Yesterday we recorded our 35′000 user I am very happy to report. Not only that but our monthly growth-rate is currently still about 10 - 12 %. About 80 % of these users are UK based.

Considering I was aiming for 10′000 users by the end of this year, I am very happy with the result so far. Our predictions for the year end are six figure numbers. So I hope to be able to make a further announcement here soon.

A major catalyst for this extraordinary growth so far was our CashBook which has been adopted by users and accountants alike. A big thank you to everybody for that, considering that the idea for the CashBook came from our accounting partner community.

On another note we have finished the implementation of AccountsVision so exporting the client data to AccountsVision could not be easier. Accountants can export with the .wtp-format and prepare final accounts in now time.

Accountants, Accounting, AccountsOffice, AccountsVision, Bookkeeping, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, Business Tool, Client Relations, CPA, CPAs, Home Business, IT, Micro Business, On-demand, OnlineOffice, Outsourcing, SaaS, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, SOHO, Teleworking, VAs, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, VSB, WebOffice, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice, WOW

Readers of Accounting Web may have seen Nichola Ross Martin’s article on the potential benefits of allowing small unincorporated businesses to prepare their accounts on the basis of cash received and spent.

At the moment this isn’t possible and all businesses have to use accruals accounting - prepayments, accruals, WIP, UITF40, the list goes on and on.  For small businesses who just want to tick along quietly and make enough to run the family home, that can be a real burden.

HMRC are looking into ways of cutting business red tape, and cash accounting is one possibility we might be able to encourage them to adopt.

Mike Truman at Taxation has now taken this up and is holding a poll so that business owners and accountants can vote on whether cash accounting would be a good idea.  Personally I think it would be an excellent idea.

May I encourage readers to go to www.taxation.co.uk and vote.

M

Tags: Accountants/CPAs, Business Development

A note from the Revenue to its staff tells them to "use your common sense"…

A client of ours has recently moved.  VAT know that we’re his accountants if only because we’ve been working with them on a long-drawn-out query.  But a letter from us and a phone call from the client, while they’re enough to have his Return sent to his new address, aren’t enough to change the address on VAT’s system.  They have to have a signed letter from the client.

He’s already sent this in but they haven’t received it.  So either it’s gone astray in the post, or else it’s been filed in someone else’s in-tray and forgotten about.

Common sense has also been filed in someone else’s in-tray and forgotten about, it would appear!

Tags: Accountants/CPAs

My post today is one that is close to home, and also follows on from the theme of running a small business here in the UK.

This is a news item that has probably gone unnoticed by many, unless you happen to be one of the 26 staff members of Bowland Dairy.

Bowland Dairy is was a Lancashire based cheese maker that has fallen foul of an ongoing dispute between the European Commission and the Foods Standards Agency here in the UK.

The dispute surrounds the use of milk that showed signs of antibiotic residues.

I would like to think the UK Foods Standards Agency were right, and looking at previous problems with British beef and the European Commission you have to wonder who is in the right.

The sad thing about this, is, firstly here is an other UK small business gone to the wall with the loss of jobs for the 26 staff and the next thing is more evidence that the UK is not allowed to run it's own affairs, not only that, but it would now appear that according to a recent BBC news item the European Commission is to take legal action against the UK. Tony what is going on?

Emily recently posted about all the red tape that a small Limited company must comply with and how mind boggling it all is, then Philip commented about the recently introduced age discrimination rules which are also very easy to trip over.

Make no mistake, running a small business in the UK has become harder in the last 9 years with legislation and regulation, yet in spite of this, more and more people every year are leaving the comfort of that monthly or weekly pay cheque to set out on their own, yes a lot fail, but then again there are many successes also.

The dream of running your own business is still a strong pull for many, it was for me, and if you want to make the leap, then do so, don't be put off by all the mind boggling stuff that you have to deal with, just make sure you get a good team of advisers around you and let them worry about all that while you run your own business.

Tags: Business Development, Micro Business, Small Business, Self Employed, Business Start Up, Entrepreneur, Working for yourself, SME, OMB, Business Adviser, Holden Associates, WinWeb, Arena Rooms, Bowland Dairy, European Commission, UK Food Standards Agency

Phil Wainewright must have had a bad day. He asked in his post:

Who in the world can guarantee that they will never have to work offline?

And then goes on to explain, why SaaS - Software as a Service applications will NEVER replace desktop applications. I am not going into all the wrong assumptions and naive explanations of his post, but have a question for him:

Who in the world can guarantee that they will have their laptop or desktop computer with them all the time?

I hope Phil will have a better day tomorrow.

UPDATE: Dennis has written about this too, I like the title: ” Never is a long time”. I agree it’s kind of forever!

Tags: E-Commerce, IT, On-demand, SaaS, sme-blog, Software as a Service, Web Technology, WebOffice, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

I was on a course yesterday called “Small company reporting requirements”.

The amount of red tape and paperwork that even a small limited company needs to keep up with can be mind-boggling.

Now that the tax savings from being a limited company are not so significant, many smaller businesses (with profits under £50,000 per year) may decide not to become limited companies, to avoid the extra admin and red-tape.

If you’re a small business owner, a discussion with your accountant may help you choose which is the best course for you:

- Stay unincorporated and reduce the red-tape burden, but pay more tax

- Become a limited company, and pay less tax and have the protection of limited liability, but have more paperwork and reporting to keep up to speed with.

