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Hot Business News Today

Cloud and SaaS accounting — what are the advantages?

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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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Hot Business News Today

Winning the Start-Up Series – Henry Acevedo, Fox Robotics

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Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
One of the pain points with Brexit was always going to be the shortage of migrant EU workers coming to Britain for the summer fruit picking season. The government is trialling a scheme that would only allow a maximum of 30,000 migrant EU workers into Britain this summer to pick soft fruits and vegetables. It is estimated that 70,000 fruit and veg pickers are needed in Britain each season.
Henry Acevedo, a computer scientist from Colombia, has developed a robot transport system which is about to start trials at a fruit farm. Given that nearly a quarter of any fruit picker’s time is spent carrying produce to collection points, Acevedo and his Fox Robotics team believe they can boost productivity by letting pickers concentrate on just picking fruit.
Being a winner at this year’s Start-Up Series will help turn his childhood passion for robotics into a business that can help farmers avoid fruit and vegetables rotting unpicked in the fields.

What’s your background as a tech entrepreneur?
I’m a Colombian computer scientist with almost 30 years’ experience in industry across many areas, such as telecommunications, working systems engineering, software development, information security, automation and, of

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Hot Business News Today

Qardus opens Islamic finance to small business for first time

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Qardus, the first small business Islamic finance platform in the UK, hopes to arrange up to £2.5m worth of funding over the coming year.
The crowdfunding platform, which launched last July, offers sharia-compliant Islamic finance to any small business, whether it is Muslim-owned or not.
Muslim-owned SMEs are an underserved market in Britain, as they are forbidden to borrow money or pay interest under Sharia law yet still need to grow.
>See also: Sharia start-up funding boom as UK leads in Islamic finance
An estimated 3.3m Muslims live in Britain, many of whom need to grow their small businesses but are prohibited under Sharia from borrowing from high street banks. (The word “Sharia” means a well-trodden pathway to water, although in this case it means religious legislation.)
So far, Qardus has arranged nearly £320,000 worth of Islamic finance for five small business owners, including a property firm, a chemist and a dental practice.
Firms can arrange anything between £25,000 and £200,000, which they repay over up to 36 months.
Around 750 individual investors have signed up for the Qardus crowdfunding platform.
Just as Muslim-owned microbusinesses do not really have anywhere to turn for Sharia-compliant finance – most of the big Islamic

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Hot Business News Today

Qardus opens Islamic finance to small business for first time

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Qardus, the first small business Islamic finance platform in the UK, hopes to arrange up to £2.5m worth of funding over the coming year.
The crowdfunding platform, which launched last July, offers sharia-compliant Islamic finance to any small business, whether it is Muslim-owned or not.
Muslim-owned SMEs are an underserved market in Britain, as they are forbidden to borrow money or pay interest under Sharia law yet still need to grow.
>See also: Sharia start-up funding boom as UK leads in Islamic finance
An estimated 3.3m Muslims live in Britain, many of whom need to grow their small businesses but are prohibited under Sharia from borrowing from high street banks. (The word “Sharia” means a well-trodden pathway to water, although in this case it means religious legislation.)
So far, Qardus has arranged nearly £320,000 worth of Islamic finance for five small business owners, including a property firm, a chemist and a dental practice.
Firms can arrange anything between £25,000 and £200,000, which they repay over up to 36 months.
Around 750 individual investors have signed up for the Qardus crowdfunding platform, attracted by projected annual returns of anything between 12 per cent and 16 per cent.
Just as Muslim-owned microbusinesses do

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Hot Business News Today

Which small businesses can stay open in national lockdown?

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Which small businesses can stay open during the national lockdown? Here is the partial list of what businesses can remain open with different rules for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
England
Prime minister Boris Johnson announced a third national lockdown for England on Monday, January 5.
This third national lockdown is expected to last until March 31 as the coronavirus vaccines are rolled out and the population becomes immunised.
Small businesses that must close in England

non-essential retail, including clothing and homeware stores, vehicle showrooms (other than for rental), betting shops, tailors, tobacco and vape shops, electronic goods and mobile phone shops, auction houses (except for auctions of livestock or agricultural equipment) and market stalls selling non-essential goods
hospitality venues such as cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars and social clubs; with the exception of providing food and non-alcoholic drinks for takeaway (until 11pm)
accommodation such as hotels, hostels, guest houses and campsites, except for specific circumstances
leisure and sports facilities such as leisure centres and gyms, swimming pools, sports courts, fitness and dance studios, riding arenas at riding centres, climbing walls, and golf courses
entertainment venues such as theatres, concert halls, cinemas, museums and galleries, casinos, amusement arcades, bingo halls, bowling alleys,

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Hot Business News Today

Which small businesses can stay open in national lockdown?

