Attard Schoolwear Ltd has been a client since 2019. The firm keeps its books, files its VAT returns and receives its bank statements monthly. This is the quarterly transaction review for the three months to 30 September 2026, and the firm’s monitoring rule — any month whose turnover exceeds twice the rolling twelve-month average — has produced one alert.
- The business: incorporated in Malta in 2011. School uniforms, schoolbags, textbooks and stationery, sold from a shop in Ħamrun since 2011 and a second in Birkirkara opened in September 2024, and supplied under agreement to six church and independent schools. Turnover €2,140,000 in the year to March 2026, audited without qualification; VAT returns and monthly payroll filings up to date.
- Ownership and control: Doris Attard 70% and her son Karl Attard 30%, both Maltese, both directors, both working in the shops. Unchanged since 2011. Identity verified, and screening returned nothing at onboarding and at each annual review since.
- The accepted profile, as recorded in 2019: one shop in Ħamrun; projected turnover €900,000; “seasonal, peaking around the start of the scholastic year”; one account with a Maltese credit institution. It has not been amended since it was written.
- The alert: August 2026 turnover was €440,000 against a rolling twelve-month average of €178,000 — 247% of the average. September was €320,000; the other ten months run between €105,000 and €165,000. The same rule fired on August 2023, August 2024 and August 2025. Each was cleared after about a day’s work, and the note on the file each year reads “seasonal, no action”.
- The season: the scholastic year begins in the last week of September. Uniform fittings, book lists and stationery orders run from the first week of July to the third week of September, and the six school agreements require delivery before term starts. Fourteen seasonal staff are taken on for the period, all on the payroll, with the monthly returns filed for each of them.
- The cash element: counter takings in August were €94,000, 23% of the month, against 7–9% in every other month of the year. Takings are rung through the tills, banked at the night safe daily, and the Z-readings are retained. Across the quarter the daily banking reconciles to the Z-readings to within €340.
- The largest single receipt: €148,000 by bank transfer on 11 September from one of the six schools, against a bulk textbook order. The purchase order, the supply agreement and the signed delivery notes are on the file. The school bills the parents itself.
- A new supplier: three payments in June and July totalling €212,000 to Meghna Apparel Ltd, a garment manufacturer in Bangladesh, in place of a Portuguese manufacturer used since 2016. A proforma invoice, a bill of lading, a customs entry and a container arrival at the Freeport correspond to each payment. The Portuguese manufacturer’s last invoice is dated March 2026.
- The one item without paperwork: a payment of €38,400 on 19 August to Vella Bookbinding Ltd, a Maltese supplier the company has not used before, posted to the ledger as “stock” with no invoice attached.
- After the season: a dividend of €70,000 was paid to Doris Attard in October — declared, minuted and within distributable reserves. No other extractions in the quarter.