PAH Accountants

One of your customers has just contacted you to say that they have decided to switch their service provider. How do you deal with it? Whilst you are obviously disappointed it is important to consider why they may have chosen to switch.

Find out why?

Ask them for the reasons why they have chosen this route. It is likely to be one, or a combination of, two main reasons

• Price – they have found something cheaper
• Service – they don’t feel they have received the service they expected

If it is a question of price, then

Anyone that knows me will know that I am a big football and sports fan. I play in the Cheltenham league, albeit at the bottom end of the scale.

One thing that I am particularly passionate about is getting children playing sport. My son currently plays for Bishops Cannings under 7′s and participates in the after school football club. He also attends Judo classes at his school. I firmly believe that children should be encouraged to be active and not part of the ‘Playstation generation’.

So what has this got to do with accounting? Well nothing really; however, I have recently agreed

It is not often I blog about topical entertainment shows such as the apprentice; however, this weeks episode (10th May 2011) has infuriated me so much that I felt obliged to. I watch the apprentice mainly for entertainment as I don’t feel it represents real business; however, I like to think how I could approach most of the tasks involved.

This particular episode featured an accountant, Edward Hunter, who basically did nothing to enhance the reputation of accountants. He was

The objective of the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) scheme is to support the transport needs of business.

Employees that use their own car for business journeys can be paid the AMAP, free of tax and NIC.

The AMAP rate has been fixed at 40p per mile for what seems like forever (actually 2002!); However, the recent budget

The issue of travel and subsistence is considered to be one of the most problematic and grey areas within small business accounting, particularly for self employed individuals.

The basic reality is reasonably simple; in order to qualify for tax relief, any expenditure must be wholly and exclusively incurred for the purpose of the trade. Where an expense is incurred for a non trade or private purpose

Many businesses ask what are the most important things they need to know about Intellectual Property so here goes:-

1 – If you have an idea or invention DO NOT TELL ANYONE

To be protectable by patent a new invention must be novel and inventive. As soon as you tell someone you have destroyed the novelty and hence made your invention un-patentable. If you do need to discuss your idea make sure you do it under the cover of a Non-Disclosure or

You may recently have received your self assessment tax notices from HM Revenue and Customs. It has come to light that they have sent out tens of thousands with the wrong date.  Don’t panic, this is another error by HMRC where they have sent them out asking for returns for 2009/2010 instead of 2010/2011.

It is not a problem and you still have the same need to complete the 2010/11 return.

Good old HMRC!

So here we go again! You should now be receiving your notices to complete a self assessment return for the tax year to 5 April 2011.

You must ensure that this is completed by 31st January 2012 (31st Otober 2011 if completed on paper). This gives plenty of time to get it done; however, that doesn’t mean you should delay!

HMRC have amended their penalty regime, you will notice the penalty information sheet in with your tax return. The £100 penalty

The best way to the performance of your business is to use some key accounting ratios. These help you to analyse financial information about your business. Having this knowledge will aid making informed decisions about how to manage your business and help it to grow. This article highlights some of the common ratios that a business should use to measure its performance.

Profitability ratios

There are many factors to consider when looking at how profitable a business is. The profit and loss account shows

The Revenue has announced the launch of its latest campaign to identify tax fraud. They are looking to crack down on people, particularly the self employed, of fraudulently claiming tax credits. It is part on a government programme, in