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

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

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

Quality Management Information The business world is divided into the haves and have nots - which one are you? Some have nots want it and others don't - fair enough, as there's no point in complicating matters if the information is not going to be used to increase profitability or value. What's interesting, at least from our perspective, are the businesses that don't know whether MI would be of benefit because they don't have the experience. So here are a few thoughts to help this group. 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

The Purchase Ledger READ MORE

We're well into this so what do we think so far? The first thing to say is that it really is a massive task, there is so much to learn and so much to get wrong. Compared with the previous biggest ever change to payroll, which was RTI Real Time Initiative, it has to be at least 20 times the effort and that's for our professional staff who are used to such. It's also quite different as it involves deductions from pay, so requires employee liaison. READ MORE

The First First Last week I addressed a CIMA evening seminar in Bristol. It was my first ever presentation to a purely professional group and the subject was Management Accounting for Growth. It was a beautiful evening so I was hoping that we would manage as many as half a dozen in the audience. Imagine my surprise to find 40 had turned out and just about everyone took a brochure home. The Second First READ MORE

Years ago I attended a retirement party in London for the FD of a top company during which, after no doubt a few glasses of wine, he made this observation to me in terms of career advice. I was struggling with the words that evening but worked it out the next day. READ MORE

  READ MORE

Looking at our historical figures, January is usually a buoyant month for enquiries and this year is no exception. In one day alone we had three red hot prospects - in Derby, London and Bristol. So we wonder why, also whether it would apply to other businesses. READ MORE

Why outsource or more positively why not? Outsourcing used to be something that was just for very large organisations. Increasingly though, small and medium sized businesses are realising the benefits of outsourcing some of their functions to reduce costs, increase resilience and allow them to do what they do best, run their own business. READ MORE

Talking about "The Cloud" is becoming common nowadays but nine years ago when we first hosted Sage, I was the man from Mars. No one would risk it, mainly because it was simply 'too new'. We used it for clients who didn't need to know! With the advent of new forms of accounting software such as Xero, naturally in the Cloud, with massive marketing budgets it's become normal and indeed arguably preferable to the old fashioned software on the local pc. READ MORE

   Our strapline sounds good and seems reasonable but what is a realistic expectation and how do we prove it  - that's our challenge. Years ago I was the Financial Controller for parts of very large companies - Unilever, Marsh & McLennan, TV Times, Time Life and Times Warner. Naturally I reported monthly otherwise I would have been shown the door pretty quickly. READ MORE

  How do you demonstrate to a complete stranger that they should invest in your business? What makes your business more attractive? How do you reduce the cost of the money (i.e. sell less equity for more money?). Here are 15 ways you can show that you are better than other competing ideas. This is not an exclusive list, just some of the most important ones. READ MORE