MOVING ON UP…

It has been a very busy and very productive past few weeks. Between meetings, phone calls, emails and paperwork, we have managed to squeeze in an entire office move – down to our wonderful team here at Pure Contribution.

We loved our old office, after all it was one in a series of big steps Pure Contribution has made, but we thought it was high-time we stopped trying to cram our dedicated team into our very first and somewhat compact workplace.

Don’t worry, we’re still located in the same building in Discovery Park, Sandwich. We have simply moved into a much bigger, much brighter set of rooms upstairs and we are thrilled to say our team are very happy and settled in the new space.

Speaking of our team…

Part of Pure Contributions’s dedicated, professional and friendly team. From the left: Nikki Gilbert, Emma Payne, Lee Perriam, Lauren Usher and Phyu Khaing. 

The people you can see in the photo above are the very people you will speak with should you wish to give us a call to get your business off the ground.

At Pure Contribution we have our procedures, of course, but (if you have two seconds) imagine a compass. The procedures work like a compass for all in the business, however what use is that without someone who can read it? Our team can, they do and they are ready to help you now.

Nikki Gilbert, the newest staff member at Pure Contribution.

Phyu Khaing, who started at Pure Contribution this summer.

Lauren Usher, Lauren has been with us for almost 2 years. 

Julia Kenny, who also joined the team this summer.   

The founder himself, Lee Perriam, who launched Pure Contribution in 2011. 

If you are looking to build a better business, we are all here for you.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01304 806080 or via email: info@purecontribution.com.

Until next time.

SMALL BUSINESS ADVICE WEEK: MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR SYSTEMS

It’s Small Business Advice Week and at Pure Contribution, helping small to medium sized businesses is what we do.

It has been revealed that almost half of SME (small to medium enterprise) owners feel their business is not running as efficiently as it can.

A survey, carried out by BSI (British Standards Institution), targeted 250 SMEs throughout the UK, and it revealed that a soaring quarter of respondents believed there was room for improvement within their business.

Mark Goldstone of BSI commented: “It’s vital that businesses have the necessary knowledge to be more efficient in their business to ensure customer satisfaction, improve employee engagement and to enable access to new markets.”

We couldn’t agree more. 

The back bone to your business is, of course, (like ours) your clients. Keeping them satisfied is a goal we know you want to meet, but if you ever feel that in place of maintaining that, brain storming and actually making money, you are sat at your desk working your way through what seems like a mountain of accounting paperwork, then we have the perfect solution for you.

Intuit’s QuickBooks Online small business accounting software is what you need. At Pure Contribution we utilise this software wherever possible, it helps us provide financial clarity and control to our owner managed business clients. Not only is the software inexpensive, it’s number one in cloud accounting, you can get started in minutes and it is available to you anywhere, anytime.

We are QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisors, which means we know the product and can offer training to help you focus on getting your business off the ground, and by that we mean move your feet from under your desk and working on your business more. 

In addition, our principal, Lee Perriam, is an experienced Chartered Accountant and also a QuickBooks Certified Trainer and runs certification courses on behalf of Intuit as well as customised training courses for clients and the public.

We offer generic and bespoke training to clients and non-clients either from our offices in Sandwich or optionally off site.

Businesses across the UK have been posting their top tips in aid of Small Business Advice Week, such as Anna Stone, the leasing director of our very own office provider – Discovery Park in Sandwich!

She said: “Word of mouth can be the best PR for your business. If potential customers have you front-of-mind as the go-to business for your particular service, you’re well on your way to staying the distance. Think how you can work with others to get results. Shared ideas lead to better products and services.”

Our top tip: Know your key business financials.

If you don’t know where you are, how do you know if you are succeeding or whether your business is on the right road to where you want to get?

Are you a small business owner and you feel there is something holding your business back? Need a hand?

We are available over the phone (01304 880 610) and via email (info@purecontribution.com), our experienced, passionate and fast growing team are here to help.

Pure Contribution is expanding its social media, so if you want to know the latest, please click any of the links below and they will take you to our new pages. There is more to come. Thank you.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram 

Until next time.

ALL YOU NEED IN ONE PLACE…

Monitoring your expenses..

Do you find yourself drowning in spreadsheets trying tirelessly to track your expenses? Do you raise invoices to your customers on a Word document or Excel spreadsheet? Do you have a clue how your business is performing?

We’re guessing you didn’t work this hard starting your business because you wanted to do paperwork day in, day out, and we’ve all heard the saying ‘nothing worth having comes easy’, well now it does.

Intuit’s QuickBooks is the answer. It is the simple way to monitor your sales and profitability, pay your staff, set up payroll, get paid faster and all in a few clicks.

