Amethyst Racoon has brought clarity and responsiveness to the financial workings of New Mills Festival. We can now see the current state of each project and event within the Festival as well as overall figures. Additionally by having immediate access and understanding of all our figures when she attends meetings Sara-Jayne is able to directly respond to any queries that arise on whatever aspect of our finances.

For the project that I was directly responsible for she ensured that it came in on budget and was able to follow through on all grant requirements, etc. Beyond that she is personally interested in how the various events are doing and can contribute informed suggestions on how to proceed.

I would happily recommend her services to any arts organisation or individual trader.

A huge thank you for the bookkeeping spreadsheet! It’s amazing! Made my end of month mad rush to do the books so so so much easier! Absolutely love it thank you so so much!

I have had an introductory appointment and have also attended a ‘Record keeping for makers’ workshop, both of which were extremely informative. The workshop in particular was great, a recording of which was provided afterwards, so that I can refer back to it, rather than trying to remember all of the information provided, which is a fantastic service.

Would definitely recommend.

We have had the immense pleasure of working in a voluntary capacity with Sara-Jayne from Amethyst Raccoon for the last two years as bookkeeper for New Mills Festival CIC.

Prior to Sara-Jayne joining us the job of generating accounts and invoices, providing updates to the rest of the committee and the multitude of other day to day tasks had defaulted through a lack of volunteers to one of the existing volunteer directors and the additional workload was proving too much. We always seemed to be playing catch-up and preparing the books and making them balance for meetings especially the AGM was hugely stressful.

Since Sara-Jayne has joined us, she has expanded the role of bookkeeper way beyond our expectations. This has freed up other volunteers to think more strategically and to concentrate of the sustainability of the organisation. The directors are now always fully briefed on the finances and are confident that the bookkeeping and day to day financial tasks are in safe hands.

Although Sara-Jayne is a volunteer she treats the role with the utmost professionalism with exceptional attention to detail. A huge benefit has been transferring our accounting to an online and more automated system which has meant the end of large amounts of paper to be archived and a central point where directors can find information.

However, whilst we would highly recommend Sara-Jayne for her professionalism it is her personal touch and genuine interest and concern in our organisation and activities that has impressed us the most.

Sara-Jayne carried out an hour masterclass in my group for small business owners. She was super well prepared and gave so much value. Sara-Jayne knows her subject so well and was able to give the attendees with practical and useful knowledge. She also helped increase their confidence in understanding what they could and shouldn’t do.
Thank you Sara-Jayne it was super helpful.