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Which small businesses can stay open during the national lockdown? Here is the partial list of what businesses can remain open with different rules for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
England
Prime minister Boris Johnson announced a third national lockdown for England on Monday, January 5.
This third national lockdown is expected to last until March 31 as the coronavirus vaccines are rolled out and the population becomes immunised.
Small businesses that must close in England

non-essential retail, including clothing and homeware stores, vehicle showrooms (other than for rental), betting shops, tailors, tobacco and vape shops, electronic goods and mobile phone shops, auction houses (except for auctions of livestock or agricultural equipment) and market stalls selling non-essential goods
hospitality venues such as cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars and social clubs; with the exception of providing food and non-alcoholic drinks for takeaway (until 11pm)
accommodation such as hotels, hostels, guest houses and campsites, except for specific circumstances
leisure and sports facilities such as leisure centres and gyms, swimming pools, sports courts, fitness and dance studios, riding arenas at riding centres, climbing walls, and golf courses
entertainment venues such as theatres, concert halls, cinemas, museums and galleries, casinos, amusement arcades, bingo halls, bowling alleys,

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Hot Business News Today

What the Brexit deal means for small business

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
UPDATED: Small business owners are relieved that the Brexit deal has finally been agreed, as it means certainty going forward.
Although on Friday afternoon, the 1,246-page legal text of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement deal had not been released, it does include a Small Business Chapter.
Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “The work of looking through the detail of the agreement to map out exactly what it means for the small firms that make-up 99 per cent of our business community now begins.
>See also: How Brexit is going to affect your business – #1 imports
“As well as going through the terms of access to each other’s markets, we are keen to see the Small Business Chapter that we have championed and encouraged both sides to include.”
Mr Cherry repeated his call for £3,000 transition vouchers that small business owners can spend on training and advice to navigate a new trading relationship with the European Union. This would be similar to schemes in Ireland and in the Netherlands.
Jonathan Geldart, director general of the Institute of Directors, agreed.
“Wherever possible, changes should be phased in,” Mr Geldart said. “Financial support for SMEs, such

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Hot Business News Today

What the Brexit deal means for small business

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small business owners are relieved that the Brexit deal has finally been agreed, as it means certainty going forward.
Although on Friday afternoon, the legal text of the deal – apparently just 500 pages long according to prime minister Boris Johnson and not the reported 2,000 pages – had not been released, it does include a Small Business Chapter.
Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “The work of looking through the detail of the agreement to map out exactly what it means for the small firms that make-up 99 per cent of our business community now begins.
>See also: How Brexit is going to affect your business – #1 imports
“As well as going through the terms of access to each other’s markets, we are keen to see the Small Business Chapter that we have championed and encouraged both sides to include.”
Mr Cherry repeated his call for £3,000 transition vouchers that small business owners can spend on training and advice to navigate a new trading relationship with the European Union.
Jonathan Geldart, director general of the Institute of Directors, agreed.
“Wherever possible, changes should be phased in,” Mr Geldart said. “Financial support for SMEs,

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Hot Business News Today

Government extends business furlough scheme until December at 80%

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government has extended the furlough scheme for UK small business employees at 80 per cent of wages for days not worked.
The extended UK-wide furlough scheme will run until Wednesday, December 2 covering 80 per cent of the salary for hours not worked due to compulsory lockdown, up to a maximum of £2,500.
Businesses will only be asked to cover national insurance and employer pension contributions which, for the average claim, accounts for just 5 per cent of total employment costs.
Employees can either be furloughed full-time or on a part-time basis.
>See also: Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, business rates return in April
Business grants
Small businesses forced to shut during the month-long lockdown in England will also be able to claim grants worth up to £3,000 per month per premises per month.

For properties with a rateable value of £15,000 or under, grants to be £1,334 per month, or £667 per two weeks
For properties with a rateable value of between £15,000-£51,000 grants to be £2,000 per month, or £1,000 per two weeks
For properties with a rateable value of £51,000 or over grants to be £3,000 per month, or £1,500 per two weeks.

In addition, another

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Hot Business News Today

Government extends business furlough scheme until December at 80%

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government has extended the furlough scheme for UK small business employees at 80 per cent of wages for days not worked.
The extended UK-wide furlough scheme will run until Wednesday, December 2 covering 80 per cent of the salary for hours not worked due to compulsory lockdown, up to a maximum of £2,500.
Businesses will only be asked to cover national insurance and employer pension contributions which, for the average claim, accounts for just 5 per cent of total employment costs.
Employees can either be furloughed full-time or on a part-time basis.
>See also: Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, business rates return in April
Business grants
Small businesses forced to shut during the month-long lockdown in England will also be able to claim grants worth up to £3,000 per month per premises per month.

For properties with a rateable value of £15,000 or under, grants to be £1,334 per month, or £667 per two weeks
For properties with a rateable value of between £15,000-£51,000 grants to be £2,000 per month, or £1,000 per two weeks
For properties with a rateable value of £51,000 or over grants to be £3,000 per month, or £1,500 per two weeks.

In addition, another

Read more...