Auditing is not a sexy subject. But in recent years the auditors of our major businesses have let the public down to a staggering extent. Let me start by restating why audits were introduced. In the 19th century, to encourage trade, businesses were allowed to become limited liability companies, meaning that the liability of the…
Category: Accounting
It isn’t Colonel Mustard.
If it was a game of Cluedo the prime suspect would be Amazon, in the high street with a web browser, but the causes of the devastation of retailing in many town centres is actually more complex than this, even though it is easy to blame the increase in e-commerce and online shopping. Like most…
This couldn’t happen in your business…..could it?
You may not have heard of the company but you will almost certainly have heard of its brands Bargain Booze, Wine Rack, Bibendum and others, despite which Conviviality plc, the brand owner, went into liquidation last week after making three profit warnings in just over one month. Another example of an avoidable business failure by…
Making Tax Digital – accounting software
Making tax digital is the government’s plan to take information for tax purposes directly from business owners’ online accounting software with no recourse to their accountant. This explains why HMRC are so keen to work with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent. This move was foreseeable, and should be less of a shock to forward-thinking business owners…
“What’s your business worth?” I asked.
A client of mine decided recently to incorporate his business. “What’s it worth”, I asked “Does it matter” he replied “I’m not planning on selling”. “Yes you are” I told him. “Incorporation of a business or ‘going limited’ as many people call it, is legally and for tax purposes a sale from one party to…
Are you making the right choices?
The news this week of business failures past, present and possibly future is alarming. Stories of incompetence, ignorance and a lack of information on a huge scale. I was fortunate to have respite from this doom and gloom on Thursday when I attended a masterclass with a very successful entrepreneur whose wisdom would have prevented…
An important lesson for entrepreneurial business owners
This week the news has been dominated by the collapse of Carillion, which will have huge repercussions for not just the staff they employed but also the 30,000 smaller businesses that relied on Carillion for their income and survival. There are a number of lessons entrepreneurial business owners can learn from this debacle that, like…
Do you know the score?
Imagine you’re watching your favourite sports team in their chosen sport…..rugby, cricket, football, baseball….. and you turn to the person sitting next to you and ask the score. “No idea” comes the reply. Two teams battle it out but you’ve no idea who’s winning. How do you feel? Frustrated at best. How can they play…
It started in the vegetable garden
Do you recognise this man? He’s my friend Wilf. Wilf and I have never met, but I call him my friend because we’re like two peas in a pod – we both love numbers. It started (for him) in the late 1880s when he was working in his vegetable garden and made an interesting discovery:…
Don’t be caught out by the new Annual Investment Allowance limits
The annual investment allowance (AIA) allows expenditure up to a set limit on most types of plant and equipment (but not cars) to be written off for tax purposes in the first year. It is very useful, because full tax relief for such expenditure might otherwise not be obtained for many years.…