Coming soon… watch this space! Last Updated on 20 November 2024 by Andy Mac The post Small business receipt management using Dext Prepare appeared first on Small Business Toolbox ..read more

If you’re sitting with ‘spare’ cash in your business you might be thinking of investing it in something slightly more adventurous than a bog standard business savings account. Today I’m taking a look at what’s involved in setting up an InvestEngine business account. We’ve used InvestEngine for personal investments for many years. InvestEngine have not (more...) The post How to open an InvestEngine business account? appeared first on Small Business Toolbox ..read more

If you run your own business you can deduct expenses from your business turnover to reduce your taxable profits. But what about Christmas parties, social functions and gifts for employees? If you run a limited company this is a little-know tax benefit that could be very useful for your small business. Whether you want to (more...) The post Are there tax allowances for trivial expenses? appeared first on Small Business Toolbox ..read more

In the world of self employment there’s a common myth that the government are going to somehow reimburse your expenses. Well I’ve got bad news for you. This is a myth but what you can do is off-set your expenses against your profits to reduce your tax bill. Today we’ll take a look at the (more...) The post What business expenses can you claim? appeared first on Small Business Toolbox ..read more

Tide have released a credit card reader that links with a Tide bank account. This makes it one of the first card readers where banking and customer card payments are fully integrated. So today I’m taking a deep dive in to how to set it up, how to take payments and a few other things worth looking out for. Before I start, full disclosure as per usual. Tide have not paid me a penny to write this article. They gave me a card reader to have a play with so that I could give you an unbiased review. To save you from being bombarded with adverts and cookie popups this website is funded through membe ..read more

On 6th March 2024 the UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, revealed his pre-election Spring budget for 2024. Nothing ground breaking but a few notable things have changed. This is what the 2024/25 tax rates are likely to be for self employed people in the UK. The 2024/25 tax year in the UK runs from 6th April 2024 to 5th April 2025. Tax returns for this tax year are generally due by 31st January 2026. Still no sign of Class 2 NI being scrapped, as suggested many times over the last 10 years or so. Instead another consultation is being launched. Why is it so complicated to scrap this pointless tax? Li ..read more

In a desperate attempt to compete with the likes of TikTok and appeal to our increasingly short attention spans, YouTube are heavily pushing Shorts. Ultra-shortform videos, under a minute long and in vertical screen orientation. Almost mirroring TikTok’s Black Mirror-esque promotion of infinite doom scrolling. Ignoring the psychological impact of consuming content in this way there’s a more concerning impact from a business perspective. It’s something I’ve been wanting to write about for a while. Are YouTube actively killing their own platform? As many of you will be aware my original backgr ..read more

When I was about to set up one of my first limited companies, back in 2002, a good friend said to me “Andy, always have a business exit plan!”. I had no idea what he was talking about and brushed the whole idea under the carpet for a while. Little did I know at the time, this was the best single piece of business advice I’ve ever been given. What is a business exit plan? Traditionally in the world of business an exit plan mostly revolves around selling a business. However I’m going to be talking about an exit plan in a much broader sense. Most businesses don’t get sold but many people want t ..read more

By using a cashflow forecast template you can work out if your UK small business idea has legs. We’ve had a lot of small business ideas over the years. Some have been good, some have been bad. Knowing when to walk away is key to developing a successful small business. It’s absolutely essential that you do your homework and know your numbers! One way of doing this is by using a cashflow forecast. So let’s take a deep dive in to this. Cashflow forecast template for UK businesses It’s quite easy to build your own cashflow forecast template spreadsheet for Excel. To save you the trouble I’ve cre ..read more

Unless you’ve experienced the sheer devastation of data loss it’s a subject you’ve probably not put much thought in to. As a business owner you have a responsibility to ensure your data is protected – not only to keep your business safe but to keep your customers safe too. Today I’ll show you how easy it is to perform a UK cloud backup with Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office. I’ve covered purchasing Acronis in a separate article so I’m assuming you’re up and running with Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office installed and ready to go. As per usual this article may contain affiliate links – more i ..read more