For example, we have several smaller clients who have chosen not to be companies, because they’ve got young families and want to have as much time as possible to spend with their children.

It’s all about what works best for you - but if you have a limited company, be sure to take advice from your accountant and make sure you are doing your best to keep up to date with all the required paperwork.

Doing it all in a rush after the year-end is not a good idea!

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, Client Relations, CPA, CPAs, Entrepreneur, Home Business, Micro Business, Outsourcing, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, SOHO, Teleworking, United Kingdom, VAs, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VSB

It is not only my believe that the accountant has a prominent SME role to play, as a trusted financial and business advisor.

A 2004 survey by Sage Heartbeat revealed that just under 50% of small accounting firms have 500 active business clients, with an average turnover of a staggering £1.7 million.

In total the SME market in the UK comprises of about 3 million companies with a combined turnover in excess of £1.152 trillion.

This is certainly a staggering market place for approximately 22.000 small accounting firms, but what kind of service do the accounts provide to their clients?

In my discussions with accountants it is obvious that they would like to spend more time with clients on planning, for-casting and analyzing. Especially the smaller end of the client spectrum needs this kind of support from accountants, due to the lack of dedicated and qualified in-house personnel.

For the SOHO business other “quality” advice sources are often difficult to come by. In my personal experience the so called “Business Advisors from Business Link” can do more damage than good. General statement like “You need to do a business plan.”, are all well and good, but who is going to explain how to do a cash flow for-cast. The advisors I invited to “advice” me certainly could not do that.

Around 50% of business start-ups fail within the first 12 month. Is this due to bad products or services? I don’t believe so, all you have to do is go along the high street and you are surprised at what kind of business can survive long term. I think in most cases it is bad or disastrous financial management and planning.

So why are many accountants not stepping up to the plate and get stuck in? They are uniquely qualified to solve these often very simple problems and educate their clients, this would also benefit the practice long term.

Tags: Accountants, AIA, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Link, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, CIMA, CIPFA, Client Relations, CPA, CPAs, Entrepreneur, Home Business, ICAEW, ICAI, ICAS, IFA, Micro Business, Sage Accounting, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, SOHO, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VSB

I am very proud to announce a new contributor for my blog, Emily Coltman. Emily is a qualified accountant working for 5-director firm Cannon Moorcroft Ltd in High Wycombe, Bucks.

She qualified 3 years ago and since then has developed a strong interest in using accounts software to help small business clients keep their records with as little worry as possible.

As a result of talking to Jason Holden, she became interested in SaaS, trailed WinWeb and Cannon Moorcroft have now signed up to be Gold Partners themselves.

Emily is apparently delighted to receive my invitation to join this blog and looks forward to talking to lots more small businesses and users of WinWeb.

I am looking forward to her contributions and hope you will enjoy them as much as I will.

Tags: Accountants, Business Mentoring, Cannon-Moorcroft, Client Relations, Entrepreneur, Holden Associates, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, SOHO, Teleworking, Very Small Business, VSB, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

I had to post this.

Stuart over in the beautiful Lake District is finding it hard to get his best friend Bart a credit card with MBNA.

Now you should know, that MBNA wrote to Stuart’s best friend offering him a credit card, but as Bart is Stuart’s dog it was necessary for Stuart to complete the details for him, unfortunately he was rejected.

Bart won’t be put off though, he has written to MBNA asking them why he can’t have a card of his own?

Have a look at Stuart’s blog, this is a great story.

 Tags: MBNA, Credit cards, Credit, Doggy credit

After spending a couple of hours on online support on Saturday and Sunday, following our new Plug-in CashBook (find Demo here) release, you may be mistaken to believe that I was helping my customers to use the new plug-in. That of course is true in a fashion, but most of all my clients helped me to sort out the obvious marketing nightmare I had created.

In my last post about CashBook I said it needed AccountsOffice+ or OnlineOffice. You may know that AccountsOffice is free of charge, and as promised it will stay that way. Following the “online support” I received over the weekend here are the changes I have decided to implement:

• WinWeb CashBook will be a standalone product from tomorrow.
• Anyone can sign up for it from our website and use it.
• Some browser issues will also be resolved.
• WinWeb CashBook single user version will also be free.

Another great idea, I had from one of my “new” accountant partners, was to use WinWeb CashBook, even for those “plastic bag” accounting clients who do not want to get involved, on a in-house basis. What that means is the accountant or bookkeeper will use an admin person to enter the receipts into WinWeb CashBook and then the accountant / bookkeeper will process the entries. This will be a big time saving for the professional part of the work, allowing the accountant/bookkeeper to service more clients.

Every day when I do online support, I think I get more out of it then my clients, and that is not only because I “suck” at giving support! Thank you everyone!

Tags: AAT, ACCA, Accountants, Accounting, AIA, Bookkeeping, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Cash-Flow, CIMA, CIPFA, Client Relations, CPA, CPAs, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, FREE Business Tool, Great Business Idea, Home Business, Homesourcing, ICAEW, ICAI, ICAS, IFA, IT, Micro Business, On-demand, Outsourcing, SaaS, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, SOHO, Teleworking, VAs, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, VSB, Web Technology, WebOffice, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice, WOW