Monthly Archives: February 2020

Hot Business News Today

What documents do you need when applying for a business loan?

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Adam Parker on Small Business
Applying for a loan may seem daunting once you’ve decided to borrow finance. That’s why it’s always important to have the right business documents prepared before you do so.
Documentation varies depending on what type of lender you’re looking to borrow from. With a business loan from a bank, you are likely to be required to provide more documents to limit risks, such as a business plan or insurance. Other lenders might require less.
Brokers who act as an intermediary between the applicant and the lender offer an online application that further reduces the amount of documentation needed.
>See also: Best UK small business accounting software 2020 – review guide
Business bank statements
Business bank statements are an essential document used to verify the income and the outgoings of your company. The statements usually consist of a summary of your transactions which helps determine your spending and income. These are typically produced every month.
Financial accounts
Financial accounts are necessary for the lender to gain a clear insight into the company for the full financial year. They allow lenders to see a greater picture of the company, rather than working solely from bank statements alone.
For example, six months’ worth of

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

6 ERP systems for growth businesses

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning and companies have relied on it since the ‘90s to streamline processes and improve data visibility around finance, project management and manufacturing. Simply put, ERP integrates people, processes and technologies across a business.
An ERP system brings together a multitude of business processes and enables data to flow between them. By collecting an organisation’s data from multiple sources, an ERP system eliminates data duplication and offers “a single version of the truth”.
How ERP has evolved
The roots of ERP date to the ‘60s. Back then, the concept applied to stock management and control in the manufacturing sector. Software engineers created programs to monitor inventory and report on status. By the ‘70s, this had evolved into systems for scheduling production processes. By 1990, these systems had grown beyond inventory control and manufacturing processes to encompass back-office functions such as accounting and human resources.
ERP adoption grew rapidly during the ‘90s. Two events that helped widespread adoption of ERP were the launch of the euro in January 1999 and the imminent threat of Y2K in December that year, which forced the hand of many companies looking to replace clunky, unwieldy systems.
However, the

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

One third of freelancers say IR35 changes affecting their mental health

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Freelancers say that IR35 changes to the way they are treated for tax are affecting their mental health and even prompting suicidal thoughts.
Over one third of contractors say that HMRC’s crackdown on how they are taxed, treating them as full-time employees rather than freelancers – known as IR35 – is either damaging their mental health or sending them to their GP for anxiety or suicidal thoughts.
Fifteen per cent of freelancers caught out by the IR35 rule changes are set to default on mortgages or are in the process of selling their homes, according to one survey.
>See also: More than four in 10 businesses could phase out contractors due to IR35
One anonymous freelancer said: “Frequently having chest pains and not sleeping. Added pressure of wife not coping well due to fear of losing family home. Trying to remain calm, but frequently having suicidal thoughts.”
Currently, contractors assess their own tax status, but impending reforms coming into force from April 6 will shift this responsibility to hiring businesses.
HM Revenue & Customs wants stop “disguised employment” gaming the system; working in a permanent position within a company without paying the same tax or employee contributions as full-time

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Why Rishi Sunak is going to be good for small business

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Forget about the fact that you probably could not have a finer education – our new chancellor won a scholarship to Winchester College, a dauntingly intellectual public school – where he became head boy – followed by graduating with a first in politics from Oxford University and then an MBA at Stanford, probably America’s version of Cambridge. (Our dear prime minister scraped a 2:1 while at Oxford, mainly down to his laziness.)
And it’s nothing to do with him being the son of a shopkeeper pharmacist and her GP husband, who experienced the day-to-day hardscrabble of running a family business. (They had their future chancellor son do the bookkeeping.)
No, the reason why new chancellor Rishi Sunak bodes well for small business is because of a paper he wrote for free market-leaning think-tank Centre for Policy Studies three years ago.
In it, Sunak – then an ordinary MP for Richmond in Yorkshire – argued that the government should support the creation of an investment exchange for SMEs, where ordinary savers like you and me could lend money to small businesses, trading bonds like shares.
This Retail Bond Exchange would generate fresh capital for SMEs, while at the

Read more...