Let's Get Digital!

HMRC’s flagship project to go live.

With Making Tax Digital (MTD) now upon us, if you haven’t already got yourself ready, it’s not too late, and if you’ve missed all the press and coverage, here’s what MTD means. VAT registered businesses with an annual turnover over the VAT threshold of £85,000 will be required to keep electronic records to keep their VAT records and submit vat returns digitally for vat periods beginning on or after 1 April 2019.

However instead of sharing the negative impact this may have for you and the feedback we are hearing from other professionals that HMRC’s system is not thoroughly ready, there is some good to come out of it. Primarily, MTD is forcing more businesses to go digital and embrace the cloud for their accounting and financial needs.  As a result more and more small cloud software providers are using MTD as an opportunity to help improve a business’ financial productivity.

A few weeks ago, I appeared as a panellist for a QuickBooks and GoCardless event, two excellent apps perfect for small businesses to improve their invoicing, accounting and cash collection.  Not only are these cloud financial products innovative and allowing for more automation, they are very user friendly and easy to use and implement. 

In a recent study, it was shown that one of the biggest fears in business was cashflow and not being paid, and the impact this has on small businesses and fundamentally the humans behind them.  In an open discussion, it was said that it seems socially acceptable to pay late and some organisations take advantage of this. 

We see MTD as an opportunity to engage our clients in focusing more on the benefits of implementing a good cloud accounting system, in addition to the requirements that are forcing them to have to do so.  We see this as an end to end process in enabling our clients to be compliant but also giving them an opportunity to have further knowledge in their business finances, helping them to see the value in using financial apps. It may be to  monitor cash flow, get paid on time, keep an eye on costs, raise invoices, and allow easy payments.  Cloud technology will allow you to  save time, energy and potentially financial loss.  We have partnered with a variety of apps that our clients are finding most useful, allowing them to focus on growing their business which ensure their business finances are effectively structured. 

So if you haven’t already, are you ready to embrace the cloud and make sure you’re winning?

FUSE is an independent Chartered Certified firm of accountants and tax advisors based in Highgate Village, North London. We provide a dynamic range of services to clients working in property, media, entertainment and professional services. Our clients vary in size from self employed sole traders, small enterprises and medium size businesses. We believe that comprehensive financial planning and sound business financial advice are the keys to growth and profitability.