Aescent
Finance Director Support For Your Business
Clarity · Control · Confidence
Financial leadership bringing strategic value to critical business decisions
Operational delivery that turns plans into measurable progress
Senior expertise aligned with the realities of your business
How i add value
Years Senior Financial Experience
Financial Leadership When You Need It
Businesses benefit from experienced financial leadership at every stage, from establishing strong foundations to supporting growth, improving performance or navigating change and complexity.
Through flexible, hands-on financial leadership, I support businesses at the moments when experienced financial guidance matters most.
I work with businesses on a tailored, flexible basis, giving you the financial firepower, insight, and guidance of a senior finance professional without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Acting as your trusted partner and financial compass, I help you navigate your financial landscape and decsions with confidence.
Whether you’re a start-up, a growing business, or an established organisation, I support owners and leaders through periods of transformation, transition, or challenge. I take a hands-on, analytical, and strategic approach, combining financial discipline with commercial insight to bring stability, practical solutions, and lasting improvement.
why work with me
Businesses can face a wide range of situations where experienced financial leadership makes a real difference. Whether you’re starting up, scaling, or managing complex change or challenges, I provide flexible support tailored to your needs.
Common scenarios may include:
Early stage: Establishing financial systems, budgets, forecasting, reporting and finance function
Rapid growth: Supporting businesses experiencing fast growth that need stronger financial planning and oversight
Fundraising: Preparing financial models, forecasts, and reporting in readiness for fundraising activities
Strategic financial leadership: Providing senior financial insight where a full-time Finance Director is not yet required
Cash flow challenges: Improving cash flow forecasting and working capital management, liquidity and resilience
Major business change: Supporting mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, expansion, or new product launches.
Improving reporting: Implementing better financial systems, processes, and management reporting.
Interim leadership: Providing interim Finance Director support during recruitment or leadership transitions.
Exit preparation: Strengthening financial reporting and supporting due diligence ahead of a sale
With fractional support, you get senior financial leadership exactly when you need it, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
A Fractional Finance Director gives your business access to expert financial leadership, delivering insight, experience, and strategic direction from day one.
Fractional Finance Director
Strategic financial leadership aligned to business phase and goals
Improved and cashflow management and forecasting
Robust financial planning and forecasting
Insightful business performance reporting, analysis and metrics
Improved profitability and efficiency
Investor ready financial models, reporting and due diligence readiness
Scalable finance systems and streamlined financial processes
Strong financial controls, compliance and governance
Fully capable and fit for purpose finance function
Flexible Senior Financial Leadership
who i Support
I work with small and medium-sized businesses on a flexible, tailored basis, providing the senior finance leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. The finance director who is your trusted partner, critical friend and financial compass.
I support organisations at different stages of their journey, from start-ups and growing companies to more established businesses, during periods of transformation, transition, or challenge or simply when the steady ship needs steering. This includes owner-managed businesses or those that are part of a larger group and, they may be owner-funded or backed by private equity or venture capital.
As a proud Welsh woman, I am particularly passionate about supporting businesses based in Wales and contributing to the strength of the Welsh business community. Based just west of Carmarthen, I cover Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire (Ceredigion) and along the M4 corridor from Llanelli to Cardiff, via Swansea and Bridgend.
Clarity
Turning complex financial information into clear, meaningful insight so you always understand your business performance, cashflow, and future outlook.
control
Establishing strong financial processes, reporting, and discipline to give you greater visibility and control over your business finances.
Confidence
Providing trusted advice, strategic perspective, and a sounding board for important decisions so you can navigate challenges and opportunities with confidence.
benefits of working with me
Working with me, gives you senior financial expertise without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. I provide hands-on, practical support tailored to your business, helping you make decisions with confidence and create lasting impact.
Key benefits include:
Operational clarity and control
Confident decision-making
Stronger financial resilience
Improved profit margins
Ultimate goal readiness and defined runway
Reduced stress and improved wellbeing for leadership teams
Flexible engagement when you need it, for as long as you need it
Senior expertise at a fraction of the cost
Beyond Finance: Expert Partners You Can Trust
While financial leadership is at the heart of what I do, businesses often need access to a wider range of specialist expertise. Over the years I have built a trusted network of experienced professionals who can provide additional support when needed. This means I can connect you with reliable experts who complement the financial guidance I provide, ensuring you have the right advice in place when you need it.
Through this network, I can introduce you to trusted specialists in areas including:
Payroll services
Taxation, tax planning and R&D tax relief
Independent financial advice (pensions, mortgages, and protection policies)
Commercial and personal insurance
Audit and regulatory compliance
Foreign currency management
Corporate finance and transaction support
HR, employment law and employee benefits
Legal services
Banking and funding support
Customer relationship management and mediation
This wider network ensures that, when the need arises, you have access to experienced professionals who understand the practical realities of running a business.
Who am i
Anna E Simmonds, FCCA, Assoc. CIPD
Anna provides expert fractional financial leadership and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (Assoc. CIPD).
