Adopting sustainable practices is now an important business exercise for many SMEs. But is there a need to ensure environmental systems are correctly reported on? And how should this be done? Sustainability is now a much more typical part of company operations. A few years ago offering insight into the impact of a company’s sustainable […]
Running a business can be a challenging task, especially if you don’t have all the information you need to hand. Creating management accounts which give a clear overview of your business finances can be a helpful tool, enabling you to properly understand how your business is performing and inform any decisions you need to make. […]
Effective cash flow management is crucial for SMEs to ensure business stability, growth and resilience against unexpected financial challenges. So with a new year ahead here are some useful steps to consider when considering cash flow: 1. Create a cash flow forecast Creating a detailed forecast allows cash inflows and outflows to be predicted over […]
The start of a year is always good time to look ahead at what tax and financial changes will take effect over the coming months. For SMEs there are a number of changes in 2025 which could have an impact on operations and which it makes sense to plan for. Increase in National Minimum Wage […]
11,000 SMEs across the UK could enjoy a boost to their growth through a new small business loan scheme. Securing finance can be a struggle for new or existing small businesses, so opportunities to access additional funding are always welcome. More details have now been shared about the new Growth Guarantee Scheme, which will replace […]
The current VAT system has long been criticised as being too complicated. But with an election looming should this be a focus for Government in the coming years, especially in the light of other overly complex tax regimes such as Inheritance Tax which appear to have been sidelined? VAT, or Value Added Tax, is levied […]
In a rather combative presentation, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered what is widely expected to be the last budget statement before the general election. With limited headroom and the now usual trail or announcements in the lead up to his commons speech, there were no big surprises arising from this budget. Even the 2p reduction in the National Insurance contribution paid by employees, which was supposed to be his big curtain call announcement, had already been ‘leaked’ before the budget.
Purchase orders (POs or PORs) often fulfil a key part of the procurement process, but they’re not used routinely by all organisations and there’s no obligation from an accounting perspective to have them – or is there?
If you’re a stock-based business, then getting your stockholding and product costings right can be tricky at the best of times. But recently, the effect of high shipping costs, long lead times, material shortages and inflation have made the job even harder. Get it right and you will have a strong cash flow, happy customers, efficient use of space and most importantly, profit on every item you sell! Get it wrong and you risk letting customers down, locking-up valuable working capital and reducing your margins.
As if to prove that nobody is immune to internal fraud, BrewDog CEO, James Watt, has gone public with information of a rogue employee at his firm in a bid to show it can happen to anyone and to remind companies to check their internal fraud systems.
It’s an interesting question isn’t it. In the UK we’re used to things being relatively cut and dried when it comes to VAT. There is the prevailing rate (currently 20%), zero rated VAT, (0%), VAT exempt (equally 0% but needs to be identified differently to Zero rated) and then the odd few idiosyncrasies such as energy at 5%. But by and large, the overwhelming majority of transactions will be either standard rate, 20%, or zero rated, 0%. That is unless you deal with someone like Amazon, who, it would appear, have been able to agree some of their own rates with HMRC.
From an accounting perspective, you need to account for the initial purchase of an asset but then add in a transaction for each year you hold the assets, to reduce the value to the business. There are no hard and fast rules on when or by how much you depreciate the value of assets but this explains some of the key facts and aspects to be aware of.