National business consultancy
We help businesses succeed.
One firm, one ecosystem of services, one team that knows your numbers. Accountancy, payroll, advisory, procurement, HR, marketing, growth planning, restructuring and the business systems that tie it all together.
Or call 07498 048243. No charge, no pitch.
- Led by an AAT member
- UK-wide delivery
- Fixed fees, agreed up front
- Ten disciplines, one firm
- FCA-authorised partner network
- Built on real operating experience
What is keeping you up at night?
Start with the problem. We will show you the plan.
Most businesses do not fail for lack of ambition. They fail because the numbers, the people, the systems and the market were never in the same conversation. We put them there.
A changing world
The world your business trades in has changed. Most advice has not.
Costs, tax rules, employment law, customer behaviour and technology have all moved in the last few years, and they keep moving. An accountant who files once a year and a consultant with a decade-old framework are not enough.
Fortis is built for that world. We work inside the numbers every month, we run modern systems and AI in our own businesses, and we know where each of them helps and where each of them hurts. That is the whole point of an ecosystem: every discipline, kept current, in one conversation.
Five forces reshaping owner-managed businesses
- 01
Cost pressure
Energy, wages, materials and borrowing have all moved. Margins that worked five years ago do not work now.
- 02
Tax and regulation
Making Tax Digital, employment law reform, data protection and sector rules keep changing the compliance load.
- 03
People
Hiring is harder, expectations are higher and retaining good people is a competitive advantage in itself.
- 04
Technology and AI
AI and cloud tools can remove hours of admin a week, or waste months and leak data. The difference is knowing which is which.
- 05
Customer expectations
Buyers research online, expect instant answers and compare you nationally. Your website is now your first salesperson.
AI, without the hype
We use it every day. We also know exactly where it goes wrong.
AI is one strand of what we do, not the headline. But because we have deployed it across our own operations, from drafting specifications to answering staff questions, we can tell you honestly where it will save your team hours and where it will cost you money, data or credibility.
Where AI genuinely helps
- Drafting quotes, specifications and proposals from your own templates
- Answering staff questions from your own procedures and price lists
- Triaging enquiries and summarising calls and meetings
- Extracting data from invoices, documents and forms
- Reporting that writes its own commentary from the numbers
Where it goes wrong
- Confident answers that are simply wrong, used without a check
- Customer or staff data pasted into consumer tools
- Tools bought on a demo and abandoned within a quarter
- Automating a broken process and making it fail faster
- No audit trail, no ownership, no one accountable for the output
The ecosystem
Ten disciplines, three jobs: run the business, grow it, protect it.
Most firms sell one of these. We put them under one roof so your accountant, your HR adviser, your procurement lead and your systems builder are the same team, working from the same numbers.
Run
The disciplines every business has to get right every month: accurate accounts, staff paid on time, people managed properly and systems that remove the admin.
Grow
Advice, planning and marketing to take a business that works and make it bigger, more profitable and less dependent on its owner.
Protect
Controlling what you spend, reshaping the business when it needs it, and making sure the right cover and planning are in place through FCA-authorised partners.
Why one firm
The patchwork is costing you more than you think.
Five suppliers, five invoices, five versions of the truth, and the owner stuck in the middle translating. Decisions fall through the gaps between them. Fortis closes the gaps.
The usual patchwork
- An accountant who files but does not explain
- A payroll bureau that never speaks to the accountant
- An HR consultant who has not seen the numbers
- An agency measured on clicks, not enquiries
- Software chosen by whoever sold it best
- You, as the go-between for all of them
The Fortis ecosystem
- One team with one picture of the business
- Accounts, payroll and HR that reconcile with each other
- Advice grounded in your actual figures
- Marketing measured on cost per enquiry and per sale
- Systems designed around how your work actually flows
- A single conversation, a single plan, one firm accountable
Built by operators
We have made payroll on a Friday, chased the invoice to fund it, and built the system that stopped it happening again.
Fortis grew out of running a national contracting business, not out of a textbook. That is why the advice is practical and the systems actually get used.
Sectors
Who we work with
The problems are the same in every sector. The detail is not. We know the detail in these.
