So, what is Real Time Information?

Real Time Information (RTI) is a HMRC initiative to improve the accuracy of PAYE, reducing the need to send out corrections for overpayment or underpaying and the possibility of fraud.

Under RTI employers will be required to submit information electronically to HMRC on or before they pay their employees instead of just once a year.

What has been clear to me is that there is a clear divide between people who think RTI is a good thing and those that don’t but one thing for sure is that almost all see it as just another compliance aspect they need to deal with on top of  Self-Assessment, iXBRL, Financial and Payroll Year End for their clients.

Use RTI to strengthen your business

Some Accountants I’ve talked to are looking at RTI increasing the time and administration of running a payroll and considering whether they need to increase costs but could this be counterproductive in that you may trigger some clients to look elsewhere.

Other forward thinking Accountants are looking at RTI positively in turning around their viewpoint that payroll is a loss leader but a great client acquisition tool in their business today into an opportunity to drive more clients into their business.

Whatever you think and feel about RTI, there is one thing that I would recommend that you do; communicate with your clients, let them know RTI is coming, let them know what it means to them and tell them not to worry about it. With the support of both yourselves and Sage inspire confidence that we have RTI covered.

Get ready for RTI ahead of the crowd

I’m a typical male who always leaves things to the last minute, but if I had the chance to get RTI Ready before most other practices I would jump at the chance. Well, if you want to get your practice and your clients Payroll RTI Ready before April 2013 you can.

You and your clients have the fantastic opportunity to not only be RTI ready but also help shape how HMRC and Sage provide on-going help and support.

Register now

If you are interested simply click RTI Pilot Registration and we will be in contact soon.

In my next blog I will be talking more about Sage’s plans to make the transition into RTI as simple and seamless as possible, but in the meantime you can find more information about RTI and we are doing on our website at www.sage.co.uk/rti

Neilson Watts – Sage Payroll Expert

We’ve also just launched our new iPad optimised version and our mobile activity overall has been something really exciting to be part of. I therefore thought I’d use my experiences to share some thoughts around developing an app and how to go about… especially if you want to avoid it just being an expensive marketing tool.

What’s your mobile strategy?

Our increasing reliance and indeed personal attachment to mobile devices means I’m continuously met with instant interest and enthusiasm wherever I’ve been to talk about Sage 50 Accounts Mobile. I also heard a lot of interesting views and questions – one in particular that got me thinking was whether or not our new app was actually just a glorified marketing tool.

You can judge whether the answer was a yes or no from this post but it’s an interesting topic given that many businesses could be forgiven for being wooed by the perceived customer reach of certain app stores and the glamour of having a glossy app to your name.

There are a range of reasons why venturing into app space may benefit your business but in 99% of cases those reasons should be because it brings some form of benefit to your customers (or potential customers) in a way that outweighs the investment and on-going management involved.

What is your strategy and your objectives?

The web is littered with advice on having a clearly defined strategy if you’re considering mobile applications as a route to market. Indeed there are plenty of big brands who haven’t bothered developing applications because their strategies have been to instead focus on delivering other online experiences as priority.

Marks and Spencer is a great example. If you want to buy online from M&S, there isn’t an app for that. M&S have focused instead on delivering a great generic mobile commerce experience  (check out the M&S mobile site) – which of course is compatible cross platform via any mobile browser. It ensures they have the best range of tools in place to maximise sales conversion through whatever medium you decide to buy through (which is of course one of their key objectives).

Another good example is my preference to have a shortcut to the BBC News mobile site on my phone home page rather than the official Android BBC News app. The app looks nice but it’s a clear case of being able to get what I need quicker from an existing service (the mobile site) than an app.

So it’s worthwhile assessing as part of your potential solution whether or not you can actually provide something that adds value to your customers and provides something they can’t already get elsewhere.

Deloitte recently highlighted the pitfalls of big brands developing applications and how tough it is to actually make a success of your app – many of these challenges apply to anyone looking to develop an app in an already crowded market place.

Why introduce a Sage app?

From a Sage perspective we knew we could never recreate the rich experience of Sage 50 Accounts desktop software via a mobile device (particularly a smartphone). We also knew that:

• existing customers wanted remote access to something that was simple and quick to use
• they wanted access to key top line data and
• new users within the businesses we support wanted access to business data without the working knowledge of the full version of Sage 50 Accounts 2012.

