Getting The Induction Process Right

In a world where the latest generation of “millennial” workers are prone to changing jobs, the importance of a good employee induction plan can no longer be ignored.  In order to get your induction process right you need to consider:

• How long it takes new employees to become a productive member of the team
• How long it generally takes new team members to reach a level of competency so that they can work for a key client
• Email account set up
• Stationary
• Mobile phone / BlackBerry if applicable
• Security access card / fob
• Computer set up with software, passwords etc
• Business cards if applicable

Team Involvement

Getting your new recruits involved with the right people is key. Integrating your new employee with the team should involve activities which are relevant, interactive and, most importantly, fun! A dedicated mentoring relationship is also extremely helpful to your new hire as they will feel secure knowing that they have someone to turn to with their questions. The mentor should be an established member of the company and  someone your new hire will feel comfortable seeking assistance from on policies, procedures and guidelines.

Prepare a Workspace

Nothing makes someone feel more welcome than when you take steps to prepare for them. Depending on their role, here are some common workplace essentials to have in place, ideally before your new hire is on board:

Training

It is important that you make your new employee feel that the business cares about them. The onboarding process should include formal training in their first week. This training could include HR, policy and procedure training, IT training for specific systems, etc.

Ensure that your training programme is timely and relevant to their position and role in the company, and that you encourage them to take part in further after-hours education, workshops or CPD training where relevant.

It has been a long time coming, but it seems that Microsoft have finally realised that most businesspeople want to use Microsoft Office on their iPad. The company have recently released individual versions of their Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs that will work on an iPad, making it possible for users to switch seamlessly between PC, Mac, tablet and phone when working. The apps make intuitive use of the iPad’s touch screen, and ‘sharing’ features allow you to collaborate with others.

The trio of apps are listed separately in the App Store and (as with Office Mobile) each is free to download. Free versions of each app can only be used in read-only mode; users wishing to edit or create documents will require an Office 365 subscription.

There are plenty of free “Office-type” apps out there, but Office 365 may be the more attractive option to those using Microsoft Office on their desktop PC, Mac or laptop. The good news is that your iPad downloads won’t count towards the usual five-PC / Mac limit. Microsoft Office is also one of the only mobile office suites that works with Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint: if this is where you store your documents, it is advisable to continue with Office.

Introducing Timely
Take the tour and find out why Timely is loved by so many customers…
It all starts with the calendar

Timely has a beautiful calendar. You can flick between Month, Week and Day views, drag and drop bookings, filter for specific locations and staff, color your products, view pending bookings at a glance, easily see notifications like contra-alerts or VIP customers and lots more.

Your bookings can also be synced with other calendars including Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.

The service industry stretches its appointment and booking abilities once again with its skill to provide consumers with assistance and advantages for them to maximize the use of their time. Now a lot of services rely on appointment and booking schedules running as efficiently as possible without compromising their quality of service.

Scheduling appointments for clients will always be directly related to the generation of sales which only reinforces its importance.

Timely – The only Scheduling Software that’s right for Your Business

What is Timely? Timely is a highly affordable appointment scheduling software that helps you to manage and organise appointments and bookings. It doesn’t matter what kind of service you offer to your clients, Timely will make sure that your scheduling operations get organised to avoid any issues with managing your client appointments.

Timely has made its way through the doors of salons, clinics and gyms. The software capitalizes on the ease -of-use that it provides not only for the business but for its customers as well. Customer relations become much easier and setting appointments doesn’t go any smoother than this.

Making The Timely Switch

There’s no better time than now to switch to Timely. a&c Chartered accountants can help you set up your FREE 30 DAY TRIAL TOADY!

When you see just how simply beautiful this software is you can forget about any issues or problems that may have previously experienced with software switching because with Timely, there’s very minimal setup and work needed. You don’t need to install any form of software or hardware; just access the web-based application and you’re good to go. It’s that easy!

• Timely utilizes cloud computing to operate which, means that you can access your Timely account anytime, anywhere on any device.
• You can instantly create one to get you started and setup is just a breeze.
• Once you’re logged in, you can already start managing your bookings right then, with no discrepancies whatsoever

With Timely, you avoid double bookings, missed bookings, and all the other recording problems that appointment scheduling may have. It’s simple and easy-to-use interface provides you with easy access to your business’ client appointments, saving you time and effort. The seamless process will surely earn you more time to focus on providing better services that more and more clients would want to benefit.

Fancy testing Timely to see just how good this software really is? Call us today 0161 962 1855 and we will be happy to tallk you through all the Timely aspects and show you how Timely can help you.

