Back to Blog

Business tips: Making the most of digital and cloud

Transforming into a digital business sets the best possible infrastructure for your future growth. And, as your business scales, the benefits of going digital will start to become obvious. Running your key business processes in the cloud and using the latest digital software and apps adds to both your efficiency and your productivity. And, most importantly, digital systems are designed to scale with you as your enterprise grows and the need for resources increases. Here are some of the big reaso...

Business tips: Using forecasting to help your decision-making

Producing regular management information is one way to help improve your business decision-making. But looking at historical numbers can only tell you so much. In business, you want to know what the future holds. And to make truly informed decisions about your future strategy, it’s important to use forecasting tools to project your data forwards in time. By running projections, based on these historical numbers, and producing detailed forecasts, you can get the best possible view of the road ...

Weighing up a big investment in your business

Are you considering investing in a new way to make your business more productive or streamlined? With a tight labour market, everyone’s time is at a premium – so finding ways to maximise productivity has never been more important. But it can take considerable funds to pay for a new website, ecommerce platform, software system or automations. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when you’re weighing up the costs and potential benefits of a significant investment....

Tax planning in uncertain times – why we need to talk about tax

We live in what might be seen as ‘interesting times’. UK politics is going through a turbulent and unpredictable time at present, leading to unforeseen changes to tax legislation, business reliefs and enterprise incentives across the board. When the goalposts keep moving so frequently, it can be confusing: Is your business meeting the right tax compliance goals?What are the big tax changes to be aware of?And is your tax planning delivering the very best results for you and for your company? ...

Hire purchase or lease rental: which is best for your business?

When setting up or growing your business, you’ll need access to new equipment, tools and vehicles. This usually means accessing finance to either buy or lease these new assets. It’s easy to get confused between hire purchase (HP) and lease rental (LR). The names lenders use aren’t always helpful, and the tax and VAT treatments are very different. To help you get a handle on these two very specific finance facilities, we’ve outlined the main differences between HP and LR, and how theyâ€...

Why are some expenses not allowed for tax?

As a business owner, you’ll be looking for every opportunity to claim back expenses and minimise your tax liability. But not everything that falls under expenses is tax-deductible. To give you a better understanding of which costs are allowed and which are not allowed, we’ve highlighted the main areas where business owners habitually trip up with their expense claims....

Bringing your cashflow processes into the digital age

Keeping on top of your cashflow is even more important during tough economic times. With a global slowdown on the cards, energy prices soaring and supply chain still challenges, cash is likely to be tight over the coming year and beyond. Cloud technology and fintech apps, can give your business the best possible control over its cash....

Understanding Your Profit and Loss Statement

Your profit and loss statement (P&L) helps you understand your business performance and profitability over time. It’s sometimes called an Income statement and its main purpose is to list income and expenditure. Whereas a balance sheet is a snapshot in time, the P&L shows transactions over a specific period of time. This can be a month, quarter, financial year or any other period, and it can be a stand-alone report or a comparative period report. Together with the balance sheet, these t...

Understanding Your Statement of Cash Flows

The statement of cash flows, (also known as the cash flow statement), shows how your business has generated and used cash (and cash equivalents) within a specific time period. For each of the reporting categories, receipts and payments are listed (money in and money out), and this is reported as a net increase or decrease in cash held for that category. The net change in all categories is added to the amount of cash on hand at the start of the reporting period to arrive at the current cash on ...

Meeting your goals during a global slowdown

Global events are pushing up energy prices to astronomical levels.Ongoing supply-chain issues are making it difficult to source raw materials.A scarcity of talent is causing problems when it comes to staffing and hiring.Covid is still around and making trading more complex and difficult. Faced with these hurdles, you might feel that your goals are no longer attainable. But is this true? Growth is likely to be a challenge, but not impossible. ...

Understanding your balance sheet

So what’s involved? - The balance sheet has three sections: assets, liabilities and equity. What are Assets? Assets are things and resources that a company owns. They have current and/or future value and can be measured in currency. Assets may be subdivided on the balance sheet into bank accounts, current assets, (receivable within one year), fixed assets, inventory, non-current (or long term) assets, intangible assets and prepayments. These include banks and other financial accounts held...

5 reasons why you need a separate bank account for your business

Does your company have its own business bank account?If not, we’ve got 5 reasons why you need a separate account for your business profits. If you’re running a limited company, it’s a legal requirement to open a business bank account but If you’re self-employed and trading as a sole trader, you’re not legally required to have a separate account.Regardless of this, it’s still a good idea to keep your personal and business cash in separate accounts.Here are the main benefits:...

How can small businesses cope with record inflation?

The Consumer Prices Index from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) saw inflation jump to 9% in the 12 months to April 2022. This means prices are rising at their fastest rate for 40 years. To make matters worse, inflation is expected to continue rising this year, with analysts predicting it will reach even higher levels in October. Small business owners are at breaking point. SME owners, particularly sole traders and micro-businesses, will feel the pressure of paying more for products and m...