We, at Pure Contribution, are Certified QuickBook Pro Advisors, as well as a QuickBooks Platinum Partner, which we were very happy to announce in March.

We are passionate about QuickBooks and utilise this cloud-based product wherever possible to help provide financial clarity to our clients, and that is what makes us different, we engage with our clients and we’re with them every step of the way.

Award-winning QuickBooks allows you to access data anywhere, any time, but you don’t have to take take our word for it. QuickBooks is the most popular small business accounting software worldwide. Need we say more?

For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01304 806080.

Keeping track of your financial records…

QuickBooks is just one of the services we offer, it’s like we said, we’re here for every step.

From credit control to tax services, we’re here to help you get your business off the ground or to help you progress from where you are at the moment.

Book-keeping, for example, the time consuming process of keeping track of your financial records and probably the last thing you want to be worrying about. We can take that load off so you can spend your valuable time to focus on actually making money, instead of tracking where every penny goes. 

Our book-keeping services can be tailored to the requirements of our clients but can typically be categorised into the following approaches:

Bronze (a periodic once over) – if you already have bookkeeping arrangements in place we will happily work alongside and keep a watchful eye over your accounts. We work with all small business accounting solutions. 

Silver (an outsourced service) – simply post, scan or email your records to us along with your bank statements and we will enter all the transactions, maintain all necessary reconciliations and prepare periodic financial information for you.

Gold (comprehensive service) – all the benefits of our silver service but we provide you with access to your records via the cloud so you can raise your own professional invoices/statements and purchase orders and check on the performance of your business at the click of a button. We also attach the images of all of your supplier invoices/receipts to your records so you can see at an instant what any given cost relates to. We provide this service using award winning cloud-based QuickBooks Online software within our monthly fee.

Without bombarding you with information, let us finish (accidentally on purpose) with tax.

No one wants to pay tax, we know, but it is – unfortunately –  inevitable. Please know that we can take the weight off when it comes to worrying about tax, from returns to deadlines.

We can ensure you are not paying more tax than you should be. As well as making sure you are not only compliant with HMRC rules but are also taking advantage of any tax/relief benefits that may apply.

When it comes to tax we can help with:

• Income Returns
• Tax Planning
• Corporation Tax
• Tax Investigation
• CIS

We are also on hand to assist you with:

• Book-Keeping
• Management Reporting
• Credit Control
• Business Planning & Forecasting
• VAT

…and much more.

Our staff are experienced, professional and ready to hear from you.

Please view our website here, or simply email info@purecontribution.com.

Until next time.

SUMMER BUDGET 2015: NEED TO KNOW BUSINESS POLICIES AND HOW WE CAN HELP…

The first budget from a majority Conservative government in almost 20 years has been announced this week and amongst the headline-grabbing social welfare reforms there is a mixed bag for business, especially the small to medium sized business that we, at Pure Contribution, specialise in.

We won’t bore you with an analysis of every announcement within the budget, but there is no doubt that many of the announcements will have an impact on your business in the near future.

It is true that the majority of reforms will not come into effect until 2016 or later but the time to act is now and, as forward thinking business owners, now is the time to take advantage of the tax reliefs that will be hit next year, as well as planning how to make the most of the reforms set to take effect in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

If you’re sitting there thinking – what exactly do I need to be planning? Let us help. Here is what you need to thinking about right now:

• Annual Investment Rate to increase from £25,000 to £200,000 for all qualifying investment in plant and machinery made on or after 1 January 2016:

If you are considering an upgrade on some of your working equipment, it makes sense to check whether it qualifies under these rules and postpone the upgrade into next year. Not sure if this applies to you? Contact us now – you can find the details here. 

• Corporation Tax Rate Reduction to 19% from 2017 and 18% from 2020:

Now we know this is a long way off but now is the time to start planning how to take advantage of these reductions. A good way to do this is invest in that all important, but long forgotten, 3 year plan-out of the virtual filing cabinet. Dust it off, review and update.

• Personal Allowance, Basic Rate Limit and Higher Rate Thresholds:

What more is there to say another than: hurray, they are going up! Of course this means there should be more money in your pocket but are you making the most of them now and in the future?

• Tax Lock on Income Tax, National Insurance contributions and VAT:

As the saying goes: nothing in life is guaranteed except death and taxes, well at least from this week’s announcements we know none of these are going to go up over course of the next parliament!

• Replacement of National Minimum Wage to National Living Wage starting at £7.20 and rising to £9:00:

We know this is going to hit many businesses increasing their wage bill, but there are noted benefits to staff morale and productivity linked to the current optional living wage being operated. We cannot stress enough the early assessment of the impacts this may cause.