Don’t need any more convincing? Then follow this link and start your new adventure with Timely:

http://www.gettimely.com?partner=accharteredaccountants

As announced in the 2013 budget speech the Employment Allowance is available for 6th April 2014.

To claim the Employment Allowance if you are a business or a charity (inc Community Ameature Sports Clubs) that pays Employer Class 1 NIC’s on your employees’ or director’ earnings. Even if you are a ‘’one person’’ owner managed company you may qualify.

You may only claim the £2000 Employment Allowance against one PAYE scheme- even if your business runs multiple schemes.

To find out more on how you can go about claiming your Employment Allowance and to see if you qualify call a&c Chartered accountants today 0161 962 1855 for the best free financial advice. Remember we are here to help you.

There is no need to panic, if you are doing the right thing and paying tax on all of your income. PHEW! However if you are not declaring any

income you are receiving you need to declare it before they catch you. The Second Incomes Campaign aims to encourage people to come forward and bring their tax affairs up to date. If any tax affairs are not disclosed with the HMRC, you could face a heavy penalty and possibly prosecution.

Many employees with a second income will already pay tax on it via self assessment or their PAYE codes. This is aimed at those who have such taxable income but have not declared it to HMRC.

HMRC gives examples of what counts as a second income:

• Consultancy fees, e.g. for providing training
• Organising parties and events
• Providing services like taxi driving, hairdressing or fitness training
• Making and selling craft items
• Buying and selling goods, e.g. at market stalls or car boot sales
• As in most campaigns, there are two stages to making a disclosure:
• Notifying HMRC, and thenmaking the disclosure and paying the tax plus interest and penalties.

In this campaign there are no fixed deadlines by which everyone must notify and then disclose. Instead, the opportunity will be open for some time, and the deadline is that you must disclose and pay within four months of receiving HMRC’s acknowledgement of your notification. HMRC will allow more time to pay in suitable cases.

The number of years for which disclosure is needed will depend on how the tax came to be underpaid. For those who have taken reasonable care, it is four years (or from when the error arose if later); for those who have been careless, up to six years; and for deliberate behaviour (in effect, fraud), up to 20 years.

For more information on the issues raised in this article please contact a member of the a&c Team today! Make sure your tax affaris are up to date and in order, before you have to pay the price!

Tel:0161 962 1855             Email: chloe @ac-accounts.co.uk

People Who Hide Their Money Overseas To Avoid Paying Tax

Face Bigger Fines & Could Be Jailed More Easily Under Government Plans To Fight Tax Evasion.

George Osborne: “If you are hiding your money offshore, we are coming to get you”

Chancellor George Osborne has presented a new sanction to help tackle off shore tax evasion. The Government intend to introduce this a new strict liability criminal offence for failure to declare untaxed offshore assets.

This would mean that HMRC will no longer have to prove that individuals who failed to declare offshore income intended to evade tax, in order for a criminal conviction to be handed down. The HMRC would now only have to demonstrate that the income was taxable and undeclared.

Chancellor George Osborne said the changes would mean there was “No safe haven” for those evading tax.

But Labour said the government was:

“failing to tackle tax avoidance and evasion”.

A consultation will be held to let the public have their say on the plans.

Paul Aplin, chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty’s Technical Committee, said:

“As a profession, we are fully behind the Government’s and HMRC’s efforts to tackle tax evasion. However, we have considerable concerns about these new proposals. Should such sweeping powers be introduced, there needs to be strong safeguards to protect innocent tax payers from the risk of mistakes or misuse by HMRC.”

HMRC published an update to its offshore evasion strategy which gives more details about this and other proposals.

The document No Safe Havens 2014 details the progress made in tackling offshore tax evasion, the new actions being taken, and how HMRC intends to exploit data sources better and influence behaviour.

Specific actions mentioned in the document include:

– Introducing legislation to implement the new OECD standard in automatic exchange of information between governments.
– Consulting on strengthening the existing civil sanctions, including penalties for offshore tax evasion.
– Consulting on the detail of a new strict liability criminal offence for failing to declare untaxed offshore assets.
– Paying rewards to whistle-blowers who, in HMRC’s view, provide significant information that helps tackle offshore tax evasion.

To make sure that you don’t fall into this catagory. I would like and advice or help concerning any of the issues raised in this article, please do not hesitatie to contact a&c Chartered Accountants TODAY! 0161 962 1855 or email chloe@ac-accounts.co.uk to discuss further.