Ringing in the Changes

From the Desk of the Bookkeeper in Derby


As 2014 draws to a close the team at  BKD Ltd have begun to consider our corporate objectives for 2015. 

Planning for the future is essential for any business - have you started your Objective setting yet?

BKD

Evolving Xero

From the Desk of the Bookkeeper in Derby

Xero, as one would expect, is a dynmic accounting icloud  package.. and the latest and welcome update means for the end user - a slight tidy up in the 'All' tab...

"Deleted and voided invoices and bills are no longer shown by default on the 'All' tab. To find them, go to the 'All' tab and check the new option 'Include Deleted & Voided'. Search invoices, bills, credit notes and purchase orders. "

BKD 

BKD Ltd is Xero Certified!!

From the Desk of the Bookkeeper in Derby


Here at  BKD Ltd we take training and development very seriously.  The Xero Partner Cerfication Programme is exacting and a pass mark of at least 80% is required.

Mega congratulations John- you looked drained! 

My turn soon




BKD

Opportunity

From the Desk of the Bookkeeper in Derby

BKD

UK tax inspectors collect record £23.9bn from large businesses, criminals and tax avoidance schemes

From the Desk of the Bookkeeper in Derby

Investigations carried out by UK tax inspectors have collected a record £23.9 billion over the last year, according to official figures.

The figure is £3.2bn more than the year before and almost £1bn over the target set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, in his 2013 autumn statement, according to HM Revenue and Customs.

More than £8bn was secured from large businesses, more than £1bn from criminals and £2.7bn from tackling tax avoidance schemes in the courts, it said.

BKD 


Source:  The Lincolnshire Echo 

Getting to grips with Xero

From the Desk of the Bookkeeper in Derby

Over time changes and indeed advances to the way we operate become an essential part of any business - not least within the bookkeeping fraternity.  For those of us who have already started on the journey of being self employed you will know exactly what I am alluding to. 

Those first tentative steps of trying to keep tabs on daily expenses - usually in a notebook or for the very brave an excel spreadsheet - then branching out into something a little more formal - The Little Yellow Book of Accounting for the Terrified is highly recommended.... then a couple of month/years pass and we find the need for an online solution and can't quite commit to a monthly fee so for those there is the natural progression into Solar Accounts. 

Then the day arrives - usually after a few months of agony and drowning under a sea of paper and very very late nights and early mornings then the driving need is to move to something a little more robust.

You are then faced with a question of landlocked or satellite? 

Well, as a sole operator - QuickBooks performed admirably - although there was a time when an update corrupted on of my clients data.  Horrible.  Wouldn't have been so bad - but I was a few days away from submitting their VAT return.  The pain lives with me still.

But as the team grows we needed to apply one of the most rudiment of all data entry principles - ONE DATA SOURCE.

I'd looked at Xero in its early stages and wasn't so impressed - however time has improved this accounting package.  So last August we took the plunge and began migrating client data over to Xero.  It was an ambitious plan - but we, as a team have grown and learned and as we face our first set of Year Ends - one of Xero's major advantageous is that we can have several people working on the same account at the same time.

Having said that - Xero isn't QuickBooks and I really miss a lot of the reporting functionality that is available.  I suspect though that it is only a matter of time before the Xero team begin to realise that the putting the raw data in is only a fraction of what is required of any accounting system... at the end of the day - unless you can run interactive reports - any system is worse than useless.

BKD