Record keeping isn’t an exciting part of business, but it is an essential one if you want to stay trading smoothly and on the right side of the taxman.

In this guide, we cover the bookkeeping basics that every small business owner should know, from simple steps like keeping receipts together, to the more complex business of categorising your financial records.

The three files you must keep

As a minimum, you should keep a cash book, a sales invoice file and a purchase invoice file. Your cash book details payments in and out of your bank account, your sales invoice file details … Continue Reading

Invoices are a part of everyday business life, but it’s remarkable how many people don’t include vital information on them, making payments far more difficult than they should have to be.

This guide sets out the minimum info you need to include:

Your name and contact details

In the age of email, it might seem like over egging, but remember invoices are often printed and filed with other accounting paperwork, and need to make sense on their own.

Make sure that you include your name, full address, telephone numbers and email address.

If you’re representing a business, also include the business’ name. All this will … Continue Reading

According to a review of ten research studies, involving more than 16,000 people, workers who have control over their working hours enjoy better health because they are less stressed and get more rest.

The review, conducted by researchers at the Wolfson Research Institute based at Durham University, and published by the Cochrane Library, found mental health, blood pressure, and sleep patterns were better among people who could determine their own working hours.

By contrast, fixed-term contracts and other situations were working conditions were determined by the employer had no benefits for health. One study even showed fixed working hours had a … Continue Reading

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics have revealed that business investment for the second quarter of 2009 was an estimated 10.4% lower than the previous quarter and 18.4% lower than the same period last year.

Declines in business investment occurred in most industries, with the quarterly fall in business investment mainly due to reduced capital spending by industries classified as private sector manufacturing (down 16.8 %), private sector non-manufacturing (down 9.7%) and public corporations non-manufacturing (down 7.2%).

Within the private sector manufacturing the fall in capital spending was due to industries within food, drink and tobacco (down 20.8%), engineering … Continue Reading