Company year-end preparations - The benefits of good planning

As your company year-end date gets closer, there are a number of administrative and financial tasks to start planning for – so it’s a good idea to get yourself organised and ready.There are several things to check, either on the year-end date, or before the end of your company’s financial year. Some tasks are simple administrative processes, while others involve a deeper dive into your accounts. But, on the whole, this is about getting on top of the planning and making sure your year-end i...

Planning your filing and payment deadlines for the year

Keeping on top of the deadlines for your company filing and tax payments can be hard work. With so many elements to coordinate and keep track of, it’s easy for deadlines to occasionally slip through the cracks – but that can lead to fines, penalties and other issues. The key is to stay fully in control of your deadlines and to plan out the key dates across the coming business year. Your key deadlines for the coming yearTo help you manage and plan your company deadlines effectively, we’ve c...

Here are 5 important business negotiation strategies

Business negotiation is a world of contradictions. You’ve got to be firm but flexible. Open and sharing, but a little cagey. There’s a lot to get your head around. But your state of mind might be the most important thing. Aim for a mutually beneficial outcome and you’ll find the whole exercise more comfortable....

Taking out cash for Directors vs Sole Traders

Every business owner needs to take cash out of the business at some point. But if you’ve just moved from being a sole trader to a limited company, you may get caught out by the different rules around withdrawing cash from the company.Why are the rules different for directors and sole traders?When you’re a sole trader, you and your business are one and the same legal entity. So taking cash out is a simple procedure. But as the director and shareholder of a limited company, you and your busine...

Has your business embraced Kaizen?

Kaizen is the principle of continuous improvement that can make a huge difference to the efficiency of any company and is saving some of the world’s most powerful companies millions of dollars a year. Sound good? ...Here are ways you can embrace Kaizen to improve your business.🗑 What’s your waste? - This isn’t just about what’s ending up in the rubbish, it’s also unnecessary movement, overproduction of stock, waste due to mistakes, and time spent waiting. Examine whether the wa...

A strong strategy is the heart of your successful business

Businesses that have clear objectives or goals, robust accountability and a shared sense of purpose should always outperform those that just show up and go through the motions.Strategy lies at the heart of most successful businesses. To achieve this you need to resource and execute with a clear purpose. Few businesses have a strategic plan or a robust planning process. Changing this situation should be a top priority! Here are two top tips for business owners....

Do you need to complete a self-assessment return?

If you’re self-employed, a partner or a company director, then HMRC will ask you to submit an annual self-assessment tax return. However, every year will see some people failing to register on time for self-assessment – and facing some stiff penalties as a result! So, who needs to fill out a self-assessment tax return? And, if you’re eligible, when should you be getting this return over to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)? When should you register for self-assessment?The deadline to regist...

What we can measure, we can manage

For your business to be successful, you must get to grips with 3 critical measures: - Net profitReturn on investmentCash flow You must work on improving all 3 simultaneously. To do that, you need to first analyse the numbers for your business in much greater detail - including… your breakeven sales analysisa detailed analysis of your coststhe important profitability ratioshow to manage the 5 elements that make up your net profit,an analysis of your cash, other assets, and liabilitiesan an...

Spring Statement 2022: Your summary of the key points

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivered his Spring Statement on 23 March. Faced with the task of creating a ‘strong economy’ for the UK, against the challenging background of high inflation, rising costs and the threat of conflict in Europe, he announced a raft of new measures.So, what was in the Spring Statement for your business? And how will these announcements, government measures and new initiatives affect the business landscape in the coming year?The challenge of creating a stronger UK ...

3 keys to making more money

If you want your business to make money, then there are 3 critical areas to measure; your net profit, return on investment and cash flow. And to make money you must increase each of these at the same time. 1.     Your net profit is what remains after deducting all the expenses you incur in running your business from the sales you make to your customers. But you cannot manage net profit. You can only manage those elements that make up net profit. 2.     You...

The Seven Key Growth Drivers

But you may have heard the phrase, "turnover is vanity, profit is sanity"... If you want to grow your business and you want to grow profitably, the underlying drivers of growth - called the Seven Key Growth Drivers - are the tools for doing just that. And these are… Pricing for maximum profitGetting more sales leadsConverting your sales leads into paying customersGetting your customers to stay as customers for longerGetting your customers to spend more each time they buy from youGetting y...

Why you need to forecast your cashflow

Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. And when it comes to cash flow management, preventing cash issues is far easier than trying to solve these issues after the event. Positive cash flow comes from balancing your income (the cash inflows) against your expenditure (the cash outflows). If you’re in control of this then the business will always have the liquid cash needed to cover your liabilities....