The recent industrial action by the Revenue may be a reasonable excuse. Please see this article for more details Tax deadline day ‘leniency’ vow from HMRC.

The Revenue says it is going to be lenient, so if you are fined, lodge an appeal and give the reasons why you sent in the return late – it may save you £100.

But beware: the deadline has only effectively been put back by two days. Submissions after that date will definitely receive a penalty.

Background
This particular business had grown from a one-person stall selling organic, gluten-free biscuits and cakes into a retail store-front and wholesale provider. The business owner was concerned because production was down, deliveries were late, quality was dropping, and he was tired of yelling at his manager. He felt he always had to be looking over everyone’s shoulders.

A Naturally Dysfunctional Progression
It’s a familiar progression common with many small businesses. You start out doing something well and business increases until you can no longer fulfill all of the demands. One person can’t do it all anymore.

So, you wisely see that more people are needed to cover all the bases and decide where another person would have the greatest impact.

You hire somebody with a certain skill set or previous experience. Maybe you start with a bookkeeper who relieves you of a task that you’re happy to pass on.

Things are all right for a while. The bookkeeper has established a routine for managing the weekly accounts and suggests that she could take on some additional work. So it’s decided that she will also answer the phones, giving you more time to make sales calls, handle deliveries, manage stock, develop new recipes, and think about promotional campaigns.

Months pass by, and the bookkeeper/receptionist/customer support person suggests that, as she’s now familiar with the accounts, it might make sense for her to take over the stock ordering. Then, perhaps it’s time to hire someone to take orders and manage the production scheduling.

Just as you’re beginning to feel some increased freedom, having offloaded some of the tasks that were the most time-consuming and least interesting to you, things start to get missed.

The problem is that people are no longer clear about what’s expected of them. They’re juggling too many disconnected positions. They have risen to every opportunity to contribute to the business but they have no clear picture of the end result.

Tear up your organisation chart
This is the point at which you need to tear up the current organisation chart (if there is one), in which the bookkeeper is the office manager is the purchaser etc.

It represents an organisation that is based entirely on the particular combination of qualities and duties that people have evolved into over time. It doesn’t show you the positions that need to exist in your company in order to support your vision. It doesn’t reveal who is responsible for what and how they’re held accountable. It’s not serving you – and only you can change it.

Five steps to a functional organisation chart
1.  Start by listing all the functions that are required in your business. Forget for the moment the people you have doing them now. Think in terms of functions – not people – and state the unique and particular result that each of those functions produces.

2.  Arrange those results in order and observe the relationships and interdependence between them. It should start to resemble a workflow chart with several branches.

3.  Identify where similar and complementary results can be grouped together into naturally-occurring ‘work stations’ that require similar levels of skill, capability or expertise. It is at this point that you can start giving them generic labels or actual position titles: Baking,  Bookkeeping, Debtors, Delivery, Counter Sales, etc.

4.  Write in the names of your current staff next to the functions they’re doing. Step back and consider how many actual ‘positions’ each of them holds and how many of them have stretched their responsibilites thinly across different branches of the organisation.

5.  Consider new strategies for those responsibilities and examine where work can be consolidated, where existing people most naturally fit in, and where they should be repositioned so that they can each achieve more satisfying results with increased clarity and better accountability.

Your people can hold several roles as long as the roles are clearly defined and make sense within the bigger picture. As your company grows, your organisation chart will show how you need to plan for and fill specific needs in your business.

How clear is your organisation chart? I’d be interested to know.

Well, we had our annual get-together for our Christmas lunch and an enjoyable time was had by all. Of course there was the usual ceremony of the opening of the Secret Santa presents. We had decided that all gifts had to be either homemade or bought from a charity shop, so there was a wide variety of gifts including a hand-decorated glass, a personalised calendar, homemade cakes, a flower arrangement, and some delicious homemade marmalade.

This is a photo of some of the team waiting for lunch, sitting in a very orderly fashion – we are accountants, after all!

Now that all of the Christmas and New Year festivities are out of the way, everyone is getting back into their routines, for both work and leisure. Much activity is taking place – swimming, running, cycling, football and netball.

Incidentally, our own Stacey Delve is a member of Thunderbirds Netball Club, a local club with over 100 members who have four junior and five senior teams – and they are in need of sponsorship.  Can you help?

The senior club, for which Stacey plays, are in the Reading and District Netball League and they train every Tuesday night and play Wednesdays and Saturdays in Theale. They have been known as Thunderbirds since 2001 when they only had three teams but they have grown dramatically in the last ten years and have developed a strong competitive junior club.

They work with local schools to get young people into netball and help to develop their netball and coaching skills. They participate in various tournaments in the local area and have won team and individual awards.

The club is one of the biggest in the area and doesn’t currently have sponsorship. They are looking to get a new kit that would be funded by the sponsorship and would very much welcome hearing from you if you feel you are in a position to help them. Please contact me – or Stacey direct. To find out a little more about their achievements and awards, visit their website.

