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On the Right Track?

Today sees the introduction of the new track and trace system which aims to lift the blanket lock down restrictions and move towards more localised, targeted measures.In keeping with the existing rules, anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus must continue to isolate for seven days and the rest of their household for 14 days.  But from now on, everyone with systems should ask for a test online or phone to arrange a test by calling 119.If the test comes back negative, everyone in the hou...

Brave New World

The Accounts Place celebrated it's 5th birthday last week and we are rightly proud of what we have achieved during those 5 years. When we founded The Accounts Place we could never have anticipated the extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves today but as accountants and bookkeepers our role has never been so crucial. Our clients rely on us to provide the financial information they need when applying for loans etc and it is incumbent on us to be on top of all new regulations and be ...

Along for the Ride.

It is a common fallacy that small business need a bookkeeper merely to process paperwork in order to meet legal obligations and to enable the accountant to prepare the year end accounts. So why pay for a premium bookkeeping service when the mum at the school gates can probably do the job at a cheaper cost? After all every penny counts especially in these unprecedented times. It is precisely because these times are so unprecedented that it is more important than ever that business owners invest i...

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Fuelling Expectations

Oil prices have crashed in Asia by around 30% in what analysts are calling the start of a price war. Opec's 14 members, led by Saudi Arabia met with it's allies Russia and other non-Opec members on Friday to discuss how to respond to falling demand caused by the growing spread of the Coronavirus.  However the two sides failed to agree on measures to cut production by as much as 1.5 million barrels a day. Without such an agreement, Opec counties have very little incentive to restrain pr...

The Sound of Hooves

A quick glance at the news headlines could almost make you believe that you can hear the hoof beats of  the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Pestilence, War, Famine and Death. Just about every news item seems to be related to one of these - excluding Phillip Schofield of course. Even the England v Scotland Six Nations Rugby match on Sunday was more about battling the elements than the opposition. Fires, floods, Coronavirus and ongoing international conflicts; all of these unpredictable even...

Self Assessment - No excuses.

With the 31 January deadline for filing Self Assessment tax returns fast approaching, HMRC believe around 5.4 million workers have yet to file their returns and pay any monies owed for the 2018/19 tax year. Failure to meet this deadline risks incurring a fixed penalty of £100, plus additional daily charges after 3 months. HMRC accept that there may be extenuating circumstances making it impossible to meet this deadline, in which case they urge workers to contact them as soon as possible. Here a...

If you always do .....

Seasons greetings from The Accounts Place. We hope you all had a peaceful and merry Christmas.As the New Year beckons it is a good time to look ahead and make sure your business is in the best possible shape to meet the challenges ahead. Whilst the election result may help to bring a little stability to the economy, the future, particularly for small businesses will continue to be challenging until Brexit has been resolved. The key to being able to respond to any kind of change is knowing exactl...

Something to look forward to.

Floods, Brexit, General Elections, even Rugby - there seems little to celebrate in the news at the moment. However for accountants and bookkeepers across the country the good news is that there is only one day left before  the start of Xerocon 2019.Tomorrow is Day Xero (formerly Uni Day) an extra day of education before Xerocon opens on Wednesday. As always the agenda will be packed with motivational speakers, networking and product updates plus opportunities to catch up with the exhibitors...

Force of Nature

Typhoon Hagibis triggered floods and landslides as it battered Japan with wind speeds of up to 140mph. It made landfall on Saturday in izu Pennisula, southwest of Tokyo and moved up the east coast. Almost half a million homes were left without power. At least 30 people have been reported dead and many more are missing.The typhoon was not the only unstoppable force in Japan this weekend. Also cooking up a storm was the Japanese Rugby Union team who played an epic game against Scotland to finally ...

Shocking Resolutions

A recent report by the Resolution Foundation Think Tank found that about one in 20 workers do not receive paid holidays, whilst one in 10 do not get a payslip. The think tank says it's findings reveal the extent of illegal labour practices. Workers over the age of 65 are most likely to not have paid holidays, despite a legal entitlement to 28 days a year, or pro-rata for part-timers.  If also found that workers aged 25 and under are twice as likely to be underpaid the minimum age that any o...

Xerocon London 2019

Tickets are now on sale for Xerocon London 2019.  This unmissable event for any Bookkeeper or Accountant will be at ExCel, London on 13 - 14 November. In addition to product announcements, inspirational talks and networking opportunities,  Xero have now confirmed their headline speaker to be the renowned astronaut, Tim Peake. The first British astronaut from the European Space Agency to go to the International Space Station, Tim spent an incredible 6 years training for the mission. As ...

Dam Lucky.

Whaley Bridge residents appear to have had a lucky escape as operations to reduce the water levels in Toddbrook reservoir continue. Residents will not be allowed to return to their homes until the water levels drop to 25% which will take a few more days work. Once this is achieved the emergency phase of the operation will be over and contractors can then look at repairing the damage. For once the weather was on the side of the residents this weekend. Forecasters had warned of 30 - 40mm of rainfa...