Developing a mobile service that connected live with Sage 50 Accounts 2012 meant we could achieve many of these objectives.

Sage 50 Accounts mobile app

If you’ve got a clear strategy and business objectives then you should be able to relate any mobile based activity directly back to those plans – in the same way that any product, marketing or sales activity should be directly linked in whatever format it’s delivered.

Be brave

You shouldn’t be afraid to take brave decisions and either decide applications aren’t for you or even be willing to walk away from development mid-way through a project if it’s not clear where you’re going.

It’s very easy not to think clearly when there is so much clamour around mobile. This year’s tech predications continue to mention mobile http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16288247

In terms of our own strategy, we are clear that we want to make desktop data more readily available to our customers wherever they are and whenever they want. We aim to make Sage products more relevant to a wider audience within our existing customers and in turn attract new users of Sage. This strategy is of course strongly supported by growing demand from customers and greater evidence that the way businesses work is changing.  Delivering access via Mobile helps us to achieve these objectives.

Geoff Philips, Mobile Apps Team

In the first part of this two part series, I’m going to look at passwords. I know the topic has been done to death everywhere from Lifehacker to AccountancyAge but it’s important so, here we go again!

Almost everything you do online and in the Cloud, will need a password. Passwords are the lock and key that keeps us secure from a shady underworld of identity thieves and internet highway men.  We construct complex and difficult to crack passwords to secure our on-line lives.

Or maybe we don’t.

The top 25 passwords

SplashData has revealed the top 25 passwords of the year, taken from a list of millions of stolen passwords posted online by hacking groups, selected password “highlights” are below:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123

Complex and difficult to crack I’m sure you’ll agree.

Given the amount of information we’re compelled to give when we sign up to websites, it seems some people aren’t doing a great job of “securing” their personal details. Incidentally, if you are using 123456 as one of your passwords, can you change it please? For me.

Password formulas

The holy grail is surely a password that you can easily recall and that is hard to crack. More often than not, people tend to opt for the “easy to recall” part and don’t really bother with the “hard to crack” part.

With so many passwords to remember I can see the temptation to use the same password for everything (hint: This is never a good idea). A suggestion put to me to address the problem was to use a password rule. A way of generating long complicated passwords that are easy to remember regardless of how infrequently you visit a website.

Had I found the holy grail?

Maybe, maybe not.

It works like this: You devise a single rule that you will use for every password, then append part of the website address to it to make it unique. My password rule might be this:

The first 4 letters of the website name (capitalised)  + Underscore + Head office postcode + the % sign + the head office dialling code

Therefore, if I had a myspace account, my password for would be MYSP_ne139aa%0191 (it isn’t by the way). If I were to sign up to e.g. knights.co.uk I would use KNIG_ne139aa%0191. I only need to remember my rule and I can remember the password for each and every site I visit.

Easy enough to remember once you have created your “rule”. Given the length and variety of characters involved it’s going to be pretty difficult to crack. The main problem I see with this method is, if one of my passwords became compromised, my secret is out and all my accounts are at risk. It’s surely better than 123456 though.

No matter which way you look at it, the best thing to do is create passwords unique to every account you have, long complex passwords.

Password management

They’ll be difficult to remember though, so take a look at some of the password management tools that are out there. Lastpass.com and Keepass are two that spring to mind – but please, do your own research and pick the best solution for you. Heck, it’s even OK to write them down as long as you keep them somewhere secure.

Have a password audit for 2012, think about what you are securing online and if your passwords are good enough, if they aren’t consider changing them. You’ll feel better for it.

Mark Knights, Accountants Team

January 23^rd saw the arrival of the Chinese New Year and, in best Bruce Lee tradition, we now find ourselves in the Year of the Dragon.

Whether you are from the Dungeons and Dragons generation or one of the more recent Hungarian Horntail aficionados from Harry Potter; dragons portray a magical, mysterious, mythical image of scales, spiked tails, huge teeth and claws, not to mention the fiery breath destroying most things in its path. It is also true that this image generally comes unstuck at the hands of a fairly simple dragon slayer – armed with nothing more than a short sword or a broomstick. 

