Category Archives: Business Tips

Offshoring – more details

In my previous blog I spoke about the difference between Offshoring versus Outsourcing. I explained that Offshoring is equivalent to hiring overseas team members with you selecting from a bigger pool of suitably qualified candidates. This is with much reduced employment risks as you are not directly the employer. In this blog I’d like to […]

Overcoming the challenge of finding and retaining staff

Is it proving a challenge to find and retain good accounting staff? Are you seeing salary costs for accounting staff rise? Are some or all of your team already working remotely? Like us you may have tried outsourcing previously, but are you familiar with the difference between Offshoring versus Outsourcing? Offshoring versus Outsourcing I confess […]

Accounting Firms can find a better way than just compliance

I took over my father’s Accounting firm after he had suffered a stroke at age sixty, just as he was heading into retirement. I found myself sitting in his chair, in his office, dealing with the same clients, the same office politics, chasing the same low fees, and thinking…..there must be a better way. Why […]

Fee protection insurance: should quality come before cost?

If Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) comes knocking, fee protection insurance protects businesses and their advisers against the cost of being investigated. Dominic Preist, head of tax sales at our partners Markel UK, explains how valuable fee protection insurance can be and when it’s worth paying more for quality cover. 1 – How does […]

Why fee protection insurance is a win for you and your clients

Fee protection insurance (FPI) offers substantial benefits to accountants and their clients. We outline why FPI is a win-win situation and why the industry must offer more support. The risk to companies of receiving an expensive HMRC visit is increasing rapidly. Except for a brief lull during the pandemic, the number of HMRC enquiries and […]

Top 10 tips for dealing with HMRC enquiries

Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) enquiries – which can be carried out on businesses and individuals – can be very stressful, time-consuming and costly for clients. It’s therefore vitally important that a professional accountant offers valuable guidance throughout the whole process to ensure clients achieve the best possible outcome with HMRC. Always check the […]

How do I free up more time in my accountancy firm?

Free up time

When you’re overwhelmed by the daily work and responsibilities of running a firm, you find yourself thinking “If I only had more hours in the day”. How do I free up more time in my accountancy firm? It’s natural to feel that way when you’re head down in the work. But it’s possible you don’t […]

What does the future look like for your accounting firm?

It’s likely you have an idea of the kind of tax or accounting firm you want to run, how far you want to go with it, and what impact you want it to have on your life. In our experience working with accountants (and being in the accounting industry ourselves) we know there are some […]

Why do small businesses need HR support?

Running a small business can be both demanding and rewarding. From the early days of being a brand-new start-up through to running a thriving well-established business, managing people will always be part and parcel of being a business owner. Whether you have a team of 2 or 20, it is important to get the people […]

How can I motivate my employees?

After speaking at the Accountingweb LIVE event in December 2021 I was asked to write a few words regarding the observations I made, about what is important to employees and how it can help employers to motivate their people by understanding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who in 1943 published […]