Blog

This is an update to our blog in April “On or Offsite?” Before the virus, 15% of our clients were onsite, interestingly non on Xero. Clearly we had to change to 100% offsite and this was achieved relatively easily, to the surprise of most. This was partly because we are very experienced with the technologies and also because the client recognised that the move was unavoidable. READ MORE

Our target client has a turnover from £500k up to £5M although we have some well above that. I suppose it’s no surprise that we attract prospects who invariable are not receiving prompt and quality management accounts or MI. Although, naturally, we see a biased sample, it never ceases to amaze us how much they are missing by not having quality numbers at their fingertips. READ MORE

We’ve just run a Customer Survey and the scores on the doors were +83. But what does that actually mean and are the results worth the effort? We answer both these questions in this blog. READ MORE

Cash is always King, especially now! As book-keepers we never cease to be amazed at how lax businesses can be in collecting what's due to them. In our widespread experience this is very common, if not normal. As we emerge from lockdown there has never been a more important time to be right on top of sales receipts. READ MORE

Online working or Onsite? Our work of book-keeping with management accounts plus a payroll bureau was about 85% online before Covid-19, now of course it’s 100%.  READ MORE

It’s often a struggle fitting in the payroll processing but clearly it’s important to avoid mistakes which can quickly lead to staff problems and significant fines. Here are some of our experiences: Examples of payroll and auto enrollment problems READ MORE

Now we’ve had our 25th birthday I think I can afford to comment on our relationship with firms of accountants which we are not even though our Team includes eight qualified accountants. We’re purely what it says on the tin - bookkeeping with management accounts + a payroll bureau. All our clients have their own external accountant with whom we liaise at the year end. We also win new client referrals from some firms. We can see a great range in their attitude to ‘wanting’ to handle bookkeeping - this varies from absolutely no wish whatsoever though to being keen to provide. READ MORE

In our 25 years of experience we often take on clients with issues, often unknown, surrounding their management accounts. If you’re serious about improving you profitability then naturally you’ll ensure that you receive promptly, every month, the key information, both financial and non financial, that you need to run your business effectively and efficiently. READ MORE

In this the final of a three part blog we look at Marketing for Profit using Management Accounts, how Management Accounts are produced and what to do with Management Accounts outside of the business. READ MORE

Management Accounts – Part two in a series of three blogs. In this the second of three blogs we look at who uses Management Accounts, what are the reasons for producing Management Accounts? Who uses management accounts? • owners/managers • investors • banks/lenders • factoring/invoice discounting • accountants • tax planners Why produce them? READ MORE

What are they, why do so few businesses have any and what most businesses do? READ MORE

1 You don’t have to worry about resources Ever had the worry of a late payroll due to staff absence? If you outsource your payroll you won’t have to worry because it will be the providers responsibility to run on time. Pick a provider that has a sizable number of employees to cover gaps. 2 You don’t have to worry about changing legislation When the law changes and the way you organise or run your payroll changes, it can be both worrying and time consuming. If you outsource your payroll all that stress is taken away. READ MORE

All companies need to file statutory accounts every year but it’s an open question as to how much value if any this information provides to the business. The issues include: READ MORE

More than 25 years ago I attended a retirement party for the FD of a major company in London. Well into the evening this guy had a piece of advice for me. He said “Remember that the main thing is that the main thing is the main thing”. We’d both had a good few glasses and it wasn’t until the next day that finally I got my brain round this. When I subsequently started BookCheck in 1994 the first accounting system that we dealt with was Sage Line 50. Being the market leader for serious businesses most of our clients in the early years used Sage. READ MORE

Whatever you do, don’t follow this path. This is based on a recent client story. A familiar situation, cash is tight, even worse you’re making a loss. So the cash is getting even tighter. So you naturally push the sales button even harder and spend more time pursuing customers. Seems a sensible idea, so why not? READ MORE

The Accrual or Cash basis for Management Accounting? There are two basic methods for producing management accounts through the year – with accruals or just measuring the ‘cash’ through the bank. The accruals basis takes into account purchases and sales incurred by the end of the month that have not yet been paid. The cash basis is just that – simply what has passed through the bank account and nothing else. When accountants talk about "accruals and prepayments" they are referring to the monthly adjustment required to follow the accruals method. READ MORE

Making Tax Digital - should you be concerned? Making Tax Digital is a government plan to update HMRC with financial information four times a year instead of simply at the year end. This is set to affect about 1.6 million companies, 2.4 million self-employed and 900,000 residential landlords. READ MORE

Do you know the big challenger to both Sage and Xero? It’s something called Paper. Over 1 million businesses, about a quarter of all, use this method for their ‘accounting’. By paper I don’t mean Excel, I mean the real thing. With half using Excel that leaves only about 30% using proper accounting software. So HMRC’s Making Tax Digital, starting in 2018 up to 2021, is in for a challenge, or perhaps it’s the business owner with the problem as MTD is hardly optional. So should small businesses use accounting software? READ MORE

So first we had the long drawn out consideration of the EU Referendum, no it couldn't happen and no it shouldn’t and no it wouldn't but it did. We were bitten by the Brexit. Just as we were beginning to come to terms with this 'surprise' we placed our bets on the US Presidency and guess what, another presumption bit the dust, in fact a whole string of them did, at all stages of the process. So were they important - you bet. Did many presume too much - you bet. READ MORE

I recently travelled by train between Edinburgh (we have an office in Dunfermline) and Aberdeen and also between Bristol and Birmingham on the Cross Country route from Plymouth to Aberdeen. That made me realise that we have clients the whole 600 mile length of the line, in all these cities, in fact we have 15 clients in Aberdeen alone. Here's a north sea oil client the winner of a bottle of whiskey and a typical ship from Aberdeen harbour. READ MORE