PAH Accountants

It has long been the common conception of accountants that they are merely number crunchers and form fillers. But is this really what they do? It could easily be argued that the external accountant of a business is the most valuable adviser to that business. The numbers in the Financial Statements can tell a lot about a business and its financial position.

Factors your accountant can advise on

Particularly in smaller owner managed businesses, the client focus of the accounts is on how much tax is there to pay at the end of the year and, more importantly, can this be reduced as much as possible.

Whether the business is making a profit or loss is usually obvious; however, is that profit analysed any further. Are profits being reinvested to build the business or drawn out immediately by the owners? Are drawings being made in excess of profits, therefore,
putting the business in a negative cash flow position?

Often in reality the Balance Sheet is the most important factor on a set of financial statements. This shows the true position of the company at a point in time. The Net Assets on a Balance Sheet should really reflect how much a business is worth; however,
this can often be

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are on the lookout in 2011 for small business tax under payments and tax evasion with the HMRC’s introduction of making tax compliance spot checks on small United Kingdom businesses.

These compliance spot checks are one of the last things that small UK businesses need as they try to battle the poor economic climate that exists today. What is expected is that roughly 50,000 small UK businesses will be visited, closely examined and if their books do not meet the minimum standards set then they could end up facing a fine of up to £3,000 which for many small businesses could be devastating.

The reason for the compliance spot checks is because

Session one – the trading account

The goal of most people who set up a business is to make money. To earn a profit is to receive more money from sales than you are paying out for expenses. Profit is effectively the reward earned when taking the risk of owning a business. The Profit and Loss account is a record of the performance of a business over a specific period of time, usually annually.

The first key element of the profit and loss account is what is known as the trading account. This

It has been announced by Companies House that virtually all of their services are to be online by March 2013. Indeed their vision is to become a fully electronic registry.

Much of the Companies House forms have been available to file using the WebFiling service for quite a while now. You should have been given an

So, you have decided to offer credit. What next? It is stating the obvious but it is important to know your customer to do an adequate risk assessment, ensure your invoices are correctly issued and ultimately know who to take legal action against if it all goes horribly wrong!

Much of the information required can be obtained by using a fairly simple application form which should include your

If you run a small business which operates from a single premises you could be eligible for substantial rate relief, thanks to a recent government announcement.

The amount of relief is dependent on rateable value. As of 1st October, traders operating from a single premises will receive 100% rate relief on properties up to a rateable value of £6,000, instead of the previous 50 per cent. Also there is

What is Electronic Invoicing?

Electronic invoicing is the transmission and storage of invoices without the delivery of paper documents.

Why use this method?

This can offer many advantages over traditional paper invoices. The rapid electronic transmission of documents in a secure environment may provide for:

• An improvement to the traceability of orders
• Decrease in paper storage
• Reduction in paper and handling costs

Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax levied on the sale of certain goods and services. There are different rates of VAT which apply. Suppliers are either exempt, zero-rated or chargeable. Currently chargeables supplies are at 5% or 17.5%.

Do I have to?

Registration for VAT may be compulsory, depending on the level of current or future turnover of the business. A business can voluntarily register for VAT; however, in order to register, a business must either be making taxable supplies (sales where VAT would apply) or intend to make taxable supplies in the future.

The two most common cases where a business must register and charge VAT are:

• A non-registered business making taxable supplies whose value exceed £70,000 within the last twelve months or

It sounds sordid but it’s true. Following a period of negotiation and review of various accounting systems, PAH accounting has decided to become an affiliate partner of Kashflow.

Kashflow is a web based package and is designed specifically for small businesses. Being web based it has the advantage of being accessible from anywhere. You are always using the most up to date version of the software. It also doesn’t need to