We’ve recently completed a project which involved replacing all of our old Windows 7 computers with shiny, new Linux machines. There were a few small hiccups along the way, but it went fairly smoothly. We needed to kick out Windows 7 because Microsoft had announced that they were going to stop supplying security updates in … Read more "Linux on the Desktop ..read more

It is quite common for companies to pay their staff earlier at Christmas time. This is nice for employees, but it can have a nasty side-effect on workers who receive Universal Credit payments. HMRC has issued some new guidance, aimed at preventing this problem. So what problem is HMRC trying to solve? Well, Universal Credit … Read more "Paying Early at Christmas – New Guidance ..read more

I read an article in the Autumn 2019 issue of Accounting Practice about the experience of digital taxation in Australia, and the fact that it has introduced various initiatives ahead of the UK. For anyone interested in the future impact of digital taxation in the UK, this article has some interesting predictions. Accounting Practice is … Read more "The Tax Wizards of Oz ..read more

The company behind AccountingWEB, a popular website for accountants, has completed its 2019 survey which assessed the views of people who use accounting software. I’m very pleased to say that The Payroll Site, again, received the highest ratings in the Payroll Software category. We have now come top in the survey five times, the first … Read more "The Payroll Site Tops AccountingWEB Survey Again ..read more

Facebook has come under considerable criticism recently for the way it processes and protects personal data. One of the lesser known issues with Facebook is the way it tracks people who use the world wide web, but who don’t use Facebook. If your website has a Like button on it, you could be complicit in … Read more "Is Your Website Sending Data to Facebook ..read more

A report about Universal Credit, published last week, highlights how an employer’s choice of pay dates can still have unintended consequences for the staff. The report, from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), states that, “The strict system of monthly assessment of earnings can cause a host of problems as months do not all include … Read more "Universal Credit Still Can’t Cope with Real Pay Dates ..read more

Passwords have two main purposes: (1) to make it easy for an authorised person to log on to the system and (2) to make it hard for an unauthorised person to gain access to your account. If the password isn’t written down or stored in a password manager, a good password needs to be easy … Read more "What’s Easy to Remember but Hard to Guess? A Good Password ..read more