What's new at Finnies? - Xero Accounting

Last week we announced our partnership with the charity Motorvation. This week we’re promoting our recent integration with the accounting platform Xero.

Xero is a cloud based accounting software for small and medium sized business that allows you to run your entire business from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. The software comes with apps for android, iPhone, tablets, iPads and can be trialed for free.

Features: 

There’s a long list of features with Xero, but to name some of the more beneficial ones:

• Automated bank feeds – Xero receives these automatically and you can check these anywhere using the apps.
• Online invoicing – You can connect seamlessly with your customers and receive updates when an invoice is opened.
• Mobile access – Run your business from anywhere and from any deviceFree and automatic updates – Developers at Xero are commited to updating every 3-6 weeks.Unlimited email support – You’ll never be put on hold! 

FACT: Xero is trusted by over 300,000 customers, even receiving reviews from Macworld, GetApp and The Sleeter Group.

Xero at Finnies

Our leading expert in Xero at Finnies is Jonathan Parkin, who is keen to help our clients with the software. Should you be interested, you can contact him at JP@finnies.org.uk or call 01482 861919.

Money Matters (Part 1) - Private Residence Relief

It was recently announced that HMRC plans to change the availability period for relief a person received when they own one or more properties. We thought it would be useful to provide a brief summary as to what this means.

The current system

When a person owns one or more properties that have been their main residence, they are entitled to relief on the final period if they dispose of a property they’re not currently living in. This relief has been available for a period of 36 months.

The new proposal

HMRC have announced that the availability period is to be changed from 36 months (3 years), to 18 months as this reduces the incentive for those with more than one property to exploit the rules while still providing sufficient time to sell a previous residency after moving to a new one.

This was announced on 5^th December 2013 and will have effect where contracts for the sale of a property are exchanged on or after 6^th April 2014.

The new legislation will be introduced in the Finance Bill 2014.

In recognition that a person moving into care may take longer to dispose of their former home, the relief period will remain at the 36 month period for this group of people.

Summary of Impacts

In the published HMRC document, you can find information on the impacts that new legislation will have. We’ve included this directly from their document below:

Source: Full document here

Further advice

There are services available at HMRC if you have any questions or queries about this change. You can contact Tracy Gibble on 03000 585169 or tracy.gibble@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.

We at Finnies hope this new information proves useful for you and are here to help with such matters; do not hesitate to get in touch.

Finnies Partnership with Charity 'Motorvation'

We are pleased to announce that one of our directors, Neil Tomlin, has started helping out with the charitable cause Motorvation. 

Motorvation is a registered charity that specialises in transport for disable people and their carers, enabling wheelchair users to have more freedom and independance in all aspects of their day to day lifestyle, including social, domestic and leisure activities. In doing so, the company allows them to break ou of their isolated surroundings with increased confidence.

The company was first conceived by the late Mike Tennison MBE 35 years ago with the assistnce of Haltemprice Lions and funding from other donations. The first purchased van was initially used to transport young disabled people to the Castle Hill Hospital Disabled Unit.

After receiving his MBE for these outstanding contributisons, Mike sadly died in December 2013. However, his legacy lives ion though the company. 

One feature of the charity is that the commitee is formed of both disabled and able bodied personal; the charity has no paid employees. Motorvation relies on grants and donations to continue is operation. All grants are used for the cost of renewing their vehicles and donations from uses are used for the costs of running the service (such as fuel, insurance, etc.)

If you are interested in making a contribution, or even volunteering for the charity, please contact Peter Cass on 07814 95350 or 01430 424375.

For more information, click here for the charity's website.

We at Finnies look forward to this partnership and hope it brings a lot of support to the charity.

Accounting Myths - 5 common myths about the world of accounting

There’s always a lot of myths circulating about accounting. For the first official post from Finnies, we thought it’d be a good idea to debug some of these myths and alleviate any ideas you might have because of these.

1) Accounting was discovered by a nerd with a pocket calculator.

Wrong. Accounting was actually discovered in the late 1400s by an Italian Monk named Luca Pacioli. In 1491, he founded what’s now referred to as ‘double-entry accounting’ and his first account detailed the early systems used by Ventian Merchants for ‘accounts receivables’ and ‘inventories’. Today, we still use principles and methods uncovered by Pacioli on a daily basis, which is why he’s commonly known as the “Father of Accounting”.

2) Accountants are boring.

Believe it or not, there have been some surprising names who have studied accounting, including comedian Eddie Izzard and musicians Mick Jagger and Robert Plant. If that’s not enough, check out this guy – he’s an accountant but wants to be a lion tamer.

3) Auditors = Tax Accountants = Bookkeepers = Corporate Accountants

When people think about what accountants do they automatically assume it must be tax-oriented, which couldn’t be more wrong. Different accountants have different roles. For example, the job of an auditor largely revolves around statistical sampling and regulatory advice; they don’t really “account” for anything. Tax accountants help with deductions and perform your yearend returns, and bookkeepers typically account or keep track of financial transactions for smaller businesses. Corporate accountants do the same on a much larger and complex scale. So as you can see, everyone’s different.

4) Your Business doesn’t need an accountant

Said no one. Ever. In reality, having a full-time internal or external accountant can save you much future trouble. An accountant will help you organise all your finances, allowing you to take advantage of opportunities for growth. Not to mention, they’ll make your life a lot easier around tax time.

5) Accounting is a male dominated field

In 2011, females held 43% of the chartered accountant positions, and this has steadily been climbing since. Additionally, in the US, 60% of all accountants and auditors in the US are female, and 50% in Canada.

There you have it, 5 myths about accounting debugged. This goes to show that it’s always worth investing in an accountant; they can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

Welcome

Welcome to the official blog for Finnies Accountants Limited, based in Beverley. We're a well-established chartered certified accountancy practice with many years experience. Finnies offer a comprehensive service to cover all aspects of accountancy and taxation. Although we pride ourselves in having a large local client base, our high standards have attracted business from across the whole of the UK and beyond, also branching into Europe.

We're hoping our clients and also our users of the website - you! - will benefit from the regular updates we're posting, which will include a wide range of information about accounting (ranging from income to careers) and some interesting posts such as accounting myths.