Author: Quentin Pain
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UK Mileage Allowance and VAT Scale Charge
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 accept…
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Bad Debts
Every business will suffer from a bad debt at some point in its life and this short guide will show you how to account for them in your business. A bad debt is where a customer does not pay you for work done. That could be for many reasons: Bankruptcy Refuses to pay Disputes your…
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UK Spending Review 2010
George Osborne announced his long awaited spending review today to reduce Britain’s deficit by around $81bn over 4 years. All departments will need to reduce expenditure significantly with an overall job reduction in the public sector of just under 500,000. HMRC have published a series of graphs and charts on the subject available on Flikr. Quentin…
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Invoicing and VAT in the UK
In the UK and most of the EU there are rules on what must appear on a sales invoice if you are registered for VAT. Obviously those rules vary from one country to another, and you will need to check with your local inland revenue service, but there are some general rules that you should…
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UK VAT Early Settlement Discount or PPD New Rules
This article on UK VAT last checked and updated November 2016 by Quentin Pain If you offer a discount for early payment of your invoices, then the VAT is also discounted at the same rate. This is a new rule that came into effect from 1st April 2015 onwards. Full details are available on HMRC’s…
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Money Laundering Update
Ever since the terrorist attacks, governments around the world have introduced more and more red tape in the hope of curtailing criminal activities. One of the more obvious ways has been to set up so called ‘Money Laundering’ regulations. In the UK anyone involved in handling or looking after the finances or accounting of other…
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Money Laundering
Money laundering is a very recent change in statutory law around the world (although it has been going on since time immemorial) brought on by terrorist events over the last decade or so. Money Laundering in the UK and elsewhere In many countries including the UK you are required to record and keep proof of…
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Bookkeeping Business From Home Part 5
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 is not too hard…
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Bookkeeping Business From Home Part 4
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 many…
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Bookkeeping Business From Home Part 3
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 getting…
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Bookkeeping Business From Home Part 2
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 pay…
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Bookkeeping Business From Home Part 1
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 how…
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Self-employed Bookkeeping
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 means. Trained bookkeepers and accountants use the term ‘credit’ and ‘debit’ to do…
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Treasurers Guide Part 3
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 will…
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Welcome!
There are many ways of keeping your accounts (including a shoe-box!), but the preferred method, used by every trained book-keeper and accountant throughout the world, is double-entry. Many books and courses are already available. However, most are taught from an academic view point. They tend to throw you in at the deep end and assume you…
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Treasurers Guide Part 2
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 organisation.…
