Latest News

10 things you need to know about Help to Buy

I am sure you are aware of the depressed housing market that has affected much of the United Kingdom during the last five years. Some of you may also be aware of initiatives that were launched by the Government this year to encourage some confidence in the property market. This initiative is called Help to Buy. 

There are two distinctly different Help to Buy schemes:-

Gifting to charity by individuals and companies

With the recent distressing disaster in the Philippines we have received a number of enquiries from clients wanting to make contributions.  Clients have been asking us the best way to go about this to maximise the amount they can give to charity.  We have therefore pulled together a recap of the very important Gift Aid rules for individuals, and also included details on how companies can make charitable contributions too.

How can your business access finance?

Recent Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) research showed the flow of new bank lending to SMEs which includes family and owner managed businesses fell by 23% between 2009 and 2012. One of the issues was the lack of awareness of alternative sources of finance amongst businesses. 

Our corporate finance team who work with clients to raise finance give their top 10 routes to accessing finance:

Top tips for improving your cash flow

1. Credit check customers before agreeing credit terms. By offering early payment and cash discounts, you will encourage customers to settle invoices quicker, reducing the risk of bad debts.
2. If you are struggling to turn invoices into cash, employ a credit controller or debt collection agency to chase them on your behalf.
3. Think about working with an invoice financing company to generate cash as soon as your invoices are raised.

A fresh modern way for landlords to manage property portfolios

As Xero Gold Partner accountants, the Xero team at Armstrong Watson are constantly reviewing the many add on partners that integrate directly with Xero in search for cloud software that will either save our Xero clients time or improve their business.

Pocket Rent is one such cloud software provider that is worth further investigation. Pocket Rent is for landlords looking to better manage their property portfolio.

Features of Pocket Rent

Armstrong Watson – Payroll World Award Winners!

On the 24 October 2013 this year’s Payroll World Awards took place at the Millennium Hotel, London Mayfair.

Armstrong Watson is thrilled to announce that we won the ‘Green Payroll Award’ at the ceremony beating the five others shortlisted.

Other finalists included Acrede HR & Payroll Solutions, Bond Payrite, esl, SSLPost and University of Lincoln.

Many happy returns

Most people in the UK are spared the hassle of having to complete a Tax Return. That is because the PAYE system which applies to salaries and wages gets roughly the right answer if the PAYE code number is correct.

The self-employed and landlords receiving rents are two of the groups of people who will be required to submit a return. The principle behind this is that, if you are likely to owe the taxman money, then he wants a Tax Return.

Not just us, our clients love Xero too

I have been working with Xero since December 2011 and for me it was love at first sight. That may seem quite dramatic; however, it really was a game changing moment seeing accounting software as more than just a commodity.

Since then we have made the progression from bronze to silver through to gold Xero partnership status, this allows us to have a greater influence within the Xero community; more importantly, this has allowed our clients to revolutionise the way they run their business, but don’t take our word for it, this is what our clients have to say about Xero

Social media - is your business on board?

With the development of the internet in the last decade and the increased use of smart phones and tablets in recent years, the way people communicate with each other has changed, and social media has evolved through channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Many business owners are now using social media to grow their businesses. If you own a business but are not yet utilising social media to grow and attract new clients/customers, you need to seriously consider embracing this change. Here are the reasons why:

Now it's the turn of the SME

So we have reached the one year anniversary of auto-enrolment (AE), with figures from The Pensions Regulator showing 1.6m people have been auto-enrolled into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. With opt out rates of just 9%, AE's first year appears to have been considerably more successful than many skeptics predicted.