The 3 As of April: appreciating, analysing and arranging (by Nicola Moore-Miller)
April is my joint favourite month of the year, alongside December, for a whole multitude of reasons which I’ll explore in this reflection.
On a personal level, my family celebrates several birthdays in April, including mine, and we always take a family holiday over the Easter break.
On a professional level, April is the month in which Jayva was first launched. 29th April 2014, to be exact. Similar to many of our clients, it’s financial year end which means gazing into the past and forecasting ahead. As a qualified Chartered Management Accountant, I love the number crunching this activity demands.
April also signifies the onset of spring. It’s an occasion that represents new beginnings and new ideas. As I’ve already intimated, there’s lots to plan for and look forward to.
Appreciating Jayva, our partners and our clients
Casting my mind back to 2014 when I registered Jayva (or, rather, ‘Jaeva’ as it was then) with Companies House and set up a business with only £500 start-up money and zero clients at that point, it was scary and thrilling in equal measure.
Fast forward to April 2022 as we mark our eighth anniversary and applaud the 25-strong, global business we are today, there really is plenty to be grateful for. That first year was one of growing relationships and business development. Quite amazing to think that our revenue has grown from £50k in 2015 and we’re looking to close 2022 with a global turnover of £1.35m/$1.75m!
From the bottom of my heart, I thank the people who make up the incredible Jayva team, the wonderful partners we work with and, of course, our clients who’ve shown loyalty throughout these early years. Without you, there would be no Jayva.
Analysing statistics at financial year end
For the majority of businesses, April is year end. This doesn’t just require submitting VAT data to HMRC and getting your accounts spick and span in readiness for the 2022-23 fiscal year. It’s also an opportune moment to use this data for business planning purposes.
In order to plan, you must first extrapolate meaning from historical financial information. Can you spot any weaknesses for rectification? Can you identify any strengths to play to your further commercial advantage? Can you ascertain trends to predict performance for the year ahead?
Yes, April is an extremely busy month for companies but, in my opinion, it’s ‘good busy’. It’s a phenomenal month as it’s the dawn of the next stage in your business’s ongoing journey – and Jayva’s.
It’s timely to mention our new collaboration with Katchr, the analytics platform provider, at this point. The hot-off-the-press news is our partnership with Katchr to deliver true business intelligence in an easy-to-understand-and-access format, backed by our implementation and training support for transformational results. There’s more on Jayva-Katchr in our ‘Essential management information for successful law firm managers’ white paper and website.
Arranging (or, rather, planning) what’s to come
The best aspect of April, by far, is feeling invigorated by the possibilities of new opportunities. As a small business, we take time out of the business in order to work on the business. Alongside our reporting and forecasting data, we fine tune our schedule for the next year, make plans and set our budget accordingly.
This task necessitates liaising with our partners about upcoming projects, including LEAP Legal Software with whom we work very closely to implement its case management software to law firms in the UK, Ireland and USA. Our biggest-ever LEAP implementation is happening this October and we can’t wait to get started.
Another exciting project nearing its launch is our new suite of products, ‘InQuo’. The first module of which is a conflict checking app, integrated with LEAP. It’s designed to help law firms meet their regulatory and compliance obligations with an operationally efficient process. We already have clients in the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia and Canada waiting in the wings to become our beta clients. Look out for a full announcement coming soon.
At the heart of Jayva is our team spirit. We work hard and we play hard. We place great value on each and every staff member and, as cringy as it sounds, we really are a work family. Our team rewards us with excellence, dedication and hard work. It’s always nice to have some team time together. Here are some snaps from our recent Manchester photography day which will shortly feature in our new promo video:
We also have another get together planned in April; this being a leaving party for Nicola Jones who’s moving back to the USA after a couple of years here in the UK. You’ll be pleased to learn that Nicola’s staying with Jayva as our Head of Accounting & Data Quality (US). Already boasting dual British-American citizenship, Nicola’s heading back to Pennsylvania. I’m sure you’ll join us in wishing Nicola the very best of luck with her relocation.
Wishing all of you a relaxing Easter weekend and good luck for next year’s planning. If you’d like to get in touch with Jayva, be it for support or to ask about anything I’ve covered in this article, please don’t hesitate to email info@jayvaglobal.com or call +44 (0) 333 20 20 995 (UK) / +1 888 563 9342 (US). We’d love to hear from you.