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Is it easy to switch to Xero?
For any creative there comes a point when your need to focus on finances grows, as one of our fab clients coined it, “the shit gets real”. At that point it’s vital you have a tech solution that you can use alongside your accountant or bookkeeper to get ready access to...
Preparing Your VAT Return – 4 Things To Remember
“VAT returns”... The two words that have the ability to make a small business owner shrivel with dread. It's one feature of creative business accounting that brings about confusion and panic before the process has even begun. After writing “how to prepare a VAT...
Common Tax Codes and What They Mean
Tax codes. They're frustrating. They're confusing. And to most people they can seem a downright bore. What do my tax codes mean? Am I being taxed the right amount? Am I missing out on potential benefits that I am not even aware of? That is why we have created this...
How Accountants Can Help Your Creative Business Take The Next Step
The route to success in any creative industry is a road rife with immeasurable enthrallment and gut-wrenching setbacks. Realising that you want your idea to go beyond a paying hobby to become a fully-fledged business endeavour is a brave step. With this leap of faith...
Five Best Underused Xero Features
Coming to grips with a new tech platform in any context can be a tricky task. Each and every virtual business tool comes with an array of alluring yet often confusing features these days. Therefore many people don’t feel the need to delve any further than the most...
Why We Love Being Creative Industry Accountants
As creative industry accountants, we often get asked why it is that we focus our services towards creatives. Surely that narrows your potential work opportunities? Aren’t creative industries some of the trickiest to manage financially? We appreciate that it may narrow...
Can I get help from the government to cover maternity pay?
You’ve just found out that your first employee is pregnant. Exciting! As part of your legal requirements as an employer, you know you’ll have to provide Statutory Maternity Pay, or SMP, to your employee for up to 39 weeks of maternity leave. This rule regarding...
My first employee’s pregnant, what do I have to do as an employer?
One of your employees has just shared the good news: they’re pregnant! While you couldn’t be happier for them during this exciting time, you’re also thinking about what this means for your business and what the standard employer responsibilities for pregnant employees...
Do I Need An Accountant If I Have Xero?
We couldn’t even begin to fathom how many times we have heard this question. In fact, in the UK alone, people type (verbatim) “Do I Need An Accountant If I Have Xero?” into the search bar fifty times a month on average. It’s fair to say that there are a few small...
Accounting Tips For Agencies Part 2
And we’re back! As previously mentioned, we love this sort of stuff. And equally, we appreciate that many creative agency types couldn’t think of anything more unappealing than organising the financial element of their business strategy. That’s why as experienced...
Is Xero Easier Than Quickbooks?
We understand that accounting can seem like a very daunting - and often dull - prospect for any growing business. Invoices. Tax. Expenses. It can seem a little overwhelming for even the most numerically astute business owners. That’s why keeping it all in one...
Accounting Tips For Agencies
Running your own creative agency is an exhilarating experience. Following a dream and setting out into the big (not always bad) world of business, with nothing to guide you towards success other than your heart and your head. Arguably nothing is more rewarding than...
What is Salary Sacrifice?
As a creative business owner you’ll no doubt be looking for the best ways to reward your team and yourself. That will include basic pay but also pensions and possibly other benefits (no we don’t mean the taco night or the office...
How do I price my creative services?
You’ve started your creative business, and while you’ve got an incredible product or service to offer, you’re uncertain how to price creative services. There’s an easy answer of pricing yourself smack-dab in the middle of your competitors - not the most expensive...
How do I make sure my business is set up correctly and I don’t run into problems later?
If there’s anything this last year has taught us, it’s how important proper preparation is. You’re a creative, a free-thinker with an innovative vision. Maybe you don’t see yourself as the “business type” but you know you’re good at what you do and people want to see...
My business is growing, but am I the right person to take it forward?
As the head of a creative business, you might struggle to think of yourself as the “business type.” Because of this, you’re now questioning if you’re the right person to continue leading your business into the future. You’re experiencing some remarkable startup...
Why you need to set your business up like you’re going to sell it
You’re just starting out on your business journey. You don’t have any intentions to sell it - certainly not now, and maybe not ever. So why should you look to be setting up your creative business as though you’re preparing it for sale? Simply put,...
How much furlough money has been claimed?
There was a great deal of fear at the start of the pandemic, not just around health but also jobs and the survival of businesses forced to closed. We all (yes accountants too!!!) had to work out how to survive. Part of that meant working out how to apply for the...