Pensions – let’s keep it simple

The same logic can be applied (with a little Harry Potter based imagination) to the myth that shrouds the pension environment. Mention a pension and everyone immediately thinks complexity, confusion and runs for cover. Even the National Employment Savings Trust Corporation (NEST), set up to manage the pension scheme designed as a result of the Government’s aim for individuals to have their own personal pension account, has produced a phrasebook to help individuals understand some of the phrases in common usage. It tells us they will:

• Avoid using phrases like “asset classes” to describe different types of investment or;
• “Fiduciary responsibility” to describe the legal duty to act in a member’s interest,

only to introduce other phrases like:

• Consolidation phase – to describe one of three NEST retirement date fund phases

All perfectly clear then – and this is before you even get to actuaries, longevity swaps and annuity rates!

Think of your pension as a savings plan

Why do we have to think it is so complicated? At its basic level a pension is a savings plan for when you retire, nothing more, nothing less.

Forget the retirement aspect for a moment. If you are lucky enough in the current environment to have some spare money at the end of each month, or have some savings that you want to put away, and you were faced with the following choices, what would you do?

What are your options?

OPTION A: Use a service that charges a high fee every year to cover their set-up and running costs, thus reducing the amount of your money that is left to be invested and, even then doesn’t pay any attention to what how your savings are growing.

OR

OPTION B: Use a service which has a low fee, thus leaving more money available to be invested – and has experts checking to make sure that they are getting the best rate of returns available

Simple – go for option B. So why is a pension any different?

That is why Sage Pension, provided by mercer-elect, has been established. To act as the simple myth slayer to make sure you can get good value and simplicity when you want to start saving for later life.

Auto-enrolment

Auto-enrolment may have been delayed for organisations under 50 employees (watch this blog for more information on this week’s announcement), but all other organisations will still have to ensure something is in place. Even if you employ less than 50 people, why wouldn’t you want to start saving and benefiting from the tax advantages sooner rather than later? For more information download our pension guide or visit the website at http://www.sage.co.uk/sage-pensions

So “Gong Hei Fard Choy!” as they say in Macau and Hong Kong or “Xin Nian Kuai Le!” in other parts of China to welcome the Year of The Dragon and remember, when you are looking to slay the complex pension myth – we’re here to help.

Let’s hear your confusing pensions terms

In the meantime, what are the most confusing pension terms you have come across? Add a comment and I’ll try and translate them for you.

Simon Griffiths, mercer-elect

Acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than keeping the ones you already have, so customer turnover could be the largest financial burden for your business. By getting to know your customers and learning how to make them feel special, you build up a detailed picture of them and take steps towards retaining their business.

So, what CRM software can you use to help you know your customers better? How can you increase customer satisfaction? And what can you do to make customers feel special?

We’ve recently produced a guide to improving customer loyalty and here our some of our ideas for making your customers feel special.

What is customer satisfaction?

In short customer satisfaction is a measure of how your business meets or surpasses customers’ expectations.  It means retained customers generate long-term business for you, delivering positive feedback and great testimonials. Without it, customer churn increases and reputation risks damage through negative word of mouth marketing. In fact, in our recent customer experience survey we found that one in three consumers would ditch a company for good after just one below-par experience.

How do I increase customer satisfaction?

Understanding what your existing customers want and delivering it to them effectively is the best way to satisfy; meaning you can secure repeat orders, keep and retain your customers and benefit from positive word of mouth. Ways of doing this might include;

Customer loyalty schemes

You can immediately make a customer feel special and valued with a reward or loyalty scheme that offers them perks throughout the year…and they might even tell their colleagues and friends about it too! For example, we gave our lucky SageCover customers their very own VIP area at our recent SageWorld event.  Nice armchairs, trendy bags and tasty cakes all round!

Analysing customer data

Use the data you are gain everyday to find out a little more about your customers – like their propensity to buy at certain times of year or previous products they have bought – anything that might indicate their purchase preferences and behaviours. Then tailor your marketing to fit with the profile you have built up of them – something personalised or highly topical to them is much more likely to get through. Getting the right CRM software, or Customer Relationship Management software, can help with this.

