Case Study: Advanced Blast Protection Systems

The company

Founded in 2015 in Houston, Texas Saleria was founded with the mission to protect people and physical assets from the damaging effects of explosive blast.

With years of blast research, decades of interdisciplinary blast-related experience biased toward rocket science, security and defense experience and dynamic computer simulation Saleria has developed a patent-pending blast mitigation technology dubbed A.I.R. – Advanced Impulse Reduction™.

A.I.R.™ material allows for a variety of blast mitigation applications for a range of high explosive threats, including their modular, scalable, re-deployable blast wall product due to hit the market in 2018.

The business challenge

Saleria approached ZEDRA Corporate Reporting Services in 2017 to assist with corporate secretarial compliance and the group’s first UK audit on two entities.

Saleria is part of a group that has historically used other professional advisors for a range services including corporation tax, payroll and financial statement preparation. Therefore, ZEDRA Corporate Reporting Services were able to provide an independent audit process.

As this was the first time Saleria was going through the UK audit process, it was imperative that ZEDRA Corporate Reporting Services clearly set out what was required from the team at Saleria. It provided a detailed timeline of what was involved, including key Companies House deadlines, FRS 102 guidance and filing requirements.

The Solution

As the two UK entities were subsidiaries of a larger group, an audit was required under the Companies Act regulations.

Led by Dominic King, ZEDRA Corporate Reporting Services Audit & Statutory Accounts Team liaised closely with Saleria’s other advisors to ensure the audit process was as straightforward as possible – keeping the representatives at Saleria updated every step of the way. As this was the first year in the group’s UK investment lifecycle, Dominic and his team outlined which reporting exemptions were applicable. This saved management time and effort by avoiding unnecessary disclosures whilst still maintaining compliant, true and fair financial statements.

Meanwhile ZEDRA’s Company Secretary, Carolyn Arlett, set to work on changing the companies’ accounting reference dates from 31 January to 31 December. As a result, Saleria would benefit from additional time to file the audited accounts. Once Board approval had been sought and documented, coordination started on the filings with Companies House.

Outcome

If you are a US headquartered company with operations in the UK, it is important to consider your local audit and accounting requirements and whether your reporting standards are aligned. Contact Dominic to find out how we can help you streamline processes and stay compliant.