News and Articles
Big change to Company Law on the horizon
Big change to Company Law on the horizon The white paper on reform to the Company Register, sets out a series of adjustments for businesses for 2023 to “safeguard our national security and reduce the economic and social costs of fraud,” the white paper laid out that...
Furlough claims – Ooops!
Furlough claims – Ooops! Many businesses have inadvertently made errors in their furlough claims and a small number have knowingly over claimed. HMRC say they are not writing anything off and have legal powers to recover this money up to 20 years after the event....
WHAT IS A DIRECTORS LOAN ACCOUNT? – (DLA)
WHAT IS A DIRECTOR’S LOAN ACCOUNT? If your business is set up as a Company rather than a Sole Trade or Partnership, it is important to remember that the Company is a separate legal entity. It is “Corporate” from the Latin “corpus” meaning body and has its own legal...
Interest rate conundrum
Interest rate conundrum... We have probably forgotten how exceptional the low interest period from 2009 to 2021 was. The Bank of England chart below brings it home. Before the 2008 financial crisis, interest rates were around 5% which was needed to control...
When you own more than one restaurant…
When you own more than one restaurant
Paying yourself with dividends – imminent tax raid?
Most small companies (thought to be six million) pay their owner-managers a basic salary through PAYE and a chunk of the profit by way of a dividend. Accountants, including my company, usually advised their clients to remunerate themselves this way over the last...
What is a PESTLE Analysis?
If you are considering your business strategy, then this is a common tool used to assess your business environment. It is an acronym standing for the six external factors affecting your business. Political Economic Social Technological Legal Environment In the...
Why is Budgetary Control a No-No for Small Businesses?
I trained as a chartered management accountant, and budgetary control was a major tool in controlling business finance dating back to the founding of my institute in the 1920s. So, one hundred years later, how is it doing? Depends on size. As a management tool it...
Bank Feeds Just Got Easier
Open banking was mandated by the EU in 2016 with EU Member States required to transpose it into National Law. It was implemented in the UK in January 2018. Its purpose was to allow financial information to be made available to outside companies such as other banks,...
Xero or Quickbooks?
There are many cloud accounting systems available for small businesses, but Xero and QuickBooks are probably the most capable and widely used. Which should you choose? Accountants love both products. The US favours QuickBooks whereas Europe prefers Xero. Both have...
The Best KPI in the World
Of all the performance measurements that a small hospitality or manufacturing business can use, Gross Profit %age is the most useful. It is calculated as follows: Sales less Direct Costs as a percentage of Sales Direct costs are those expenses which vary with sales....
In-house IT Support
As we said in an earlier blog, we are pleased to have young William Burlingham on our team as a full-time in-house IT support Technician. It is maybe a bit unusual to have such a resource in a small practice like ours, but this reflects the huge changes in technology...