Encouraging customer feedback

Giving your customers a chance to engage in two-way dialogue with you is vital. This could be through feedback surveys, social media, review meetings etc. It shows that you are more than just a business; it shows you have empathy and that you want to develop a relationship with customers – no bad thing! Here at Sage we try to do as much as possible.  We’d love you to hear from you through our Sage UK Twitter feed, our Facebook page or even by commenting on this blog.

Effective complaints management

Customer complaints can be telling, so it’s essential to deal with them efficiently, fairly and ensure the customer receives a satisfactory response and follow up. If a complaint is handled effectively, it can give you important root cause information that may help you to predict future issues or trends.

Improved customer service

Customer service needs to be sincere for it to be effective, so it’s vital to ensure that your staff are trained to fulfil this. If your staff can consistently treat all customers with respect and show efficiency, you will gain customer satisfaction and are sure to retain their business in the long-term.

Iain Ramsay, Small Business Team

Our global conference

This month the Sage France team played host the Sage ERP X3 Global Sales conference, inviting over 500 Sage ERP X3 staff and business partners from 17 countries around the world over to Paris, making it the largest Sage ERP X3 event held to date. This event is billed as a conference, but the underlying raison d’être (picking up the lingo already!) is networking.

A networking natural?

Now, some people thrive in a ‘networking environment’ – effortlessly floating between colleagues old and new, picking up business cards and drinks like this event is their single purpose in life. Managing to juggle nibbles, a glass of champagne and picking their next victim in one easy swoop.

Other people find networking awkward and unnatural, struggling with the notion of polite ‘chit-chat’ and are just not comfortable working a room. Networking takes a lot of effort and a certain degree of practice, and we have all been guilty of standing in the corner with our colleagues rather than meeting new people.

But does networking, really work?

Business networking is an effective low-cost marketing method for developing sales opportunities and contacts, based on referrals and introductions – either face-to-face at meetings and gatherings, or by other contact methods such as phone, email, and increasingly social and business networking websites.

Social media has, in part, taken away the personal aspect of day-to-day networking, and enables us to meet contacts at a distance, but surely online networking can’t replace the value that face to face contact brings? And one would assume that the quality of relationships would be diminished through the lack of the human contact and rapport building.

Social networking can bring us closer to people and communities that we would never have the opportunity to meet in the ‘real world’ but in actuality it  doesn’t replace a face-to-face conversation, but more acts as a soft introduction.

Working for a larger business, with a wider social ecosystem the need to network face to face becomes more necessary. The key here is identifying the reason, or a goal for being at the networking event and stick to it – do you want to meet your counterpart from a similar organisation? Track down the supplier that messed up your order? Or perhaps find new job opportunities?

Networking can bring us better deals, higher value service, invites to more social events and new Linkedin contacts, but in my opinion the most important thing it brings us is trust. Trust that our colleagues, suppliers, partners are on the same path as us and are looking to achieve a common goal.

Julia Commons, Sage ERP X3 team

I’ve been sitting back with great interest both absorbing and reflecting certain people’s viewpoints on whether HMRC’s introduction of Real Time Information for Payroll is a good idea or not.

What is Real Time Information?

Real Time Information (RTI) is a HMRC initiative to improve the accuracy of PAYE, reducing the need to send out corrections for overpayment or underpaying and the possibility of fraud.

Under RTI employers will be required to submit information electronically to HMRC on or before they pay their employees instead of just once a year.

Goodbye Payroll Year End stress

Having run a payroll for a small business prior to working for Sage my initial thought was “well that means a lot more work submitting more than 52 times a year if I process weekly and monthly paid employees”. But after some reflection I realised the medium and long term benefits actually go way beyond just the payroll world.

In the payroll world we all know how stressful payroll year end can get with reconciling reports, finding errors, trying to remember what I did, trying to correct errors and so on.

Without being biased, as I work for Sage, submitting more often under RTI will ensure what you are submitting is more accurate as well as removing the stress and complication of payroll year end.

Beyond payroll, imagine a world where you get the benefits you deserve and are entitled to, imagine calling the HMRC or any other government body being able to resolve your queries quicker as they have up-to-date information. RTI will help deliver this.

RTI may seem disruptive in the short term, but I believe that RTI is absolutely the right thing to do for all involved to move us all dragging screaming and kicking into the 21^st century.

How would you like to be RTI Ready?

