Bookkeeping Guides

A while back I was watching an episode of Dragons Den that reminded me of the confusion that abounds around the words: turnover, gross profit, net profit, profit margin and a bunch of other terms that have everything to do with how you view the profitability of a business. Turnover or T/O This is...
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(extant at 1 January 2001) Reproduced with kind permission from The Corporate Training Group Limited Statements of standard accounting practice Financial reporting standards Summary of UK accounting standards UITF abstracts SSAP2 Disclosure of accounting policies (see FRS 18) SSAP4 Accounting for government grants SSAP5 Accounting for value added tax SSAP9 Stocks and long term...
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Businesses in the UK can claim fuel or usage as an expense when using a private vehicle for business. There are three choices: 1. Record every business trip and reclaim the mileage allowance. You can also claim back a small amount of VAT from the business mileage. Make sure you have receipts (although HMRC...
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Image via Wikipedia In part 1 of this guide we covered the basics. Part 2 introduced finding your first partners. Part 3 looked at your image and how you present that to prospective clients. Part 4 looked at ways to market your business. This part focuses on how to keep your clients. Getting clients...
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In part 1 of this guide we covered the basics. Part 2 introduced finding your first partners. Part 3 looked at your image and how you present that to prospective clients. This part focuses on how to get those clients. By now you should have a good idea of how much to charge, how...
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In part 1 of this guide we covered the basics. Part 2 introduced finding your first partners. This part focuses on going direct to clients. By far the hardest way to get clients is to try to attract them directly. Having said that, it is really easy to find them! the hard part is...
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In part 1 we talked about starting a bookkeeping business working from home. In part 2, we talk about exactly how to set that up. You can choose to be self-employed or set up a company. This is a simple decision. Self-employment is the way. The reason is that you will not have to...
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Anyone can start a bookkeeping business from their home. Amazingly, you don’t even need to be qualified, though it does help! To give you an idea of what it involves once you are up and running, the average number of clients per bookkeeper is around 30. This makes it fairly easy to figure out...
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Bookkeeping is the art of tracking money; where it came from and where it went to. That is all there is to it. A simple transaction involves 2 accounts. The ‘from’ account and the ‘to’ account. This is what the concept of double-entry is all about. Trained bookkeepers and accountants use the term ‘credit’...
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Reports Every year you will be responsible for presenting the accounts at your annual general meeting. This is generally not as daunting as it may appear. All the facts and figures you need are right there in your account books. Your committee will not want a blow by blow account of every transaction, nor...
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Receipts All the money received by your organisation must be recorded no matter how small the amount may be – ‘accountability’ is all important. If someone gives you £1 for the cause – write it down in your account book. Use as many accounts as you think fit to record the receipts of the...
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Treasurers are usually unpaid volunteers (if you are one of these, welcome to the club!). Your job can range from the ridiculously easy to the incredibly complex. However, if you have just volunteered to be a treasurer for your local club/society/charity, help is at hand. First off, it can be a pleasure (really!) provided...
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