Bookkeeping & Project Finances

[Laura Chalkley]

Good morning,

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

I'm both a Civil Engineer (Chartered) and qualified bookkeeper (and in final stages of qualifying as a management accountant) with 25 years + experience - this gives me a unique perspective to assist with your construction company finances. We can assist with everything from day to day bookkeeping, payroll, CIS, tax returns etc to project cash flows and budget setting and control. We use the latest internet based software so location isn't an issue, and we can share information with you in real-time.

We have a blog on our website which has some articles you might find useful, including CIS and Making Tax Digital http://www.chalkleys.com/blog/.

If you'd like to know more, please message me or call 01268 856249 and choose extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you!

[v8druid]

Good morning,

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

I'm both a Civil Engineer (Chartered) and qualified bookkeeper (and in final stages of qualifying as a management accountant) with 25 years + experience - this gives me a unique perspective to assist with your construction company finances. We can assist with everything from day to day bookkeeping, payroll, CIS, tax returns etc to project cash flows and budget setting and control. We use the latest internet based software so location isn't an issue, and we can share information with you in real-time.

We have a blog on our website which has some articles you might find useful, including CIS and Making Tax Digital http://www.chalkleys.com/blog/.

If you'd like to know more, please message me or call 01268 856249 and choose extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you!

see there's quite a bit of fuss about this on other forums ..... and the fact that no-one seems to think the good ol' HMRC blood suckers'll be ready for the April deadline ... do you have any insider info. on the feasibility of it actually happening on time ?
just glad it doesn't affect me anymore ... the quarterly on line returns were a PITA, without any more dealings with 'em

[Muz]

Good morning,

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

I'm both a Civil Engineer (Chartered) and qualified bookkeeper (and in final stages of qualifying as a management accountant) with 25 years + experience - this gives me a unique perspective to assist with your construction company finances. We can assist with everything from day to day bookkeeping, payroll, CIS, tax returns etc to project cash flows and budget setting and control. We use the latest internet based software so location isn't an issue, and we can share information with you in real-time.

We have a blog on our website which has some articles you might find useful, including CIS and Making Tax Digital http://www.chalkleys.com/blog/.

If you'd like to know more, please message me or call 01268 856249 and choose extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you!

Stuck in this very dilemma ref MTD .. my Hire software links to my Sage stuff and I need to find a new solution fast !

see there's quite a bit of fuss about this on other forums ..... and the fact that no-one seems to think the good ol' HMRC blood suckers'll be ready for the April deadline ... do you have any insider info. on the feasibility of it actually happening on time ?
just glad it doesn't affect me anymore ... the quarterly on line returns were a PITA, without any more dealings with 'em

Oh it will be on time all right they need the money baaaaad

[Laura Chalkley]

Morning - yes, the VAT element of MTD will definitely kick in from the start of people's first VAT quarter starting on or after 1st April: however it only applies if your turnover is over the VAT threshold of £85,000. If your VAT turnover is less than £85000 then you don't have to comply yet (but if you're close then keep a careful eye).

In practical terms, for most people it just means having to use software to keep their accounts and submitting their VAT return direct from the software rather than typing the numbers into the HMRC portal.

Muz - which version of Sage are you using, some of their products are MTD compliant, it may just be a case of upgrading your software? Other popular options are Quickbooks Online and Xero. If you'd like to talk it through, please feel free to give me a call on 01268 856249 ext 1, will help if I can (absolutely no obligations involved, just like to be helpful!).

[Muz]

Muz - which version of Sage are you using, some of their products are MTD compliant, it may just be a case of upgrading your software? Other popular options are Quickbooks Online and Xero. If you'd like to talk it through, please feel free to give me a call on 01268 856249 ext 1, will help if I can (absolutely no obligations involved, just like to be helpful!).

Its an old version 11 Line 50 Accountant... so not compatible for MTD I'm told only the latest versions work, which then makes my Hire software called InspHire , redundant, as it wont work with the latest sage , unless I upgrade my InspHire software too which I'm told will cost another £1500 on top of the new sage, and it just isnt worth it for me. I generate invoices in InspHire and it then posts them through to sage, so I'll lose that connectivity.

I'll still need to use the hire software though as all my plant and stock is held within it, and it generates my hire contracts, which are essential. So I'm not best pleased at this MTD crap... its made my perfectly good software obsolete , and going to cost me more hard earned just to do my job. I was hoping the whole thing would get kicked into the long grass due to brexit, but it doesn't look like it.

So .. next question is .. finding a bit of software that can OCR sales and purchase invoices to save me time .. this currently where I'm at ... I called sage yesterday and was told I had a 30 minute wait to speak to someone .. so I emailed 'em .. no reply I see some also link to your bank account .. not sure if thats a good or a bad thing

[Laura Chalkley]

Its an old version 11 Line 50 Accountant... so not compatible for MTD I'm told only the latest versions work, which then makes my Hire software called InspHire , redundant, as it wont work with the latest sage , unless I upgrade my InspHire software too which I'm told will cost another £1500 on top of the new sage, and it just isnt worth it for me. I generate invoices in InspHire and it then posts them through to sage, so I'll lose that connectivity.

