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Year 2006

Alternative simple accounting for micro-businesses

A few weeks ago I had quite a heated debate with Richard Murphy on the issue of cash accounting for small businesses. As he opposed that idea, I – and others – asked him to put forward an alternative solution, as the one point we all agreed upon was that the tax regime for small…

Is the SaaS industry cool-hunting?

services that small businesses need.Cool-hunting would suggest that there is some sort of choice in what is needed ( cool ) and what is not needed ( out ).... But you do not survive in business because you use cool business tools.Having worked in the IT industry for 30 years, I can't help but wonder if it is not time to concentrate on our customers needs, rather then telling our customers what they need.Just a thought!

£8 billion in online sales, are you getting your share?

Online sales is a fast-growing area for businesses of all types, yet so many small businesses are missing the boat, why? Well those helpful people over at bytestart have done it again for the start up and small business, they have arranged a live Webchat with the head of merchant services at PayPal, Carl Olav.…

WinWeb hits 35’000 registered users and counting.

About 80 % of these users are UK based.Considering I was aiming for 10'000 users by the end of this year, I am very happy with the result so far.... A big thank you to everybody for that, considering that the idea for the CashBook came from our accounting partner community.On another note we have finished the implementation of AccountsVision so exporting the client data to AccountsVision could not be easier.

Cash accounting for small businesses anyone?

Readers of Accounting Web may have seen Nichola Ross Martin’s article on the potential benefits of allowing small unincorporated businesses to prepare their accounts on the basis of cash received and spent. At the moment this isn’t possible and all businesses have to use accruals accounting – prepayments, accruals, WIP, UITF40, the list goes on…

Use your common sense?

A note from the Revenue to its staff tells them to "use your common sense"… A client of ours has recently moved.  VAT know that we’re his accountants if only because we’ve been working with them on a long-drawn-out query.  But a letter from us and a phone call from the client, while they’re enough…

Who is right, and who is running things?

My post today is one that is close to home, and also follows on from the theme of running a small business here in the UK. This is a news item that has probably gone unnoticed by many, unless you happen to be one of the 26 staff members of Bowland Dairy. Bowland Dairy is…

Never, Niemals, Jamais – SaaS For Everyone.

He asked in hie post:Who in the world can guarantee that they will never have to work offline?And then goes on to explain, why SaaS - Software as a Service applications will NEVER replace desktop applications. I am not going into all the wrong assumptions and naive explanations of his post, but have a question for him:Who in the world can guarantee that they will have their laptop or desktop computer with them all the time?I hope Phil will have a better day tomorrow.UPDATE: Dennis has written about this too, I like the title: " Never is a long time".

Tangled in red-tape

I was on a course yesterday called "Small company reporting requirements".The amount of red tape and paperwork that even a small limited company needs to keep up with can be mind-boggling.Now that the tax savings from being a limited company are not so significant, many smaller businesses (with profits under £50,000 per year) may decide not to become limited companies, to avoid the extra admin and red-tape.If you're a small business owner, a discussion with your accountant may help you choose which is the best course for you: - Stay unincorporated and reduce the red-tape burden, but pay more tax - Become a limited company, and pay less tax and have the protection of limited liability, but have more paperwork and reporting to keep up to speed withFor example, we have several smaller clients who have chosen not to be companies, because they've got young families and want to have as much time as possible to spend with their children.It's all about what works best for you - but if you have a limited company, be sure to take advice from your accountant and make sure you are doing your best to keep up to date with all the required paperwork. Doing it all in a rush after the year-end is not a good idea!

No1 advisor to SMEs

A 2004 survey by Sage Heartbeat revealed that just under 50% of small accounting firms have 500 active business clients, with an average turnover of a staggering £1.7 million.In total the SME market in the UK comprises of about 3 million companies with a combined turnover in excess of £1.152 trillion.This is certainly a staggering market place for approximately 22.000 small accounting firms, but what kind of service do the accounts provide to their clients?In my discussions with accountants it is obvious that they would like to spend more time with clients on planning, for-casting and analyzing.... I don't believe so, all you have to do is go along the high street and you are surprised at what kind of business can survive long term. I think in most cases it is bad or disastrous financial management and planning.

WinWeb Business Cloud - Creating Financially Sustainable Businesses