I’m going to walk you through a practical, low-risk way to reclaim VAT on purchases that are used for both business and private purposes — without waving a red flag in front of HMRC. I’ve helped dozens of small business owners navigate these tricky areas, and the advice I give is always the...
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Small Business Advice
I’ve watched padel grow from a niche pastime into one of the fastest‑rising...
Bookkeeping
Switching accounting software can feel scary — especially when you’ve got...
Compliance
Auto-enrolment for workplace pensions can feel like a slow-moving compliance...
Financial Planning
I still remember the first time my income vanished for a month. No dramatic...
Auto-enrolment for workplace pensions can feel like a slow-moving compliance landmine for small businesses: it’s not glamorous, but get it wrong and you can face stiff fines, unexpected employer contributions and a lot of time spent answering The...
I still remember the first time my income vanished for a month. No dramatic collapse—just a quiet run of cancelled bookings that left my bank balance looking alarmingly thin. That experience taught me the value of a simple, practical safety net: a...
I used to dread bank reconciliation. I’d sit with a cuppa and a growing list of unmatched transactions, wondering how I’d ever stay on top of month‑end without spending hours chasing receipts and coding similar transactions one by one. Then I...
When a sole trader incorporates, one of the first and most impactful decisions is how to split remuneration between salary and dividends. I see business owners agonise over this — partly to minimise tax, partly to keep pension contributions and...
I’ve helped dozens of small businesses recover VAT repayments stuck in HMRC’s system, and I know how frustrating it can feel to wait weeks (or months) for money that’s rightfully yours. Below I share a practical, step‑by‑step approach I...
Hiring your spouse or partner can be a smart way for a microbusiness to stay compliant while making better use of household income — but it only works if the role is genuine and the paperwork is right. Over the years I’ve helped many...
Closing the books for the year as a sole trader with several income streams can feel like juggling flaming torches while standing on a balance beam. I’ve helped many micro-business owners through this process, and the key is to break it down into...
I use Xero Projects every week to check which clients are profitable and which ones quietly erode margins. If you’re like many small business owners I work with, you want clarity without adding admin — not another spreadsheet that needs...
I used to rely on gut feeling to decide whether my clients were about to hit a cash squeeze. Over the years I realised that the most reliable early‑warning signals live in the accounting data we already have — invoices, bank feeds, payroll and...
I plan tax for my clients all year, not just in the run‑up to Self Assessment. That’s because sensible, legal tax minimisation is mostly about timing, structure and making full use of allowances — not about clever (and risky) schemes. Below I...