Construction & Trades
CIS, job costing, subcontractors, cash flow and the systems to run it all.
ExploreManufacturing & Engineering
Unit costing, material procurement, capacity planning and funded growth.
ExploreProfessional Services
Pricing, utilisation, partner reporting and systems that free up fee-earners.
ExploreRetail, Hospitality & Leisure
Weekly margin, payroll for shift teams, supplier costs and seasonal cash.
ExploreHealth & Care
Large payrolls, agency costs, regulatory HR and funded growth.
ExploreTechnology & Online Businesses
Recurring revenue reporting, unit economics, funding readiness and automation.
Explore
Getting started
Three steps from first call to measurable progress.
- 01
A conversation
Thirty minutes on the phone or a video call. You tell us where the business is, what is working and what is not. We tell you honestly whether and how we can help.
- 02
A diagnostic
We look at the numbers, the people, the systems and the market and come back with the two or three things that would make the biggest difference, with a fixed-fee proposal.
- 03
Delivery and accountability
We do the work, or bring in the right discipline from the ecosystem, and we review progress with you against agreed measures every month or quarter.
How we engage
Three ways to work with us. All of them fixed fee.
Fixed-fee project
A defined piece of work with a clear outcome
Scoped in writing, priced before we start, delivered to a date. No hourly surprises.
Typical: Diagnostic, procurement review, HR foundations, website build, growth plan, systems build.
Monthly retainer
Ongoing services and an adviser on call
A fixed monthly fee covering the agreed services, reviewed annually or when the business changes.
Typical: Accountancy, payroll, bookkeeping, HR advice line, marketing management, systems support.
Fractional leadership
Finance or operations leadership without the full-time cost
A set number of days each month, in the business, owning the numbers and the plan alongside you.
Typical: A part-time finance director or operations lead embedded in your leadership team.
In practice
We built a full business management platform for a national contracting business because nothing on the market fitted. Leads, quotes, specifications, projects, invoicing and AI-assisted drafting, in one system, used every day.
That is the experience behind our systems and AI work, and it is why our advice on process and technology is practical rather than theoretical.
Business systems & AISystems and AI
Technology that removes the admin, built by people who depend on it.
Spreadsheets, re-keying and badly fitting software cost growing businesses hours every week. We map how work actually flows, automate what should be automated and build what genuinely needs building, with AI deployed where it saves measurable time.
Richard Yeo
Director · MAAT (AAT member)
Leadership
“I built Fortis because I kept needing a firm like it and could not find one.”
Richard Yeo is a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians and the founder of Fortis. Before and alongside the practice he has built and run a national specialist contracting business, designed its business management platform from the ground up and put AI to work across its operations.
That mix of accountancy, operations and technology is the Fortis approach in one person: the numbers, the people, the systems and the market in the same conversation.
Insights and tools
Useful before you ever pay us a penny.
Plain-English guides written by people who do the work, and free tools that give you a number in two minutes.
What does Fortis Business Advisory do?
We help businesses succeed. Fortis is a national business consultancy with an ecosystem of services: accountancy, payroll and bookkeeping, business advisory, procurement and cost control, HR, marketing, growth planning, restructuring, business systems and AI, plus introductions to independent FCA-authorised partners for insurance and financial planning.
Where are you based and who do you work with?
Our registered office is in Bodmin, Cornwall, and we work with businesses across the whole of the UK. Nearly everything is delivered through cloud software, video calls and secure document exchange, with site visits where they add value.
Do I have to use every service?
No. Start with one service, often accountancy, payroll or a specific advisory project, and add others as the relationship develops. The advantage of one firm is that the services join up when you want them to.
Are you accountants or consultants?
Both. The practice is led by an AAT member and delivers full accountancy and payroll services. The advisory, procurement, HR, marketing and systems work is grounded in those numbers, which is what makes the advice practical.
How do you charge?
Fixed fees, agreed in writing before any work starts. Ongoing services are priced monthly; projects are quoted as a fixed fee against a clear scope. We do not bill routine work by the hour.
Let’s talk about your business.
A thirty-minute conversation, no charge and no pitch. Tell us where the business is and where you want it to be, and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.