When you’re starting out as a small business, you may find yourself confused by your finances and what you need to keep a record of. One area of confusion is the difference between accounting and bookkeeping. Because these terms are ofte

A merchant account is a middleman that allows your business to accept electronic and card payments. In most cases, current accounts cannot handle payments like these directly, which is why a middleman is needed. How do merchant accounts

Common accounting errors can be the bane of any business. They can range from data entry errors to misunderstandings of accounting principles. No matter the cause of your accounting errors, they can significantly affect your business’s f

Accounting journals are a day-to-day record of the transactions that take place in your business. Items entered into the journals, known as journal entries, are then used to create the general ledger, which is then used to create financi

There comes a time when you need to check that your accounting transactions match what’s shown in your bank account. This important task, known as bank reconciliation, should be the cornerstone of your bookkeeping practices. Without bank

Invoice timing plays a crucial role in managing your business’s cash flow. But have you ever considered whether you’re sending your invoice at the right time during your customer’s journey? A well-timed invoice not only helps your cash f

Essentially, a financial forecast is a framework that presents past, present, and projected future financial conditions. These forecasts often include different scenarios to see how changes affect a business’s profitability. These change

If you’re working in accounting, or doing your company accounts, you need to know how to distribute dividends to your stakeholders. It can be a complicated process if you’ve never done it before, so this post will explain what dividends

When you need to make an informed decision within a business, you need to have all the facts in front of you. Part of these facts are accurate accounting records. In addition to helping you make informed decisions, effective accounting c

The Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) is a way for contractors to deduct money from payments they make to subcontractors and pay it directly to HMRC. These payments count towards the subcontractor’s tax and National Insurance payments.

Accounting isn’t one-size-fits-all. What works for a sole trader will differ from what works for a multi-national company with multiple offices. However, we hope these top five tips will help with your accounting, no matter your size. Ti

If you’re new to bookkeeping, you’ve likely never heard of bank reconciliation before, but it can be an important part of ensuring your accounting is accurate and up-to-date. What is bank reconciliation? Bank reconciliation is the proces

Mistakes happen all the time, whether you forget to email your customers promptly, or you forget to put milk in your morning coffee (if you take milk, that is). But what happens when you make a mistake on your VAT return? The first step

Employees may come into the business with certain expectations about receiving a rise. It could be that they expect an annual increase, or it could be after taking on several extra responsibilities. Large corporations can typically affor

An unlawful dividend, also known as an illegal dividend or unlawful distribution, can occur in six different ways: There are insufficient profits in the company It was drawn without reference to the relevant account The company was inso

Unfortunately, no matter how careful you are with your health, it’s likely that you’ll become ill and unable to work at some point. If you’re employed, the course of action is simple: inform your employer and receive Statutory Sick Pay.

When employed by someone else, you don’t typically need to worry about your student loan repayments; your employer handles it all for you. But when you’re self-employed, it can require a little more manual work. If you’re a freelancer, c

As a small business, finding the funds needed to start up and keep running during your first few years can be difficult. Taking out business loans and credit cards to stay afloat can be tempting. However, the business has to pay these ba

If you’ve just started out in business, or if you’ve been running for a while and are looking for a change, your accountant can be a valuable asset for you. At the basic end, they can work to free up your time by handling your bookkeepin

When running a business, I’m sure we can all agree that the one thing we want less of is paperwork, especially where it’s repetitive. Let’s face it, you’re busy running a business, so being asked for the same information over, and over,

The idea of MTD was initially announced by HMRC back in 2015, where key parts of the tax process are moved to a more efficient and streamlined digital process. The first tax to go digital was VAT, and in 2019 we enabled businesses to sub

Being able to connect your accounting software to all your favourite business tools and have them seamlessly talk to one another can free up your time by automating routine tasks. At QuickFile we’re continually looking to build new integ

At 11pm on the 31st December the Brexit transition period will officially come to an end. This will bring about some significant changes for businesses exporting and importing goods within the European Union. The UK Government have impl

We’re pleased to introduce our newest payments partner, Square. With Square, you can easily take payments in person, online or over the phone. There are no long-term commitments and you only pay when you make a sale. Plus you get your mo

You may be interested to know that we are currently in the process of rolling out a new dashboard. For the last 6 years the QuickFile dashboard has remained largely unchanged and we felt that it was in need of some modernisation. What’s