R&D tax relief can put real cash back into an SME, but only if you understand which scheme applies and how to record it correctly. This guide breaks down qualifying costs, the merged scheme, ERIS, and a worked £200,000 example with journal entries.
Bank feed categorisation powered by machine learning promises to end the drudgery of manual transaction coding, but how does it actually decide where a payment belongs? This article breaks down the pattern-recognition logic behind AI bookkeeping, walks through a worked example for a small consultancy, and shows why confidence scores — not blind automation — are the key to trustworthy management accounts.
EBIT, EBITDA and net profit are not competing answers to the same question — they are three different lenses on the same set of numbers. This article unpacks what each metric strips out, why lenders and buyers favour different ones, and how a single SME's figures can swing from a £150,000 headline to a £60,345 bottom line depending on which line you stop at.
When a lawsuit, warranty claim, or dispute is still unresolved at year-end, should it appear in the accounts? IAS 37 and FRS 102 both apply a strict three-question test — present obligation, probable outflow, reliable estimate — to decide between a provision, a disclosure note, or nothing at all. This article walks through a worked unfair dismissal claim, showing exactly how a solicitor's probability assessment becomes a defensible £27,000 provision figure, plus the tax and audit pitfalls SME owners commonly miss.
Revenue alone can mislead you about which products deserve your attention. This guide explains contribution margin and margin of safety through a worked CVP example, showing SME owners how to spot which products truly convert sales into profit and how much of a cushion their business has before hitting breakeven.
Hiring contractors through their own limited company can save money, but only if the engagement is genuinely outside IR35. This guide breaks down the control, substitution and mutuality tests, shows the real cost difference between inside and outside status with a worked example, and explains how to document your decision so HMRC cannot catch your business out retrospectively.
AI-powered invoice processing turns a typical SME's three-day accounts payable backlog into a same-day task by automating data extraction, three-way matching and coding — while keeping humans in charge of approvals and compliance.
Debits and credits confuse most SME owners because bank statements use the terms backwards from how bookkeeping actually works. This article breaks down the one rule behind double-entry accounting, with worked examples showing stock purchases, supplier payments, and a running bank balance calculation.
When a business sells for more than the value of everything you can see and touch, the difference has a name: goodwill.…
If you run a limited company and have ever taken money out of the business that wasn’t a salary or a dividend,…
