Business Accountant

Have you been struggling to send full payment summary (FPS) reports under RTI to HMRC on or before the days on which your employees are paid? This is particularly difficult when your workers receive irregular amounts of pay on varying dates. In such cases you may not know the amounts of wages and deductions to report until the workers have finished their shifts.

The concession for small employers with fewer than 50 employees has helped. This allows you to submit all the figures on one FPS report when you make your last payroll run in the month, but this must be no later than the end of the tax month. However, this concession is due to end on 5 April 2014.

The good news is that until 5 April 2016, employers with fewer than 10 workers will be able to send in the FPS covering all payments by the last pay day of the tax month. This new relaxation will only apply to existing employers. Any new PAYE scheme commencing on or after 6 April 2014, or any scheme with 10 or more employees will have to report all the wages and deductions on or before each day the employees are paid, even if that is multiple times in the month.

If you have 10 to 50 employees on your payroll, and have been using the small employer concession to cope with multiple pay dates in a month, you need to talk to your CIMA Accountant about how to adjust your systems from April 2014.

So you have a list of procedures in place to ensure that your electronic data is fully secure? But have you ever considered hardware other than your computers? How about your trusty photocopier which sits innocently in the corner of the office? Did you know that since 2002 many contain hard drives which store items that were printed, copied or faxed?

A recent study was conducted in the US on second hand photocopiers. In the study 3 were purchased from a warehouse which deals in second hand office equipment. The hard drives were then checked using software found free on the web.

The machines contained tens of thousands of images from a sex offenders database, detailed design plans of a new development, & 300 pages of medical records. All of this information was highly confidential & potentially very damaging.

So what do you do? Check that your printer includes software which automatically clears the images. If not take this up with your supplier. They should be able to advice on how your hard drive can be cleared. Whatever you do, ensure your hard drive is clear before you sell or dispose of your printer. You never know – your business may depend on it!

Well, the new year is just around the corner, but do you have a robust plan for the year ahead?

Unfortunately for many small business owners the answer is a resounding “No” – or, “yes, it’s in my head”, which is actually the same as no!

If you don’t have a proper plan for your business the chances of it moving in the direction you want are drastically reduced. Your business is more likely to grow by luck, rather than design, and luck is often in short supply in times of economic difficulty.

For many the very thought of putting a plan down on paper leaves them in a cold sweat – but it doesn’t have to be this way!

Firstly, remember that the person for whom you are preparing the plan – and the most important person in your business – is YOU. So, think about planning in terms that you can relate to rather than trying to plan with someone else in mind.

If you like mind maps plan using them. If you are a picture person try to build lots of pictures into the plan so you can engage with it.

Secondly, if you really don’t know how to plan – ask for help. You may have a friend or family member who can help you. Alternatively, there are lots of professionals who can help you with specific areas of your plan.

If you struggle to put together a marketing or sales plan engage a marketing or sales expert to help with that particular section. If you struggle with the figures your accountant should be able to help.

The key thing is that once the plan is finished it properly represents your business and your ideas for the coming year.

Your plan then becomes the foundations against you can measure the performance of your business going forward. You will be able to see whether or not your business will help you to meet your personal goals, or not, and you can use it to get finance if you need to.

Fiona 🙂

This post is a follow on from ‘A time to pay’ so if you haven’t read that you might like to do so before reading this one!

Once you have decided on your payment terms, ensured that both you and your client understand what is to be delivered, and paid for your services, there is still the possibility that a client will let you down and not pay.

The most likely scenario is that the client is strapped for cash and you are not seen as the first payment priority for them. This is a difficult position to be placed in for any service provider. My advice is that you must stand firm and by doing so you may well move yourself up the payment list – especially if the client is looking for further work from you.

Just as an aside, I generally provide an ongoing service to clients and so agree with them a fixed price service, so they can set up monthly standing orders. This has proved to be a win/win strategy. Clients like it because payments are broken down into monthly bite sized payments and I like it because I don’t have to do monthly invoices and then chase for payment.

However, what I did not appreciate until a client pointed it out to me was that, for them, my payments had moved up into the ‘unavoidable’ category – along with rent, rates, electricity etc. Unlike other professional service bills which are paid as and when money is available, my payment is made as one of the first.

Now, many service providers get lulled into doing more work for a client who is not paying, because they believe that they will not be given further work if they insist on being paid. As in my previous blog I would most strongly urge you not to get into this way of thinking. Firstly, the surest way of getting paid for work done is to stop working until payment is made. Secondly, if the client is bad at paying why would you want further work from them – rather than using your limited time to work for a client who will pay!

If a client is unlikely to use your services again, you are in a psychologically stronger position. You may well not be so reticent in sending tough letters demanding payment. Or, in fact, starting legal proceedings. If you want to go down this route it is very important that you understand what your rights are and how best to proceed. My advice would be to use a payment collection service such as that provided by companies like Credebt. They take the hassle away and enable you to concentrate on more positive areas in your business.

Finally, as I said in my earlier blog, don’t be coy about collecting money owed to you. As long as you have done the job required, and to the standard agreed, you are entitled to be paid!

Fiona 🙂