I'll still need to use the hire software though as all my plant and stock is held within it, and it generates my hire contracts, which are essential. So I'm not best pleased at this MTD crap... its made my perfectly good software obsolete , and going to cost me more hard earned just to do my job. I was hoping the whole thing would get kicked into the long grass due to brexit, but it doesn't look like it.

So .. next question is .. finding a bit of software that can OCR sales and purchase invoices to save me time .. this currently where I'm at ... I called sage yesterday and was told I had a 30 minute wait to speak to someone .. so I emailed 'em .. no reply I see some also link to your bank account .. not sure if thats a good or a bad thing

Oh hec, that's a huge cost. In terms of OCR software a well-known one amongst accountants is Receipt Bank, another one you might consider is Auto Entry, however both will have a cost as ongoing monthly fees.

Personally I really like the links to live bank feeds, it can really speed up data entry, e.g. on Quickbooks you can set rules so that regular, routine transactions automatically create themselves to save entering them.

[Muz]

Oh hec, that's a huge cost. In terms of OCR software a well-known one amongst accountants is Receipt Bank, another one you might consider is Auto Entry, however both will have a cost as ongoing monthly fees.

Personally I really like the links to live bank feeds, it can really speed up data entry, e.g. on Quickbooks you can set rules so that regular, routine transactions automatically create themselves to save entering them.

Yep .. I think thats where I'm heading, at the moment I still need to enter all my purchase invoices manually anyway, but more of a pain is all the direct debits .. and as usual, I leave it untill the end of a VAT quarter before doing it, soo 9 pages of bank statements to trawl through... a quiet office and coffee is the only way so in reality, if I switch to MTD stuff it just means I'll have to enter my sales invoices manually as I do the other stuff manually anyway, which is why I thought about going down the OCR route, ..... thanks for your suggestions Laura i'll investigate those .. one thing .. do all banks conform to this linkage to accounts packages, I'm currently with Clydesdale, now owned by Virgin ?

[Laura Chalkley]

Yep .. I think thats where I'm heading, at the moment I still need to enter all my purchase invoices manually anyway, but more of a pain is all the direct debits .. and as usual, I leave it untill the end of a VAT quarter before doing it, soo 9 pages of bank statements to trawl through... a quiet office and coffee is the only way so in reality, if I switch to MTD stuff it just means I'll have to enter my sales invoices manually as I do the other stuff manually anyway, which is why I thought about going down the OCR route, ..... thanks for your suggestions Laura i'll investigate those .. one thing .. do all banks conform to this linkage to accounts packages, I'm currently with Clydesdale, now owned by Virgin ?

Just checked Quickbooks and that can connect to the Clydesdale Bank feed, so I'm guessing others will too.

[Muz]

Just checked Quickbooks and that can connect to the Clydesdale Bank feed, so I'm guessing others will too.

Well it looks like some things are becoming clear now... most banks will be ok, except AIB it seems. Quick books do not offer a data conversion for a package as old as Line 50 Version 11 so thats that oot the windae ... looks like i'll have to stick with Sage who offer a free service to convert your data to the latest version ... good luck with that for rural punters in Scotland who still suffer from shitty half meg broadband Sage does not support any OCR though .. in fact when I asked the guy on the phone about it, he said "OCR .. whats that ?" .. quality customer support response as for Xero .. looks like it comes as a bare bones , then you have to pay for x,y and z afterwards ... might be worth switching to sage for a year then going to quick books, as that data will be tranferable by then .. although some people are suggesting the scanning purchse invoices for example is not 100% reliable ?

[Laura Chalkley]

Well it looks like some things are becoming clear now... most banks will be ok, except AIB it seems. Quick books do not offer a data conversion for a package as old as Line 50 Version 11 so thats that oot the windae ... looks like i'll have to stick with Sage who offer a free service to convert your data to the latest version ... good luck with that for rural punters in Scotland who still suffer from shitty half meg broadband Sage does not support any OCR though .. in fact when I asked the guy on the phone about it, he said "OCR .. whats that ?" .. quality customer support response as for Xero .. looks like it comes as a bare bones , then you have to pay for x,y and z afterwards ... might be worth switching to sage for a year then going to quick books, as that data will be tranferable by then .. although some people are suggesting the scanning purchse invoices for example is not 100% reliable ?

