Tag Archive for Accounting

What to do when facing financial adversity

By Tracc on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

It’s a rare small business that doesn’t go through some periods of financial adversity, whether it’s right at the start or as it begins to scale up. Andrew Walsh believes that entrepreneurs will be much better placed to deal with those difficult periods if they take the time to learn at least the basics of accounting.

In this case a little learning shouldn’t be a dangerous thing, because it will mean you’re exposed to far fewer of those nasty moments when your banker jabs a finger at your balance sheet and asks, “how are you going to fund this?”

You’ll still need to hire an accountant and a credit controller of course, unless you want to spend a lot of your precious time with your company’s books, but when you need to go to the bankers for a loan it’s a big help if you can speak their language.

It’s great if you can start up without any debt, but it’s important not to be underfunded. If you don’t have enough cash in a young business, you risk stunting its growth. If you do decide you need finance, check

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5 steps to bolster your business finances

By Mark Wright on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

In recent years, a number of large businesses have gone into administration, and this hasn’t resulted from lack of sales or custom, but rather a lack of control over finances, such as cashflow.

In fact, pre-pandemic, one in seven UK small business owners have been left unable to pay their employees on time due to finance and cashflow problems, while earlier this year 31 per cent of B2C firms reported that they will run out of cash within the next three months.

As we begin to emerge from Covid-19 restrictions, there are a number of key changes business owners can make to improve their business finances, and quickly.

#1 – Calculate your costs

It is vital to know your costs and one of the best cost-saving exercises is to regularly review your suppliers. As the famous 1980s story goes, Robert Crandall, the then head of America Airlines, calculated that if he just removed one olive from every salad served to passengers, no-one would notice and they would generate an annual cost saving of $100,000.

So, as a business owner, ask yourself this question: what is your one olive? We all

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5 steps to bolster your business finances

By Mark Wright on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

In recent years, a number of large businesses have gone into administration, and this hasn’t resulted from lack of sales or custom, but rather a lack of control over finances, such as cashflow.

In fact, pre-pandemic, one in seven UK small business owners have been left unable to pay their employees on time due to finance and cashflow problems, while earlier this year 31 per cent of B2C firms reported that they will run out of cash within the next three months.

As we begin to emerge from Covid-19 restrictions, there are a number of key changes business owners can make to improve their business finances, and quickly.

#1 – Calculate your costs

It is vital to know your costs and one of the best cost-saving exercises is to regularly review your suppliers. As the famous 1980s story goes, Robert Crandall, the then head of America Airlines, calculated that if he just removed one olive from every salad served to passengers, no-one would notice and they would generate an annual cost saving of $100,000.

So, as a business owner, ask yourself this question: what is your one olive? We all

Read more...

Cloud and SaaS accounting — what are the advantages?

By Nick Ismail on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Cloud and SaaS accounting systems are becoming ever-more sophisticated and more widely used. In essence, they are web-based software programmes which users rent or subscribe to. The advent of such services means businesses no longer own the software downloaded on a disk or computer. Instead, subscribers can use the internet to access their financial information.

Small business accounting can be a challenge, but it needn’t be. Below, are five advantages of using an cloud-based and SaaS (software-as-a-service) accounting system for your business:

1. Time saving

One of the benefits of internet-based accounting software is its ease of use. You can set up an account so that information about your finances — including sales, income, purchases and transactions — can flow straight from your business account to your books.

Using desktop-based softwares, from the advanced to the Excels of the world, can be clunky and mean small business owners must manually input bookkeeping data. This can waste time and prove expensive for a streamlined team. With the cloud, entrepreneurs can essentially go ‘hands free’, which means spending less time on repetitive accounting tasks and more time on growing the business.

2. Easy access

The beauty

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