MTD Deadline Looming

Making Tax Digital for VAT began on 1st April 2019. Under the initiative, most VAT registered businesses with a turnover above the £85k threshold have to keep digital records and file their VAT returns using HMRC recognised software such as Xero.For businesses whose quarterly VAT period started on 1 April 2019, the first deadline for filing returns under Making Tax Digital is 7 August 2019. Businesses paying VAT via direct debit need to be signed up with HMRC by 29 July 2019.Making Tax Dig...

British Airways Facing Sky High Fines for Data Breach

If anyone is still thinking that GDPR is simply a box ticking exercise, the news today that British Airways have been fined £183m for a data breach first disclosed in September 2018 should make you think again.The previous record fine imposed by the ICO was £500,000, levied on Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The increase in potential fines is as a result of a law change that now allows fines of up to 4% of annual turnover. For anyone in charge of cybersecurity at a maj...

It's All in the Bag.

As more and more retailers pledge to replace plastic bags for paper ones, you could be forgiven for  believing that we are becoming more environmentally friendly. But is replacing plastic bags really a good thing? Not necessarily, according to the Environment Agency. Research shows that it takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic one. Whereas plastic bags are produced from the waste products of oil refining, paper bags require ...

An end to payday loan moans?

Payday loans, with their associated high interest rates may become a thing of the past if a new scheme which allows employees to gain early access to earned money, takes off.Wagestream, the company behind the scheme, is currently in talks with NHS trusts, local authorities and the army and believes that hundreds and thousands of public sector workers could benefit from the scheme within the next 12 months.Workers, whose employers sign up to the scheme are given an app that shows them how much th...

Pride of England

The Lionesses, England's women's football team, opened their World Cup campaign with a 2 - 1 victory over Scotland. England entered the competition ranked 3rd in the world and with high hopes of bettering their previous World Cup position when they finished third in 2015. However based on their performance last night, pundits claimed that other teams will not feel threatened by England's performance. Former England International Alex Scott said ' Yes, England have done well but I don't thin...

Just say Non

According to recent research, many UK workers are struggling to stick to working within their designated office hours. The survey found that over 35% continue to answer work emails or conduct work tasks on their personal mobile phones when they get home from work. A quarter do the same during their lunch break and just under a quarter work on their handsets on their commute.In France, employees now have the legal right to ignore work emails outside of working hours, with companies of over 5...

Teresa May's Swan Song?

Teresa May is trying to gain Cabinet backing for what she describes as a 'new, bold offer' on Brexit. She is expected to urge ministers to support measures to be included in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill aimed at winning over Labour MP'S.  The bill will be put to a vote in early June. However as MP's have already soundly rejected the Withdrawal Agreement on three separate occasions, it is hard to see this new offer having any more success than Michael Rice at Eurovision on Saturday. If the ...

Welcome Baby Sussex

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the birth of their son. The boy, whose name is yet to be announced was born at 5.26 on Monday, weighing in at 7lb 3oz. Seventh in line to the throne, he is the Queen's eighth great grandchild.Whilst the Royal Family are celebrating, the same certainly cannot be said of the main political parties after their disastrous results in the local elections. Both the Conservatives and Labour parties lost heavily as the electorate expressed it's lack of...

Bounty Hunters

On the 25th May the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have been in force for a year and whilst the topic was in the forefront of people's minds this time last year, it is tempting with the passage of time to allow other issues to take priority.However, data protection is an evolving beast and businesses cannot become complacent. Policies need to be continually reviewed to ensure that they are still compliant. As a stark reminder of this, pregnancy club, Bounty UK have been fined £4...

Flying Solo.

With opinions already divided about the safety of driver less cars, Austrian aerospace company FACC are taking things even further. They have teamed up with Chinese drone maker EHang to launch a pilot less 'flying taxi'  The EHang 216 which can seat 2 passengers rose above the pitch at Vienna's Generali Arena, home to soccer club Austria Wien, last Thursday; circled in the air briefly before coming down to land within a few minutes. Weighing just 340 kg the craft can fly at up to 150 km per...

Nothing is Certain...

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin famously wrote "Nothing is certain except death and taxes" and as a new tax year dawns this seems truer than ever. Even the weather it seems, can't decide what to do as the lovely warm spell we have been enjoying looks set to be replaced by freezing temperatures, April showers and even snow in some areas of the UK. Uncertainty is everywhere and like the weather, change can be very unpredictable. One change affecting businesses this new tax year is the introduction of t...

A Bigger Pizza the Profits?

Domino's Pizza have been accused of misleading investors over relations with some of the franchisees who own the outlets. Last year, 11 of the company's biggest franchisees wrote to the Domino's board threatening to 'declare war' on the firm unless they got a bigger slice of the company's profits. The Domino's Franchise Association (DFA) warned that they could stop opening new outlets if their demands were not met. Domino's released their results last week and acknowledged that relations with fr...