The 3 Problems Facing Small Business Today 1. Money It won’t come as any surprise that cashflow is the main problem facing small to medium business right now.  Wasn’t it ever thus?  Yes, that’s true, cashflow has always been an issue.  But there has never been a better time for small businesses to take control of cas...

Important News about your Direct Banking Feeds New EU industry-wide standards that are scheduled to take effect from 14 September 2019 may affect your live banking feed. Some of Xero’s bank feed connections will change to comply with the new requirements. Xero’s existing bank feeds with Barclays, as well as all UK and EU bank set up ...

The way your business pays tax is set to change. From April 2019, the way you keep your VAT accounts will change  completely.  As you may already know, MTD is the Government’s plan to digitise the tax system. It aims to make it easier, more efficient. Yet, 40% businesses that will be included are still not aware of what it is&n...

What alternatives are available to you?’ Choosing the right software to pay your business’s VAT bill is essential with the rollout of Making Tax Digital rapidly approaching. Once MTD arrives, HMRC-approved software will be the only way to pay VAT. Time is running out before the first VAT deadline for MTD, on 1 April  2019&nb...

VAT-registered  businesses the first to go through MTD Around a million VAT-registered businesses will need to  comply with new digital reporting rules from April 2019. If you’re one of them,  you’ll need to make sure you’re prepared. And creative businesses in the London area are no exception. Making Tax Digital ...

: Chaser A couple of weeks ago a few of us from our London bases trekked over to Excel to attend the XeroCon conference.  It’s always a great opportunity to catch up on what new updates Xero are bringing out and step back and take a look at the broader picture of cloud accounting (which as you all know we just love!).   As app lover...

  Customise Your Invoices in Xero Previously we went through the process of creating online quotes and invoices in Xero and discussed the added value that could bring to your business.  This time we are going to touch on customisation. If your business is a creative one, it’s more than likely that the aesthetics of everything you do is vita...

Cloud Security One of the worries many small businesses have about cloud accounting is cloud security. It’s a reasonable question to ask in a world of identity theft and hackers.  And with GDPR on everyone’s mind, we thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit the issue of data protection, cloud security and security in general. The ...

Management Accounts (and why you need them to grow your business)   Most business owners can apply themselves to running basic accounts and tax returns.  You’re an entrepreneur after-all, you’re not afraid of a learning curve and a few late nights. However, management accounts are a whole different ball game and they can really make the d...

Online Quotes in Xero Many businesses don’t realise how important quotes are to their business, nevermind online quotes.  Obviously, they generate business but being too slow to turn quotes around or failing to follow up with them in a timely manner, can lose you business. Online quoting with Xero can help resolve this, providing a quick and...

Budgets in Xero   When you’re thinking about the new financial year, it makes sense to start off with a budget. Pinning down your budget at the start of the financial year (or any time for that matter) will enable you to see problems or issues that are coming up further down the line. Using this information, you can more intelligently plan y...

Invoicing with Xero   Invoicing with Xero, could change your life! Do you remember when raising invoices were an enormous pain?  When you had to copy across the amount and details from one software to another.  Check to make sure the currency was in the correct format for that client, make sure you had given it the right unique invoi...