Stacey is in the centre of the middle row.

Stacey has been with the club since she was 14 years old, and is now a Level 2 Coach and regularly takes the senior club netball training sessions. She is Treasurer and also Captain of Thunderbirds 1 who are in Division 1 of the RDNL. 

And in the world of football – Scholes is back from retirement – and scoring (will he have another Testimonial game?), Henry is back with Arsenal and also scored a cracking goal within minutes of his return and Ooooh Aaaaah Cantona is rumoured to be running as French President. I know the rumours were later denied, but it might be time for Sarkozy to move over – Eric is on his way.

Back at Overdene House, we’ve hosted a successful LinkedIn Workshop, and may well hold another one during the next few months. I will let you have full details when this is likely to take place, and you can also keep up to date by checking ur website at www.kandh.co.uk under ‘Our Services – Events & Seminars’.  In the meantime you can always let me know if you are interested in attending a future LinkedIn Workshop.

Sage Workshop: We are delighted once again to have secured the services of June Horne from Sage to run a workshop on our behalf. June has been with Sage for many years and has run these courses for us in the past which have proved very successful. The date for your diary is Thursday 29 March and you can find full details here.

So, lots to look forward to over the next few months including of course the London Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which should give everyone a boost.

If your Tax Return still has to be done, you’ve got until Tuesday. Good luck!

Date:   Thursday 29 March 2012
Time:   Registration from 10.00am
Place:  Overdene House, 49 Church Street, Theale, Reading RG7 5BX

We are delighted to have secured once again the services of June Horne from Sage to run this workshop on our behalf. June has been with Sage for many years working in both technical support and marketing, before joining the Sage field support team in 2003. June has run her own bookkeeping and computer services business, so she knows the technicalities of accounting and the pressures of running a business!

Agenda

10.00 – 10.15  Registration and refreshments
10.15 – 10.30 Introduction and welcome by Pauline Williamson, MD of Kirkpatrick & Hopes
10.30 – 11.30 Presentation by June Horne – Sage Regional Account Manager
11.30 – 12.00 Q&A session
12.00 – 12.15 Close

The topics covered in the Workshop will include:

•  Making sure your data is healthy using Check Data and Audit Assistant
•  Backing-up your data and creating archives for easy access to historical information
•  How to create and use analysis fields and how to change the contents of those fields
•  Checking who is doing what within the program using Event Logging and restricting use of the program via Access Rights
•  Importing data into Sage Accounts

June and our own in-house team will be available at the end of the session to answer any queries.

If you would like to attend, please email mail@kandh.co.uk or phone 0118 923 5800 to reserve your place.

The filing date for the 2011 tax return is 31 January 2012. If the return is late, penalties will apply as follows:

• an initial £100 fixed penalty – even if no tax is due or all the tax is paid on time
• after 3 months, daily penalties of £10 per day, up to a maximum of £900
• after 6 months, a further penalty of 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater
• after 12 months, another 5% or £300 charge, whichever is greater. In serious cases, the penalty after 12 months can be up to 100% of the tax due.

This means that if you do not send in your 2011 tax return until 30 September 2012, you will have penalties to pay of £1,300 even if no tax is payable.

In addition there will be late payment surcharges as outlined below.

Do not forget to pay your tax bill on 31 January 2012.

Late paid tax will be subject to an interest charge of 3%. For example, if you pay a tax bill of £2,000 ten days late, then you will owe interest of £2,000 x 3% x 10/365 = £1.64.

Beware of late payment surcharges if you pay late tax due from the 2010/11 tax year as surcharges apply.

These are 5% of the tax unpaid at:

• 30 days
• 6 months, and
• 12 months

Interest is charged in addition to these penalties.

For example, if you owe tax of £10,000 from 2010/11 due on 31 January 2012 which is not paid until 1 August 2012, you will owe:

Tax £10,000
Initial surcharge £10,000 x 5% = £500
Second surcharge £10,000 x 5% = £500
Late payment interest £10,000 x 3% = £300 x 182/365 = £149.58
Total owing £11,149.58

Details on how to pay tax can be found by clicking on: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payinghmrc/selfassessment.htm

Tax can also be paid over the phone using your debit card. Call 0845 305 1000 and give details of your card number, tax reference and the amount you wish to pay.

Further details can be found at www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/deadlines-penalties.htm

I recently had an eye test and contact lens check-up at my opticians. While I was there I decided to order some new lenses, even though I knew they would cost more than my online supplier. The total cost was £180, which seems a lot but I went ahead and ordered them anyway. When I checked what I had previously paid for identical lenses online, I was shocked to see that they were only about £60! I think this is an excessive premium to pay and I will probably use another optician in future, I felt so ripped off by this.