With more than 20 years of senior finance experience, Anna works closely with business owners and leadership teams to bring clarity, structure, and confidence to financial operations and decision-making. She is known for quickly understanding organisations and building trusted relationships while providing practical and commercially focused advice.
Her expertise spans the full finance function, including financial planning, financial and management reporting, regulatory compliance, cashflow optimisation, risk management, and team leadership. Anna has supported organisations through key stages including start-up, scale-up, mergers and acquisitions, and periods of significant change, combining strategic insight with a hands-on approach that delivers lasting and meaningful impact.
Anna brings a blend of local familiarly and wider world experience to her work and life. She was born and bred in west Wales, beginning her career in Carmarthen in the early 1990’s before heading to London in 1996, where she completed her accountancy studies. Returning to Cardiff in 2003 and finally to her west Wales roots in 2018.
Anna is married to Craig, and they live in Carmarthenshire, just west of Carmarthen and, not too far from Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire. Their home is shared with two energetic Springer Spaniels, Buddy & Olly. In her spare time, Anna enjoys sewing, gardening and reading. However, her real passion, is food and drink, and she adores cooking and baking and, can often be found dining out around south and west Wales. Travel is another great love and is rarely without a trip or two planned. Of course, being fortunate enough to live in such a beautiful part of the world herself, she loves spending time outdoors in the fresh air exploring the stunning coastline and countryside of Wales.
Aescent – your financial sherpa
The name AESCENT combines my initials (AES) with the idea of ascending a mountain, because navigating finance can sometimes feel like a steep climb.
Just as a sherpa guides climbers safely to the summit, I provide expert guidance, insight, and support to help businesses reach their goals with confidence.
With AESCENT, you get more than numbers, you get a trusted partner helping you navigate challenges, find the best route, and achieve growth.
testimonials
I worked closely with Anna during a particularly important period for the Group, at a time when it was essential that we could rely on strong, experienced financial leadership within the business. From the outset, she provided a level of reassurance and stability that was invaluable. Her clear judgement, transparency, and firm grasp of both the detail and the bigger picture quickly gave us confidence that the finance function was in safe hands.
Anna brought a disciplined, structured approach that significantly improved the quality, reliability, and credibility of financial information being reported to Group. She demonstrated a strong ability to identify underlying risks, address them pragmatically, and establish robust processes that ensured issues were resolved and would not recur. Her proactive communication style meant there were no surprises, and she became a trusted and dependable partner at Group level.
Importantly, they balanced operational engagement with strategic oversight, helping to create a finance function that could support the business effectively while meeting the standards and expectations of a plc environment. Her calm authority, sound judgement, and ability to quickly bring clarity to complex situations are exactly the qualities that make her highly effective in a Fractional Finance Director capacity.
I had the pleasure of working with Anna for over two years during a critical period of transition for the business, following its full integration into a plc environment. She joined at a time when the finance function required strong, experienced leadership, and she quickly established herself as a calm, credible, and highly capable operator. Drawing on deep transformation experience, she brought clarity, structure, and direction, successfully rebuilding confidence in the finance function among both operational stakeholders and group leadership.
What distinguished Anna was her ability to combine strategic oversight with practical delivery. She strengthened governance, improved the quality and reliability of financial information, and introduced disciplined planning and reporting processes that enabled better decision-making across the organisation. Just as importantly, she fostered a more collaborative, commercially focused culture within the team and built strong, trusted relationships across the business. Her impact was both immediate and sustainable, demonstrating exactly the kind of judgement, adaptability, and leadership that organisations need from a high-calibre senior financial professional.
I had complete confidence leaving the finance function in Anna’s hands while I was on maternity leave.
As an interim leader, Anna quickly embedded themselves in the organisation and delivered far more than just ‘cover’. She successfully finalised a complex group structure navigating stakeholder relationships, led and produced a sophisticated financial model on Rent to Own product which supported strategic decision-making, and provided calm, credible leadership to the Board and finance team during a period of change.
Her ability to combine technical expertise with clear communication and strong leadership meant the business was in an even stronger position on my return.
I would not hesitate to recommend Anna to any organisation looking for senior level financial leadership with real
impact.
Anna was one of the first hires when our Australian parent company established its UK entity, and she quickly proved invaluable as we entered a completely new market. From the outset, she took ownership of building our finance function from the ground up, implementing robust, scalable processes to support our start-up operations in Wales while ensuring strong governance, clear reporting, and full regulatory compliance.
Her role spanned the full breadth of financial operations, including financial and management reporting, project cost control, budgeting and forecasting, cashflow management, business modelling, taxation, and compliance. She also supported key people-related processes where needed, ensuring they were handled appropriately and in line with legal requirements.
Anna played a pivotal role in securing and managing external funding, leading grant claims, audits, and R&D tax credit processes, and helping finalise and manage debt funding facilities. Throughout her time with us, she consistently demonstrated initiative, reliability,and a practical, solutions-focused approach, making a lasting contribution as a highly valued member of our founding UK team.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Anna as a highly capable, dependable, and professional finance leader.
Contact Me
High-level financial support tailored to your needs, when you need it, for as long as you need it.