Managing Finances Multiple Care Homes: The FD’s 30-day Stabilisation Plan

If you’re new in post as Finance Director for a multi-site care operator, the first month is rarely about transformation. It’s about getting grip: predictable month-end, credible P&L by home, cash visibility you can trust, and controls that improve governance without creating a second job for Home Managers.

Here is a 30-day stabilisation plan you can use when inheriting a patchwork of spreadsheets, legacy processes, and systems that don’t talk to each other.

But first, what does stabilised look like after 30 days? It’s not perfection you’re aiming for perfection in four weeks. You’re aiming for repeatable:

• A close cadence everyone understands (with deadlines that stick).
• A consistent cost centre structure so you can compare homes like-for-like.
• Cash visibility that doesn’t rely on one heroic spreadsheet.
• Controls that work in the real world: approvals, coding discipline, audit trail—without clogging up the homes.
• A short list of integration quick wins (payroll/rota, billing/care, bank) that remove manual re-keying.

The principles (so you don’t accidently boil the ocean)

1. Standardise first, automate second.
   Automating inconsistent coding just gives you faster bad reporting.
2. Protect operations.
   Any change that adds admin to the homes will be bypassed. Design controls that fit how homes actually run.
3. One version of the truth.
   If occupancy, staffing and finance are all telling different stories, you’ll never win the board pack.

Week 1: Triage + set the close cadence

Day 1–2: Map the reality (don’t rely on what the SOP says)

Create a single-page map of:

• Systems in play (accounts, payroll/rota, care/billing, expenses, banking)
• Where key numbers originate (revenue, agency, payroll, occupancy)
• Who owns what (HQ vs home)
• What’s manual vs automated

Output: a “finance stack + data flow” diagram you can show the CEO.

Day 3–5: Lock in a close timetable (even if it’s imperfect)

You need a timetable that’s repeatable and lightweight.

A workable first pass:

• Day 0 (month end): cut-off rules and comms to homes
• Day 1–2: bank reconciliations + key accruals
• Day 3–4: payroll/rota reconciliation, agency accruals, revenue checks
• Day 5: home P&Ls drafted
• Day 6–7: review, narrative, board pack

Publish a simple calendar along with what you need from each home (max 5 bullets).

Controls that won’t annoy Home Managers (start here)

Pick two controls in Week 1:

• Approved supplier list for agency and key categories
• Spend approval thresholds (e.g., anything over £X needs central sign-off)
• Standard coding guide: “If it’s this supplier/category, code it here”

Keep it short. A one-page PDF beats a policy document nobody reads.

Week 2: Reset structure so P&L by home is credible

This is where multi-site finance usually falls apart: inconsistent cost centres, inconsistent coding, and central costs dumped wherever there’s room.

Day 6–10: Fix your cost centre model (minimum viable version)

Your aim is to have a P&L by home, by department, comparable across sites.

A minimum structure:

• Home as the primary cost centre (Home A, Home B, Home C…)
• Department codes consistent across homes (Nursing, Care, Catering, Housekeeping, Maintenance, Admin)
• A clear place for central overheads (Head Office / Central)
• A defined method for central recharges (if applicable)

It’s worth noting that if two homes code the same thing differently, your reporting wont be a single source of truth.

Day 11–12: Create a coding truth table

A simple spreadsheet (or system rule set) that says:

• Top 50 suppliers → exact nominal plus cost centre treatment
• Agency suppliers → always coded consistently, with a clear split between agency, overtime, recruitment

This single step eliminates weeks of “why doesn’t Home 7 match Home 3?”

Day 13–14: Clean up

Tackle the items that wreck care home visibility:

• Agency invoices arriving late (agree an accrual method)
• Utilities timing and allocations
• Repairs and maintenance spikes (capital vs revenue discipline)
• Central costs posted directly to homes without logic

Output by end of Week 2: a draft P&L per home that is directionally right and defensible.

Week 3: Cash visibility and working capital grip

Care operators don’t fail because the P&L is late. They fail because cash is tight and nobody trusts the forecast.

Day 15–17: Build a 13-week cash view you can maintain

Start with:

• Actual bank position (daily/weekly)
• Known payroll dates and big supplier runs
• Agency patterns
• Key income timing (private fees, LA/NHS payments, CHC/ICB timing)

Then add scenario toggles later (occupancy shifts, fee changes, agency spikes).

Day 18–19: Triage debtors

If you’re multi-payer (private, local authority, NHS/CHC), cash pain often sits in:

• Delayed approvals / missing paperwork
• Disputed invoices
• Top-ups not being chased consistently
• Unclear ownership between home/admin and central finance

A quick win would be to assign ownership and a weekly debtor rhythm:

• 30-min weekly AR huddle
• Top 20 debtors, actions and blockers
• Escalation route for disputes

Day 20–21: Make bank recs non-negotiable

If bank recs are late, everything downstream is fiction.

• Automate bank feeds where possible
• Standardise reconciliation rules
• Make “no unreconciled weeks” a KPI

Output: a cash position and 13-week forecast you can explain in 5 minutes.

Week 4: Reporting, governance, and the “don’t-break-the-homes” controls

Week 4 is about making the rhythm stick and making sure you can survive scrutiny (board, audit, PE).

Day 22–24: Produce the first home performance pack

Keep it focused:

• P&L by home (current month + YTD)
• Staffing costs: payroll plus agency, as % revenue and per occupied bed/resident day
• Occupancy and fee rate context
• Cash and debtors summary
• Commentary: what changed, what needs action

This is where “one version of the truth” matters: finance, staffing and occupancy must reconcile logically.

Day 25–27: Strengthen purchase-to-pay controls (without slowing homes)

Home Managers don’t mind controls. They mind admin.

Controls that tend to work:

• Simple approval workflow with thresholds (mobile-friendly if possible)
• Category-based rules (e.g., agency, maintenance, capex)
• Budget visibility at home level (even if it’s high level initially)
• Audit trail by default: who approved, when, why

Avoid controls that fail:

• Complex PO rules for every spend type
• Excessive central gatekeeping
• Anything that requires duplicate data entry

Day 28–30: Identify the integration pressure points

By now you’ll know where time is being wasted:

• Payroll/rota vs finance mismatches
• Agency visibility only after month-end
• Billing/care system living in spreadsheets
• Manual bank downloads and re-keying

A short ‘keep vs integrate vs replace’ list that’s practical and sequenced.

The 30-day checklist

By Day 30, you should have:

Published close timetable and responsibilities

A consistent cost centre model across all homes

Top-supplier coding rules documented

Bank feeds/recs stabilised

A maintainable 13-week cash view

Weekly debtors rhythm with clear ownership

First stable home performance pack produced

Two or three controls implemented that homes actually follow

A short list of integration quick wins with owners and timelines

Common mistakes (so you can avoid them)

• Trying to redesign the entire chart of accounts in month one (you’ll stall)
• Asking homes for more data before you’ve fixed coding consistency
• Building a cash forecast that only one person can maintain
• Rolling out “controls” that create friction and get bypassed
• Believing integration promises that aren’t proven in practice

How So-Max can help

If you’re managing finances multiple care homes and want to stabilise fast without disrupting operations, So-Max combines accountancy-led consultancy with finance software and proven integrations to create a single source of truth across your group—reporting, cash and controls that stand up to scrutiny.

Want a second set of eyes on your finance setup? Book a short call with a So-Max consultant and we’ll help you pinpoint where your current close, structure and integrations are creating rework (and margin leakage), then map a realistic plan to stabilise month-end and improve visibility across every home.