I've not used the OCR apps myself so can't comment on the accuracy, but even if you scanned the documents then ran a transaction report and did a quick manual check against the invoices and had to make an odd manual adjustment, I'm guessing that would still save a fair bit of time over typing everything in. I've used one of the services to convert Sage data to Quickbooks Online and tbh I wouldn't do it again. I'd just pick a suitable point in time, e.g. the end of a VAT quarter and transfer the closing balances across to the new software, I think that's much cleaner: there's inevitably some differences in the way data is stored in one package against another. As you already have Sage, you wouldn't then need to pay the cost to upgrade for a year as an interim, just move from one package to another when you were ready. Must admit I'm a big fan of Quickbooks cloud version (but not the payroll bit, I use other software for that), been using it for about 4 years and have a number of clients using it, had a look at the other packages around at the time and decided I liked it the best (though the others may have come on since and I wasn't aware of Xero at that point). Quickbooks includes the core functionality as part of the monthly fee, but the OCR would be extra as it's a third party app add on. Might be worth a chat with your accountant and see what their views are, they may have a different perspective to me.

[Muz]

I've not used the OCR apps myself so can't comment on the accuracy, but even if you scanned the documents then ran a transaction report and did a quick manual check against the invoices and had to make an odd manual adjustment, I'm guessing that would still save a fair bit of time over typing everything in. I've used one of the services to convert Sage data to Quickbooks Online and tbh I wouldn't do it again. I'd just pick a suitable point in time, e.g. the end of a VAT quarter and transfer the closing balances across to the new software, I think that's much cleaner: there's inevitably some differences in the way data is stored in one package against another. As you already have Sage, you wouldn't then need to pay the cost to upgrade for a year as an interim, just move from one package to another when you were ready. Must admit I'm a big fan of Quickbooks cloud version (but not the payroll bit, I use other software for that), been using it for about 4 years and have a number of clients using it, had a look at the other packages around at the time and decided I liked it the best (though the others may have come on since and I wasn't aware of Xero at that point). Quickbooks includes the core functionality as part of the monthly fee, but the OCR would be extra as it's a third party app add on. Might be worth a chat with your accountant and see what their views are, they may have a different perspective to me.

Laura I appreciate your comments.. Ive been plodding away with my own rental company for 30 years and I think small businesses are getting a real raw deal right now, and thats without brexit ! ...I have been shooting in the dark for the last month and not found any solutions, but now I have an MTD plan thanks to your help . This forum is well ranked on search engines, and I hope people will read this thread and give you a call and send something back to you.. thank you

[Laura Chalkley]

Laura I appreciate your comments.. Ive been plodding away with my own rental company for 30 years and I think small businesses are getting a real raw deal right now, and thats without brexit ! ...I have been shooting in the dark for the last month and not found any solutions, but now I have an MTD plan thanks to your help . This forum is well ranked on search engines, and I hope people will read this thread and give you a call and send something back to you.. thank you

You're more than welcome Muz, pleased I could help, I've had a lot of help from various people in building my practice and it's always good to be able to "pay it forward". :) A final thought that came to me this morning, you can use bridging software to connect different software and provide the required "digital links" (basically no manual data retyping / intervention other than importing allowed). Just done a quick search and found this, wonder if it would link with your version of sage 50 and mean you could carry on as you are https://vitaltax.uk/ . BTW I understand there won't be any penalties for not utilising digital links in the first 12 months (although you still have to keep your accounting records digitally and submit VAT returns from software, they seem to accept it will take time to get all the interconnectivity in place).

[v8druid]

Stuck in this very dilemma ref MTD .. my Hire software links to my Sage stuff and I need to find a new solution fast !






Oh it will be on time all right they need the money baaaaad

unlikely from what I read elsewhere Muz No where near up to speed themselves on it apparently

[Muz]

unlikely from what I read elsewhere Muz No where near up to speed themselves on it apparently

Havent seen or heard anything to the contrary at the moment ? ...1st of April 2019 is D day, Moment, Time for VAT registered businesses with a turnover more than £85000 ..

The whole thing is to stop business owners having the ability to plug the VAT figures into the governments own portal and change them fraudulently. With MTD,.. the software pings the VAT figures directly to the treasury, because the software has a direct link to the governments own computer systems .. Bloody annoyed I am because we now have to pay for the software just to pay a tax !! Plus as I said earlier, its invalidated all my other software overnight. They rekon it will save them billions in incorrect submissions.

[v8druid]

Havent seen or heard anything to the contrary at the moment ? ...1st of April 2019 is D day, Moment, Time for VAT registered businesses with a turnover more than £85000 ..

The whole thing is to stop business owners having the ability to plug the VAT figures into the governments own portal and change them fraudulently. With MTD,.. the software pings the VAT figures directly to the treasury, because the software has a direct link to the governments own computer systems .. Bloody annoyed I am because we now have to pay for the software just to pay a tax !! Plus as I said earlier, its invalidated all my other software overnight. They rekon it will save them billions in incorrect submissions.

and so, as usual, the honest Mr Average is having to pay for the small minority who defraud on a regular basis .... and who they can't catch anyway ...... software should be provided, if they want compliance

Big Brother is watching you