Save valuable time and effort…
For lower league football clubs, every minute is precious, and every penny accounted for. Club officials, often volunteers or stretched staff, wear multiple hats – from groundskeeping to ticketing, scouting to sponsorship. The last thing they need is to be bogged down by complex financial administration. This is where a dedicated partner like Full Time Finance becomes invaluable, specifically designed to liberate clubs from time-consuming financial burdens.
Cost Control & Revenue Generation
Financial success is a delicate balancing act between meticulous cost control and creative revenue generation. Full Time Finance provides the precision tools to manage both, turning guesswork into strategy.
On Cost Control, we offer:
Real-Time Visibility: By centralising all club expenditures—from the player wage bill to the cost of maintaining the club facilities—Full Time Finance gives management a clear, instant view of cash flow. This allows clubs to identify and cut non-essential spending before it becomes a crisis, preventing the all-too-common pitfalls of overpaying or overextending.
Budgeting Accuracy: Their expert financial modelling helps clubs set realistic, 'stress-tested' budgets that account for the unpredictable nature of football.
On Revenue Generation, we provide:
Diversification Insight: We can track all revenue streams—tickets, hospitality, merchandise, and facility hire—identifying which areas are performing well and which ones need a strategic push. This data-driven approach allows the club to confidently invest time and limited resources into the most profitable opportunities.
Grant Funding Support: The application process is complex, time-consuming, and highly reliant on robust financial data. This is where Full Time Finance provides a decisive advantage.
By integrating rigorous controls with smart, data-led revenue strategies, Full Time Finance help to transform the club's financial operations from a risky chore into a powerful, sustainable engine for growth.
Financial Planning, Reporting, and Compliance.
Forecasting and Budgeting: We can create detailed, rolling financial forecasts and scenario models. This allows the club's board to understand the financial impact of key decisions—from a new player signing to a crucial ground maintenance project—before the money is spent. It replaces reactive spending with a proactive, sustainable budget.
Timely and Transparent Reporting: Accurate reporting is vital for governance, member trust, and stakeholder engagement. Full Time Finance lifts this technical burden
Compliance and Risk Mitigation: With increasing scrutiny from footballing bodies and tax authorities, non-compliance can carry severe penalties. Full Time Finance ensures the club remains in good standing.
Automate and Centralise Fee Collection
Action: Implement a modern digital payment system (e.g., direct debit/online portal) for season tickets, match-day gate receipts, membership dues, and player subscriptions.
Result: Eliminates the laborious, manual process of cash handling, chasing late payments, and reconciling bank statements, freeing up volunteers to focus on club development
Optimise Supplier Contract Management
Action: Conduct a professional audit of major recurring costs, such as utilities (electricity for floodlights), insurance, kit/equipment suppliers, and stadium maintenance.
Result: Use negotiation expertise and industry benchmarking can secure better long-term contracts, leading to significant annual savings on essential operating expenses.
Implement Robust Cost Control and Budgeting
Action: Introduce a formal purchase order and approval system with clear budget limits for different departments (e.g., first team, academy, facilities).
Result: Prevents ad hoc or emotional spending by managers and directors, ensuring that expenditure remains aligned with the approved budget and the club's available cash flow.
Streamline Payroll and Tax Compliance
Action: Take over payroll processing for players, staff, and coaches, managing PAYE, National Insurance, and pension contributions.
Result: Ensures timely and correct tax filings (avoiding costly HMRC penalties and fines) and manages complex issues like agent fees or player bonuses, saving the volunteer treasurer enormous stress and time.
Professionalise Sponsorship and Grant Reporting
Action: Help structure sponsorship proposals with clear, professional financial projections and provide the necessary audited accounts (signed off by accountants) required for larger, more lucrative grants (e.g., from sports foundations or local councils).
Result: A professional presentation and reliable compliance significantly increases the club's success rate in securing major external funding and sponsorship deals.
Player Hub
Our "Player Hub" is a critical, dedicated helpline designed to provide practical, prompt financial advice specifically for semi-professional players. Unlike elite athletes, lower league players often juggle their football commitments with a full-time job, making their financial situation complex, unstable, and highly vulnerable to career-ending injury. The Hub is their essential safety net.
Full Time Financial Outsourcing
Outsourcing a football club's finance department to a specialist firm like "Full Time Finance" (FTF) offers a practical solution to the financial pressures of managing a lower league football club.
FTF seamlessly integrates into the club's operation, acting as an off-site financial backbone. Their services typically include:
Day-to-Day Accounting: Managing all supplier payments, invoicing sponsors, chasing outstanding debt (credit control), and handling complex staff/player payroll.
Cash Flow Management: Providing vital weekly or monthly cash flow forecasts to ensure the club can meet its wage bill and other critical expenses, especially during lean periods.
Financial Compliance: Assisting in the preparation of statutory year-end accounts and, critically, ensuring the club adheres to all league financial regulations (e.g., wage-to-revenue ratios or FFP-like guidelines) to avoid fines or sanctions.*
Strategic Reporting: Delivering bespoke management reports that break down revenue by category (matchday, hospitality, sponsorship), giving the club's board and general manager real-time data to make commercial and strategic decisions.
By handing over the administrative burden to FTF's experts, the club's management is freed up to focus on core football and commercial activities—selling tickets, securing sponsorships, and improving on-field performance—with the confidence that their financial health is under expert, full-time care.
*Year-end accounts to be signed off/produced by appropriate accountant.
Advisory, Board & Ad-hoc Support
Outsourcing the high-level Advisory, Board & Ad-hoc Support functions to a specialist financial firm like "Full Time Finance" (FTF) allows a football club to gain executive financial expertise without incurring the substantial cost.
FTF provides a Virtual Financial Officer (VFO) service, ensuring the club's leadership is equipped for strategic decision-making. This advisory support is critical for lower league clubs navigating complex financial challenges and growth opportunities.
Financial Modelling: This is vital for evaluating major club decisions. FTF would build models for scenarios like a potential stadium expansion, the financial impact of promotion or relegation, or the viability of a new commercial venture (e.g., establishing a new revenue stream).
Outsourcing ad-hoc financial projects to a specialised firm like "Full Time Finance" (FTF) offers a football club the flexibility to tackle major, non-routine financial tasks without bloating its permanent payroll. These projects are typically one-off needs that require intense, specialised effort over a short period.
Sponsorship Opportunities
We recognise that keeping costs at a low is a vital part of running a lower tier football club. For that reason we offer sponsorship deals whereby we provide our financial expertise in return for exposure.
Discounted/Free Financial Services: The primary benefit is FTF providing their essential services—such as Virtual Financial Officer (VFO) support, payroll management, and bookkeeping—at a heavily discounted or zero cost.
Access to Expert Advice: The club gets a strategic, experienced financial voice to help evaluate major spending decisions (like a new player contract or ground improvements). This advice prevents costly financial mistakes that could jeopardise the club's long-term health.
How it works?
Should your club need financial assistance then we can exchange that for value-in-kind type payments. The work required will be assesed and a proposal made to your club, this may be in the form of a post on social media, an advertising board at the ground or shirt sponsorship etc.
This arrangement provides the club with high-calibre financial expertise while exposing Full Time Finance to a local, loyal audience.
Each case will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and the proposal put forward to your club. Unfortunately, not all work will be redeemable via sponshorship but please do book a discovery call for more information.