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

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

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

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

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

However you voted and whatever your view of the future, one thing is clear – prompt and sound quality MI has never been more important, yet the majority of UK businesses are missing a trick as they don’t have it. The norm is to fly by the seat of the pants, with information limited to sales, order book and bank balance and not always all three. READ MORE

Book-keeping should be simple. Something that, once set up with a professional partner, you barely need to think about. Why should you have to, when there are so many other business tasks demanding your valuable time and attention as you grow your SME? Too often, however, what should be a straightforward business service causes more problems than it solves. Here are some of the issues that SMEs and their accountants face – and a surprisingly achievable vision of the dream book-keeper… READ MORE

Put business people together and it won’t be long before someone mentions outsourcing. It might be in the context of freeing time for the other activities you’re told you must do to compete in the market place. Or to do with concerns about maintaining service quality. Or even the difference between outsourcing and offshoring. Whatever the reason, the consensus is increasingly likely to favour outsourcing. READ MORE

Yes, this headline is correct! With at least one industry observer reporting that SMEs are discovering more benefits than they previously imagined from auto enrolment, the time’s right to look at positive aspects of this fast-approaching requirement for SMEs like yours… READ MORE

I reckon we are now experiencing our greatest challenge in our 20 years history in finding more quality Sage and Xero staff as we expand. This is especially the case in London although Bristol is almost as bad. Recently we received 33 serious applications for a book-keeper position. We narrowed that down to four good enough for interview, then speaking on the phone reduced this to two. The best candidate took a position before our planned interview, leaving one who just wasn't good enough. So we start again! READ MORE

Whitehall's independent red tape watchdog reckons the govenemmnet has reduced red tape by £2.2 billion a year however the regulatory policy committee has calculated that new EU rules have inmposed £2.3 billion  in net costs to businesses. So looks like it's gone up! This is before the pension auto enrolment hots most busiisnesses in 2015 or later. Perhaps the benefit of such a consideration is to check what a business can do itself to avoid red tape and the most obvious way is to outsource so somebody else has to cope. READ MORE

Sounds boring but ignore at your peril otherwise you could be mightly embarrassed. Suspense accounts are a sort of cop out. If your book-keeper doesn't know what to do with the input then it could well end up in a 'temporary' suspense which means it's not reported properly. READ MORE

With Tesco now revising its forecast profits down from the original £2.8bn to £1.4bn you might wonder. This is despite armies of accountants spending millions on this task. So how could it happen and why bother? READ MORE

Recent years have not been kind for charities as donations and grants have been cut. Both charities and donors are wondering if their cash is being used effectively. So it's even more important to keep a tight rein over financial matters, a responsibility that is becoming evermore a focus for trustees. However finances are often the area that receives insufficient attention. If you're a trustee, are you receiving prompt, sound, regular financial reports which you understand. If there's a doubt here then there's a risk. READ MORE

Every business inbox is awash with this huge change to the pension system, not to mention the phone calls. It’s pretty intimidating and the more you look the more there is to worry about. Nearly all approaches are from the scary perspective which is unfortunate because life doesn’t have to be complicated. Indeed the sign of a true professional is someone who makes it look easy, even if it isn’t. So following KISS principles that’s all to say. READ MORE