Business tips: Making it easier to get paid Making sure you get paid on time is crucial to your success. The process of making sales and generating revenue lies at the heart of any business model. But you can’t manage your cashflow effectively or raise any profits if customers don’t actually pay their invoices. The…
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Setting up your business foundations To trade as a business, you need to meet the right compliance requirements. It’s certainly not the most exciting part of creating a business, but setting up the right legal, accounting and tax compliance foundations ensures that you’re doing everything by the letter of the law. Here are the main…
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How to improve your essential business spending One of your biggest areas of business expenditure will be buying the goods and services that are needed for the company to operate. Whether these are raw materials, wholesale goods or cloud services, you need someone to be in control of this procurement process. Managing your business spending…
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Keeping your business cash liquid – the difference between cashflow and profit The foundational goal of any business is to make a profit. As a business owner, that’s one of your key financial aims – to make enough sales, at a big enough margin, to generate profit from your enterprise. But how does profit differ…
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Back to Basics: Registering for Value-Added Tax (VAT) When first setting up your business, there are multiple decisions to make – and a key consideration will be whether to register the business for Value-Added Tax (VAT), the tax that’s added onto the price of certain goods and services. When does VAT registration become mandatory? When your…
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Back to Tax Basics: Tax for unincorporated businesses You don’t have to be a limited company to trade as a business. It’s possible that you’re operating already as an ‘unincorporated entity’ (usually as a sole trader, or a partnership). And the way that limited companies and unincorporated entities are taxed is very different. Here’s how…
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What is bank reconciliation – and why should you be automating this process? Good bookkeeping is all about recording and matching your financial transactions. Over the course of a usual week of trading, you’ll have a range of payments being deposited into your bank account and a host of operational expenses being withdrawn from that…
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Getting ready for HMRC’s new penalty regime Paying your tax bill on time can be a struggle. The HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) penalty regime exists, to act as a deterrent for late payment and overdue submissions. But did you know that HMRC is planning to update and change its penalty regime? HMRC currently has…
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Back to Tax Basics: How does VAT work? Value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax that’s levied on goods that have had value added at each stage of the supply chain. Most businesses with annual sales of £85,000 or more have to register for VAT. And even if your sales are below that level, you…
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Back to Tax Basics: How capital allowances reduce your tax bill Generally speaking, the business expenses you incur are allowable against your profits. But when it comes to fixed asset purchases (things like machinery, equipment or vehicles), these purchases are treated slightly differently. To reduce your tax bill when purchasing fixed assets, it’s important to…
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