The Institute of Credit Management (ICM) and the Minister of State for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk have published their monthly ‘tip’ for small businesses to better manage their cashflow.

‘If you don’t ask, you won’t get. Invoice as soon as humanly possible after supplying your goods or service. The sooner the invoice is received, the sooner it can be processed and ready for payment, and the sooner you can identify any problem or dispute that might hold up payment.’

The cashflow ‘tips’ are derived from the series of Managing Cashflow Guides published by the ICM for BIS that have to date been downloaded more than 210,000 times.

To view the monthly ‘tips’, please visit: http://www.creditmanagement.org.uk/bisguides.htm

If you would like discuss how our Debt Recovery/Debt Collection service can assist your business, please visit the ‘Debt Recovery/Debt Collection’ section on our website,  contact us on +44 (0) 151 515 3014 or email us.

Please note: Information in this blog post is content property of Business Credit Management UK (www.creditman.co.uk)  and the full original article can be found by clicking here.

In yesterday’s Budget, George Osborne announced the Government’s intention to reduce the regulatory burden on small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs). The changes are outlined in the document ‘The Plan for Growth’, published by the Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Under the changes, the Government intends to raise audit thresholds to the EU maximum and bring them in line with the small companies’ rules. In practice this will mean by next year far fewer small companies will need to produce audits. Raising the limits could change the position from any company with a turnover of more than £6.5m or a balance sheet total of more than £3.26m requiring an audit, to companies only needing an audit if they breach two of the following three criteria: turnover of more than £7.6m; balance sheet total of more than £3.8m; or more than 50 employees. Further, the Government intends to lobby the EU during 2011 to raise audit limits to be in line with the medium company limits, up to turnovers of approximately £26 million.

The changes also recommend exempting subsidiaries from having to conduct audits where the parent company guarantees the debts. This will require legislation in 2012, but is a sensible risk-based approach. The Government estimates that raising the limits to the maximum allowed under EU law would save business up to £200m, and exempting subsidiaries would save up to £150m.

Matthew Stallabrass, Partner, Crowe Clark Whitehill says: “We’ve heard a great deal from the Government about wanting to reduce red tape for business, and with these changes we see some sensible and concrete suggestions for doing that. However, we believe the Government could go further, and should consider reinstating the exemption of medium-sized groups from preparing consolidated accounts as was the case under the Companies Act 1985. This would help to further meet the Government’s objective of reducing the burden on SMEs and would be a sensible way forward.”

If you would like discuss how our Debt Recovery/Debt Collection service can assist your business, please visit the ‘Debt Recovery/Debt Collection’ section on our website,  contact us on +44 (0) 151 515 3014 or email us.

Please note: Information in this blog post is content property of Business Credit Management UK (www.creditman.co.uk)  and the full original article can be found by clicking here.

Entrepreneurs and accountants have welcomed the 2011 Budget announcement as small business friendly but say the measures don’t go far enough.

In a snap poll of the more than 1,200 people who watched the live coverage on BusinessZone.co.uk and AccountingWEB.co.uk of George Osborne’s speech, 46% said ‘friendly but not enough’ when asked how small business focused the announcement was.

A quarter said it was very small business friendly with 28% believing it was ‘lukewarm’. Another 2% of respondents thought the speech was anti-small business.

Commenting on the findings, Dan Martin, editor of BusinessZone.co.uk, says: “The Budget certainly lived up to the prime minister’s claim of being pro-enterprise with many measures aimed at boosting the UK’s entrepreneurial culture. As a result, it’s not surprising that most business owners and accountants welcomed it.

“However, George Osborne needs to match the rhetoric with action if the 2011 announcement is to really be a ‘Budget for growth’.

“The reintroduction of enterprise zones in 21 locations around Britain, for instance, is an interesting development but the version of the scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s had its downsides so lessons need to be learned.

“In addition, the three year moratorium on new regulations impacting on micro-businesses is also welcome but it will make no difference if burdensome rules from the EU are still imposed on the UK’s smallest companies.”

If you would like discuss how our Debt Recovery/Debt Collection service can assist your business, please visit the ‘Debt Recovery/Debt Collection’ section on our website,  contact us on +44 (0) 151 515 3014 or email us.

Please note: Information in this blog post is content property of Business Credit Management UK (www.creditman.co.uk)  and the full original article can be found by clicking here.