Calculating your profit correctly depends on a multitude of factors, such as making sure your records of income and expense are complete, making sure you don’t forget to include items you’ve bought out of your own personal funds, etc. Another key area to consider when preparing your accounts, and your taxable profit, is the accruals [...]
VAT for small businesses
February 27, 2013 by 2 Comments
It’s important to monitor your turnover when you are a small business and check whether you have exceeded the VAT threshold or not. You have to look back at the last 12 calendar months to do this, not your accounting year. When you look back at the last 12 calendar months, if your turnover, ie sales [...]
Why should I forecast Cashflow and how should I do it?
February 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Cashflow forecasting is essential to any business to make sure you have the funds when you need them, work out when you might require temporary finance, and sort out how much you can take out of the business. Follow my steps below to work out how you can accurately forecast your businesses finances to give you [...]
What you need to know about bank accounts and reconciliations
February 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Although not mandatory for sole traders, it is certainly advisable to have a separate bank account for your business transactions as this allows you much greater control over your finances. By maintaining a separate bank account, you will be able to introduce financial controls, such as bank reconciliations, and be better able to monitor your [...]
Record-keeping – a quick guide to what you should retain for HMRC
February 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
My clients often ask what records they need to keep as support for the items they are putting through their accounts and tax return. Examples of the types of records you need to keep to prove your income are items such as sales invoices, till rolls and paying-in slips. For expenditure, you should retain records [...]
Pensions auto-enrollment for small businesses
October 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Auto enrollment will start to affect small employers, employing fewer than 50 staff from 1 June 2015 to April 2017. To find out when this will start to affect you, you can view the staging dates here: http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/staging-date-timeline.aspx The new scheme will mean that as employers, you will be required to set up a pension [...]
Universal tax credits – impact on the self-employed
October 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The tax credits system is to be replaced with the Universal Credit which will be introduced from 2013. This new system is likely to be less favourable for the self-employed than the current Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits system for the following reasons: The proposed new system will assume a level of income [...]