We’ve all heard of High Definition televisions and the term HD Ready right?  I’m a typical male who always leaves things to the last minute, but if my business could get a change to be RTI Ready before April 2013 even I would jump at the chance.

Well, you have that chance!

You have the fantastic opportunity to not only be RTI Ready but also help shape how HMRC and Sage provide on-going help and support by getting involved in our pilot. If you are interested simply click RTI Pilot Registration and we will be in contact soon.

In my next blog I will be talking more about Sage’s plans to make the transition into RTI as simple, seamless and pain free as possible, but in the meantime you can find more information about RTI and we are doing on our website at www.sage.co.uk/rti

Neilson Watts, Sage Payroll Expert

Here at Sage, saying thank you is a big part of our culture and we have great policies and incentives in place that encourage a happy workplace. We have a great employee recognition scheme in place whereby you can nominate a colleague for a ‘Guiding Principle’ award, acknowledging them for a job well done. There are many ways to say thank you though and sometimes it can be as simple as saying those two words. So why say it?

Motivation

Saying thank you to the people you work with motivates them to do a better job. If you’re motivated, your levels of productivity naturally increase and you’re more likely to repeat the behaviour.

Happy customers

If your staff are happy, your customers are happy. Think about a time that when you had a great customer experience and what impact that had on your future dealings with the company. Did it make you more or less likely to use that company again?

Repeat business and word of mouth

When an experience leaves you feeling great you’ll want that experience again, leading to repeat business. You’re also more likely to tell others about it generating business through word of mouth.

Here in the Sage One team in UK and Ireland we recently launched a great new payroll service to the market along with our brand new website. This involved a lot of hard work and extra hours from the team so when our first birthday came around last week it gave us a great opportunity to say thank you to the team. We headed out for a few drinks and nibbles after work and, although our heads were slightly foggy the next day, we all returned to the office feeling motivated and ready to work hard and spread the feel good factor!

So once again I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to my colleagues across Sage for a great team effort in delivering a great service to our Sage One customers.  And channelling my inner Kate Winslet I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my family for making me who I am today, my friends for their support over the years, the family dog for being such an inspiration in my life, the postman for delivering my mail, GHD’s for giving me straight hair, the city of Newcastle for giving me The Forth (best drinking hole ever!), Friday’s for giving me the weekend……..

Abby Goode, Sage One

Like it or not, tax season is just around the corner. And as a small or medium UK business owner, this means that if you haven’t got your accounts in order, now is most definitely the time. We’ve created a guide to having a successful tax return season but I’ve covered some of our top tips here to help you.

Company accounts for the year 5 April 2011 must be prepared and filed online by midnight on 31 January. The first installment of your tax liability must also be paid by the same deadline.

Update: HMRC have announced the following The SA deadline remains midnight on 31 January. But HMRC will treat all returns that come in by midnight on 2 February as though they were submitted by 31 January. No customer will have to pay interest on payments due on 31 January that are paid on 1 or 2 February. Full details are available on the HMRC website.

This means it can be a tricky time for any small or medium UK business; tracking back over old invoices, getting paper work in order and paying tax liabilities.

Now, this may seem obvious coming from us but using an accounts software package throughout the year can often take away that last minute strain for you or your accountant.  However, whether you use an accounts software package or not, there are some key considerations and tax changes that you must be aware of to ensure a successful tax return season.

Effective tax planning strategies

We may be too far into this year’s tax season to put this into place now, but something to remember for the next financial year is how important it is to know your profits and therefore your tax liability. It will give you the opportunity to view what you might owe and allow you to put money aside throughout the year to ensure cash-flow doesn’t become an issue. An effective tax planning strategy might just be the difference in keeping your business afloat or actually allowing your business to grow!

Types on income and financial information needed

Regardless of whether you run your business as a sole trader or a shareholder/director of a limited company, to complete your self assessment tax return generally you will need details of the following types of income:

• Interest income from banks and building societies
• Dividend income received during the year from UK and/or foreign equities, or from shares in your own company
• Details of any capital gains made in the year through the sale of assets, such as shares or investment property;
• Property income, such as rental income
• Income received from gilts or bonds (excluding premium bonds)
• Income from a pension
• Income from a trust, settlement or from a deceased person’s estate
• Income from any employment , self-employment or a partnership

Payroll software to help with your income details

Your business’ payroll software should also come in handy for filing your tax return. The payroll should give you details such as employment income – salary, benefits, bonuses, income tax and national insurance already paid and, so on. Shareholder directors should also make sure they have up-to-date information in their systems of any dividends paid from the company to themselves.

