The First First Last week I addressed a CIMA evening seminar in Bristol. It was my first ever presentation to a purely professional group and the subject was Management Accounting for Growth. It was a beautiful evening so I was hoping that we would manage as many as half a dozen in the audience. Imagine my surprise to find 40 had turned out and just about everyone took a brochure home. The Second First READ MORE

Years ago I attended a retirement party in London for the FD of a top company during which, after no doubt a few glasses of wine, he made this observation to me in terms of career advice. I was struggling with the words that evening but worked it out the next day. READ MORE

We've been working together with a Cloud IT provider on business development and have realised how very similar IT and bookkeeping departments are. They are both essential for the business but they can easily be: tricky, uncomfortable, problematic, a worry, costly if they go wrong and they both very definitely can suffer from staffing issues. READ MORE

The UK accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council, is all set to review the bookkeeping of the big banks following the crisis of 2007 - 2009. READ MORE

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Looking at our historical figures, January is usually a buoyant month for enquiries and this year is no exception. In one day alone we had three red hot prospects - in Derby, London and Bristol. So we wonder why, also whether it would apply to other businesses. READ MORE

Why outsource or more positively why not? Outsourcing used to be something that was just for very large organisations. Increasingly though, small and medium sized businesses are realising the benefits of outsourcing some of their functions to reduce costs, increase resilience and allow them to do what they do best, run their own business. READ MORE

  As lending to SMEs contracts, crowdfunding provides a significant strand of financing. READ MORE

What's the biggest challenge in expanding your business? Is it resources or is it winning orders? Is it IT? In fact your most likely challenge, even if you don't realise it, is going to be funding. Yet that seems counter intuitive because more sales equals more income - so what's the problem? It's simple to explain - it's a timing difference, in short the money goes out before more money comes in. That's the bit that needs financing. where's it coming from and how much do you need? READ MORE

Talking about "The Cloud" is becoming common nowadays but nine years ago when we first hosted Sage, I was the man from Mars. No one would risk it, mainly because it was simply 'too new'. We used it for clients who didn't need to know! With the advent of new forms of accounting software such as Xero, naturally in the Cloud, with massive marketing budgets it's become normal and indeed arguably preferable to the old fashioned software on the local pc. READ MORE

    Business startups are literally a journey into the unknown and entrepreneurs need to be comfortable with taking on ambiguity, uncertainty and multiple challenges. READ MORE

   Our strapline sounds good and seems reasonable but what is a realistic expectation and how do we prove it  - that's our challenge. Years ago I was the Financial Controller for parts of very large companies - Unilever, Marsh & McLennan, TV Times, Time Life and Times Warner. Naturally I reported monthly otherwise I would have been shown the door pretty quickly. READ MORE

Looking back on my time running my own company there are three things that I did consistently. I didn’t realise the importance. READ MORE

Cash is King, Cash is always King! As book-keepers we never cease to be amazed at how lax businesses can be in collecting what's due to them. If your customers are slow at paying then follow these 8 simple steps.   READ MORE

We're all very familiar with the term SME and hardly anyone needs reminding that it stands for Small Medium Enterprise. It's used everyday somewhere or other. READ MORE

  BookCheck is in the middle between lenders and their customers - we hear both sides. Our clear and extensive experience is that there is a disconnect between the two. Whilst lending continues, the question is how many deals have been lost because of this. And how much are growth prospects being wasted? READ MORE

  How do you demonstrate to a complete stranger that they should invest in your business? What makes your business more attractive? How do you reduce the cost of the money (i.e. sell less equity for more money?). Here are 15 ways you can show that you are better than other competing ideas. This is not an exclusive list, just some of the most important ones. READ MORE

BookCheck has used a Mentor - here's how to do it. Mentors can provide a great deal of support and advice, whether you’re starting a business or growing an existing one.    READ MORE

Mapping the route to economic recovery with Business Intelligence A White Paper by Pegasus Software - October 2012   Executive Summary READ MORE

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