Bank finance articles and tips

Budgets are Constantly Under Assault

Managing your budget is one way of staying financially sound but altering the budget without any compelling reason and proper planning may bring negative results. If you want to increase your spending with the same income your budget may not hold. And if you want to increase your savings your family may not react kindly to whatever austerity measures you may want to impose....

In my experience the standard of record keeping in small businesses has deteriorated over the years with many business owners trying to maintain their own records but with little success.

So what is good record keeping according to HMRC? They have been quoted as saying that "An accurate record of business money in and business money out in whatever form...will be all that is needed to fulfil the record keeping obligations that the law requires. Good record keeping is essentially about diligence, not technical ability."

I always tell clients that it does not matter where and how they record their business transactions as long as it is complete and accurate. Today it should be easier with the raft of computer programmes but the adage garbage in garbage out comes to mind.

So what is the problem? Last February HMRC announced a Business Records Check programme where they are to review the adequacy and accuracy of the records kept by 200,000 small and medium sized firms over the next four years.