An EU court recently awarded a man 13 years of backdated holiday pay. The EU court supported the man’s claim for 13 years worth of unpaid and untaken annual leave despite him having a “self-employed commission-only” contract. His employers had refused to pay him holiday pay on the basis that he was “self-employed” and therefore […]
Complying with Auto Enrolment
The Pension Regulator has increased its activity significantly in the last quarter to enforce Automatic Enrolment and is using pension providers to help them identify non-compliance. Pension providers will advise The Pension Regulator of schemes which have been set up which have no employees enrolled and pension schemes which have employees enrolled but have had […]
Changes to HMRC payments
From 13th January 2018 HMRC will no longer accept payment of taxes by personal credit card and prior to that, from 15th December 2017, payments will not be able to be made through the Post Office. Payments can be made to HMRC by: Online or telephone banking (Faster Payments, Bacs and CHAPS) Direct Debit Debit […]
Christmas Gifts for Employees
Its that time of year when we may be thinking about how to reward our employees for their support during the year. Perhaps you are thinking about giving them a Christmas bonus or perhaps a bottle of wine and some chocolates. Or maybe you are planning to take them out for a Christmas meal or […]
5 cost cutting tips for the savvy CFO & CEO
Once upon a time, Paul McCartney sang: “Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play.” But he may as well have been crooning about trying to thrive in business in 2017. Because in contrast to the business world of yesterday, the economy is no longer predictable, competition is higher than ever, and technology is […]
Troubleshooting the top 10 outsourcing issues
In the drive to cut costs, boost efficiency, offload unloved and time-consuming in-house tasks and leverage external expertise, many CEOs and CFOs are coming to the conclusion that outsourced bookkeeping is a worthwhile idea to explore. Indeed, quality outsourced accounting is now regarded as a headline way to cut costs – but there are plenty […]
Employed or Self Employed – Advantage or Disadvantage?
If you want to expand your business you need people to support you as there is no way you can do everything yourself. But it seems that business owners are reluctant to employ anyone and would rather use an associate or a consultant than commit to someone joining their business. Even if they need someone […]
The responsibilities of being the Director of a Limited Company
Before you start your business you need to decide whether you will be a Sole Trader or a Limited Company. Or you may choose to be a Partnership rather than a Limited Company if there are two or more business owners. It can be confusing and many business owners opt for Limited Company status without […]
4 Tech Tools That Make Running Your Business Easier
Are you avoiding technology for your small business? Maybe you think it’s too expensive, too complicated, or will take too much time. The reality is that technology can be the path to efficiency and growth for your business. In fact, technology has become more affordable and can offer huge time savings, improving your ability to […]
What qualities are important in a good bookkeeper?
I have been providing bookkeeping services to individuals and businesses for more than 14 years now and one of the biggest surprises to me in the first few years was to be told that I was a good bookkeeper. I was surprised because shouldn’t all bookkeepers be good? Keeping accurate records and understanding the financial […]