Changes to the tax return penalty system: don’t be late!

Making it more important than ever to get your tax return in on time, the new penalty system means that an automatic fine of £100 applies if your tax return is filed after the end of January. And the longer you leave your tax return, the more severe the penalty becomes – meaning a very unhealthy start to the year ahead if your tax return isn’t filed on time!

The top tip for successful self assessment tax return is to really treat it with respect. After all, it is a legal document on which you are declaring your income for the year to HMRC. Proper record keeping and effective accounts management should see you successfully complete correctly and on time!

If you’d like to know more about filing your tax return online then download our white paper for having a successful tax return season

Nicole Matues,  Small Business Team

From emailing more effectively to understanding your business priorities, Laura Dixon looks at how you can find time you never knew you had…

Time for a new start

Poor time management means that the average company of any size, in any sector, loses 20 days of work per person, per year. Getting in control of time saves money, increases productivity and directly contributes to a better bottom line. With that in mind, we asked an expert panel: What can you do to make more time in the day?

1) Find your focus

Clare Evans: You should spend at least 10 minutes at the start of each day planning what you will do – not checking emails and getting sucked into answering them. Planning is crucial if you want to have an effective day’s work. Always keep your business plan and main objectives at the forefront of your mind. Look at your short and long-term goals, and ask yourself: what do I need to do today to achieve them?

The thing I’ve found with small business owners is that they are trying to do everything, and the volume of tasks often overshadows their true work objectives. I tell them to start by thinking about what’s important and focus on what makes the biggest difference.

Leo Babauta: Most small business owners are incredibly busy, but they don’t fill their days with the most important work possible. Of course, that work will be different for every person, but the most important thing you can do is figure out the top three most important tasks to get done each day, and focus on those.

2) Avoid distractions

Dr Monica Seeley: Switch off email alerts. Wean yourself off constantly checking them, so you can focus on the tasks in hand.

Leo Babauta: Disconnect from the internet and your phone for a period of time each day. Even if it’s for just an hour, that time is still vitally important, because otherwise you’re constantly being interrupted, distracted and sucked in.

3) Know how much your time is worth

Clare Evans: Every hour you lose has a value. Work out how much your time is worth financially, and use that to frame what you do during the day. For instance, if you don’t like doing accounts and spend a lot of time putting it off, hire a bookkeeper to do it. You can then spend that time doing the tasks that only you can do.

4) Fine-tune your emails

Dr Monica Seeley: Make sure you make the most of your email features. Use rules and filters to set priorities, so what you see first in your inbox is the most important. This way, you won’t miss key mail from your important clients. Use expiry dates on ephemeral emails, so you don’t unnecessarily clutter up other people’s inboxes too.

Also, if you get your own emails right first time, you can avoid a lot of email pingpong. Start with a clear concise subject line that sums up the email. Use a professional greeting and make your request clear and concise. Include a time frame and the exact action required. Sign off with your phone number and put ‘Thanks in advance’, so no follow up emails will be needed.

And think about attachments. Ask yourself whether you really need to send the same attachment to six people – would it be easier to put it on a shared space instead? You can cut how long it takes to complete tasks by eliminating time spent on downloading information and deleting it afterwards because it overwhelms email storage space.

5) Don’t be afraid to draw the line

Leo Babauta: Reduce commitments to create space to get important work done – start saying ‘no’ so you can say ‘yes’ to this work. Set lower limits on how long you work each day, and you’ll force yourself to do the higher impact tasks during that time instead of filling your days with unimportant jobs. Clare Evan S: Don’t work until the task is finished, otherwise you will be working long hours. Have a cut-off point. Set expectations with other people too – make sure they know how busy you are and what is reasonable to expect from you.

Clare Evans: Don’t work until the task is finished, otherwise you will be working long hours. Have a cut-off point. Set expectations with other people too – make sure they know how busy you are and what is reasonable to expect from you.

Laura Dixon writes for a range of titles including The Independent, The Guardian and Business Life.