance, and stakeholder communications. We’ve ensured the finance operations are responsive, accurate, and aligned with the scale and complexity of their mission-driven work.