• National Insurance Employment Allowance for Small Business to increase 50% to £3,000 from 2016:

This has been an absolute life saver for many small business over the last 2 years and we are pleased it has not only remained but actually increased. Good planning will ensure you take advantage of this relief and use it wisely either to subsidise the increase in wages over the coming year or to invest in the business whether that be for training or equipment. Oops.. we’re back at those budgets and forecasts again.

• Dividend Tax Credit to be replaced with a new tax free allowance of £5,000 on dividend income:

Now this one is definitely a downside BUT good tax planning over the remainder 2015-2016 tax year and solid plans for 2016-2017 will help to minimise the impact and keep your liabilities to a minimum. This may all seem rather complex to explain in 2 lines so we recommend you get professional advice now to get your plans into motion. Of course we happen to offer excellent tax planning advice at Pure Contribution to all our clients, so why not arrange a meeting with us?

Now, there are far too many announcements and reforms to go over in one blog post, and with so many industry-specific policies to go over, we didn’t want to put you to sleep, but please know that we can help.

Pure Contribution prides itself on its hand-on and interactive approach to accountancy, so if you would like to know what you should be doing now and in the future, the first step is contacting us.

We can help you get those pesky (but necessary) budgets and forecasts ready, and part of our standard service is to help you monitor performance against these. You can be sure you will be getting the best advice to mitigate as many negative impacts as possible.

Meanwhile, please click here to find out more about the Summer Budget 2015, or, for a more personal touch, contact Pure Contribution, we’re just a phone call away.

How to contact us:

Email: info@purecontribution.com 

Call: 01304 806080

Over the coming months we will be talking more in detail about the budget, how it will affect you and how we can help.

Until then.

WE’RE BLOGGING!

Hi there,

If you’re reading this, then you are reading Pure Contribution’s first ever blog post, and if you’re sat there thinking…what on earth is Pure Contribution? Then please do read on.

Who are we?

It can be daunting starting or running a business, but it doesn’t have to be. Those plans you have, or the plans you are pursuing but are somewhat struggling with, can make the headway you want them to.

That is what we do.

We, at Pure Contribution, help clients who are starting or running a small to medium sized, owner-managed business, and we do it without the ‘ivory tower’ approach many accountants tend to use these days.

What’s important is you, and what’s important to you is – you guessed it – important to us, which is why we engage with our customers.

Trusting a business with your business is, of course, nothing to be entered into lightly, so we like to build a close-working relationship with you.

But you don’t have to take our word for it, here’s what some of our client’s have said – probably much better than we can – about how Pure Contribution has helped them – or take a look at our video.

Footsure South Eastern Limited, SE London

Robert Hollidge, Director

“Having previously used a large firm of accountants, I turned to Pure Contribution for a more personal and reasonably priced service. I was not disappointed.

Lee and his team provide a prompt turnaround of my annual accounts and Corporation Tax returns, are quick to respond to any questions I may have, and offer a professional service.

I would not hesitate in recommending Pure Contribution to prospective clients.”

Indigo NLP Limited, Bognor Regis

Suzi Buckley, Director

“When I set up my business in 2008 I had no clue where to start in terms of the most tax efficient trading vehicle, accounting records, dealing with HMRC and Companies House.

I was recommended to Pure Contribution by a friend and was delighted that they were able to guide me carefully through the red tape. They deal with all issues as they arise and in accordance with the various deadlines.

Lee is not your stereotypical accountant and I find his approach most refreshing. He has been a sounding board for my creative mind and has provided very constructive input into my growing business.”

SDM Corporate Travel Limited, Chatham, Kent

Stuart Millar, Director

“Lee Perriam has dealt with my personal and corporate tax affairs since I started trading 14 years ago. I rely on Pure Contribution to deal with all my payroll, VAT, Corporation Tax and Income Tax matters. They do a great job, allowing me to grow my travel business.

Lee recommended and installed Quickbooks to control my business. His team trained my staff and we have been using the software very successfully for the past 4 years. The software provides me with the information I need to manage my finances, whilst allowing Pure Contribution access to deal with VAT and other matters on my behalf. A great solution.

Lee has a passion for Quickbooks, a willingness to help at any time, and a personable approach. Long may this continue.”

On this blog we plan to keep you up-to-date with the latest at Pure Contribution, our latest client stories, answer questions and more.

If you want to contact us, please don’t hesitate, you can email on info@purecontribution.com or call on 01304 806080.

Thank you for reading. 

Until next time.