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About Harlo Worx 

Who We Are

Here at Harlo Worx, we focus on transforming, growing, and enhancing Business owners' abilities to overcome obstacles within their Enterprise. Utilising his 25 years+ of Business experience, Harlo Worx was founded by Alan McCarthy in 2022, offering bespoke and specialised Management Consultancy and Outsourced FD Services. Since then, we have grown our team to provide our clients with a full suite of bookkeeping and payroll services.

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Founder

Alan McCarthy is a Chartered Accountant and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building.

 

He has overseen and managed numerous business transformations by turning underperforming companies into lean, agile profit generators. He has led owners and Boards of directors in devising and implementing strategies to increase their profitability and efficiency.

 

He has been a member of Audit and other executive committees and led large scale digitisation projects to ensure controls, governance and procedures are suitable and implemented.

 

He specialises in guiding companies to overcome their obstacles by creating efficiencies and certainty across all business functions.

TESTIMONIALS

I had the pleasure of working for Alan on a number of transformation projects. With his leadership and guidance we achieved major improvements in our "Procure To Pay" process and saved several millions with R&D tax credits. His ability to give latitude and space on the projects whilst gently guiding and managing the stakeholder and founders was extremely valuable. All achieved by also encouraging the development of the junior members of the team.

Vincent Townsend
Head of Procurement
Neos Networks

I worked with Alan for seven and a half years. In that time, he successfully led a finance team through an acquisition and a period of rapid growth for the business. Alan was not only concerned with the team’s business deliverables but also the well-being and personal development of each member of that team.

Kerry Nelis ACMA
Financial Consultant

Works with great attention to detail while never losing sight of the overall picture. He is a great team leader and motivator with an analytical understanding of financial matters.

Fintan Quinn
Director of Quinn Property Management

“Seneca Resource Recovery is a leading waste and recovery company and one of the UK’s largest Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) exporters based out of Wembley, London. We facilitated the conservation of resources through the production, brokerage and export of refuse derived fuel – enabling us to consistently deliver 100% landfill diversion. We exported RDF across Europe to the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, as well as the US.
A complex business with many moving parts, Seneca required hands-on and strategic financial support which Alan was able to provide both directly, and via his team, from 2014 –2020.
Throughout his time working with Seneca, Alan recruited a successful and capable team for the day-to-day financial management of the business, implemented our Management Information monthly report, supported numerous key tenders (including public sector) and developed and implemented strategies for managing our foreign exchange liabilities.
Our relationship was based on consistent communication which allowed us to be proactive on our approach and seldom reactive. Because of this, we were able to continuously identify business needs and provide the right solutions, while positively impacting the bottom line.
A readily available and approachable member of the Group’s leadership team, Alan’s dedication and commitment to his work is second-to-none. His loyalty to his team and willingness to help, coach and mentor also creates an enjoyable work environment for everyone.
Alan was a welcome addition to the Seneca business and would make an excellent member of any Finance and Executive team.”

Kenneth Doran MCIWM
Managing Director
Seneca Resource Recovery

Alan helped us prepare, submit and win a bid proposal for a Government contract we were tendering for. 

He was extremely professional, efficient and easy to engage with. He went further and beyond our initial expectations of his role to ensure our bid was the best it could be and we were ultimately successful , thanks primarily to his involvement

We were delighted with his work and would highly recommend him.

Zak

MD Watling Radio Cars

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I worked for Alan McCarthy for almost 4 years at Carey Group PLC. I began working alongside Alan helping the transition of automating the payroll process.  The Group was going through a period of rapid growth at this time and the site staff numbers grew from 1,500 to over 5,000. This process improvement involved a biometric management solution to record labour hours worked on sites as opposed to manual entry. The new process greatly reduced the administration time in our weekly payroll from 5 days to 2 days and was integrated with our ERP system which removed the risk of input errors.

Alan and I also worked together managing a TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment), when a new subsidiary company was created as the Group expanded. This process involved liaising with different stakeholders such as Payroll, HR, IT. This required extreme sensitivity due to the nature of the transfer and was diligently executed with thorough planning and constant communication with all stakeholders involved.

I witnessed how Alan maintained strong relationships with all our external stakeholders including Banks, Bond companies and Insurers to ensure our facilities were adequate for our expanding Group.

As CFO Alan also had the responsibility of brokering the Groups insurance. Alan used his many contacts to successfully broker renewals which were not only cost effective but ensured the Group’s risks were adequately covered.  This required broad knowledge of all major sites within all the subsidiary companies in the Group and any risks that may occur during the life of the project. The detail that Alan used when brokering the deals was impressive.  He was a great mentor during my years with him and he was very generous in imparting his knowledge to me and other members of the Finance Team.

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Hemal Govind – Business Analyst

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Alan recruited me as IT Manager for the Building Contracting firm where he was Finance Director and we worked together for over 4 years. During that time the business was growing rapidly.

Alan had the vision to see that creating a strong IT infrastructure was key for developing a platform for growth for the business.

We carried out a full root and branch review and development of the entire IT structure including researching / introducing cost cutting solutions, managing service providers such as telecoms, shared printing services etc, designing cabling infrastructure, implementing solutions including document management, system security, enhanced networking abilities, remote access and voip for our sites, branch offices and Head office. 

It was a time of great change within the business during which Alan and I worked closely together to manage this change with users of varied ability and willingness.

As a manager I always found Alan to be extremely supportive and willing to roll up his sleeves and get involved when necessary. He was always open to everyone’s suggestions and not just pulling the decision back to his original anticipation.  It was great to work with him as he was concerned about the well-being of the Team but also wanted the best solutions for the business. His knowledge of IT systems and structures was hugely beneficial when implementing the changes required.  

Edel Mee

Founder & CEO

IT Security People Ltd

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I cannot recommend Alan McCarthy highly enough. Not only is he an astute leader and effective communicator whose focus and drive towards business growth and performance is sincere and unique, but an approachable and accountable head who wins the respect of colleagues through sound, fair and measured direction. He is humble and honest, firm where necessary and ready to stand in where needed/if asked.
I am an example of his mentorship and at multiple stages during my time working with him he gave me the skills and confidence to progress in my role.

Lauren McClean
Carey Group

I have had the privilege of being mentored by Alan McCarthy for a year, and it has been an invaluable experience that has significantly contributed to my growth and development in the field of Finance.  Alan has demonstrated a great depth of knowledge and expertise in finance, which he has shared with me.  He took time to understand my career goals, strengths, and areas of improvement, and tailored his mentorship to help me achieve my objectives. His ability to inspire and motivate others is truly remarkable, and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from someone who embodies the qualities of an exemplary finance director.

 

Thanks to Alan’s support, I have grown both personally and professionally, and I am better prepared to tackle the challenges that lie ahead in my career. I would recommend Alan McCarthy as a mentor to anyone seeking outstanding performance in the field of finance.

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                                                               Nurgul Barut FCCA

                                                 Finance Director  ( Frankham Group )

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