The lesson from this is that whatever your prices are, you must avoid your customers feeling the way I did after buying my lenses. With price comparison apps etc. these days, you should assume that your customers are fully aware of what the online price would be even while they are in your shop.

These are the reasons why I have been willing to pay more to buy offline in the past:

1. Because I can get it immediately without waiting for delivery – e.g. food!

2. Because I can see/touch it before I buy, to make sure it is what I want, e.g. the right size (for example, shoes).

3. Because I am loyal to the company that is selling it – e.g. a camera I bought from John Lewis who are employee-owned (as are K&H, to a lesser extent).

4. Because I know there is a human being in a physical shop I can call upon if there is a problem or if a replacement is needed – e.g. an audio system I bought from Richer Sounds last year.

5. To avoid the postage cost and delay if it needs returning- eg shoes that were the wrong size!

6. To avoid the wastage of excessive packaging that would be needed to ship delicate/fragile items – e.g. some Udo’s Choice oil that came in masses of bubble-wrap and a huge box.

7. Because some people enjoy the whole experience of shopping (not me, though).

8. To avoid delivery charges – e.g. CDs, although I think that some, including Amazon, now don’t charge for delivery…

9. …and risk of non-delivery, or difficulty physically delivering large items when no one is home – e.g. a poster I bought online that didn’t come.

10. Perhaps most importantly for me, though, is this: because the shop assistant’s advice is very valuable, and I would feel guilty taking that advice without giving something back – e.g. anything for my bike that is even the least bit technical. I suspect this is something that correlates to affluence, so if what you sell is up-market, this will be more important for you.

If your business competes with internet-based rivals, make your customers aware of the reasons why they should pay more to you, using reasons such as those above. Turn these into features/benefits of what you do.

The other option is, of course, to start selling through the internet yourself, either instead of or as well as your offline sales, but take care with your differential pricing to avoid my contact lens scenario above!

Can you add to my list above, or offer any other advice? If so, please post a comment.

Graham Muse, Commercial Manager, Lloyds TSB Commercial, Reading

“Sustainability and economics are one and the same” seems a pretty daft statement to make.

I’d like to start to explain by saying a big thank you to all those car drivers, particularly on the M4 in the mornings and evenings, who have taken positive action to be more environmentally friendly.

Nobody makes a fuss, but I have never seen such mass support before. It’s exceptional. Everyone has decided to drive more slowly to conserve fuel, one of our world’s precious resources. Some have even forsaken their warm and convenient bubble of a car to wait on chilly platforms to take the train – the real troopers standing all the way into London.

Did they all get together in a muddy field full of tents to come up with this strategy? Or chain themselves to trees demanding to be allowed to drive more slowly? Or do they join the camp outside St Paul’s each day? Although I haven’t done a scientific study, I somehow doubt it.

No, they’re like you and me. Behaviours have changed because of economics, namely the fundamental relationship between Price, Supply and Demand.

Oil is a finite resource. Supply is restricted. Demand across the world is increasing as the economies of emerging nations, most notably Brazil, Russia, India and China, surge forward. The result is that prices increase. Drivers are now at the stage where the price of fuel hurts and so they are reducing their demand by driving more slowly or not at all. The fact that it helps our sustainability targets and reduces CO2 emissions isn’t the aim, but they’re great by-products.

Another example is the proliferation of solar panels on roofs. For some, the driver is to support sustainable power production. For most, it’s economics that have driven their change in behaviour, not a higher ulterior motive, although they are undoubtedly proud of their new green credentials. They can reduce their energy bills – the price they pay for their electricity – and there is income from the feed in tariffs, where surplus power is sold back to the National Grid (although the rate for these payments has just been halved by the government). For the companies producing and selling the solar panels, it’s economics. For the companies providing and fitting the solar panels for ‘free’, it is economics, as they benefit from the surplus sold to the National Grid.

In the UK we are committed to an 80% reduction in our carbon emissions through the Carbon Reduction Act. The government can try and persuade us all to make changes and become greener and more sustainable, or it can use economics. It has at its disposal carrots and sticks. It can penalise us to force behaviour changes, e.g. fuel duty. Or it can incentivise us, e.g. feed in tariffs.

Next time you change your behaviour, stop and think. You could very well be changing for a financial reason, but the reason behind it could actually be sustainability.

“Sustainability and economics being one and the same” doesn’t sound quite so daft now, does it?

Please leave a comment, or email me with any thoughts or ideas you have on this topic. I look forward to hearing from you.

This inspired me to put together the advice I have given many people over the years in answer to this question.

In compiling it I realised that it has relevance for starting any career.

Here’s the advice I offered to Tom:

1. Firstly, accept that you need to be really self-motivated. This will distinguish you from 90% (99%?) of the competition to start with!

2. Don’t just use agencies – most employers dislike them and the excessive fees that they charge.

3. Instead, directly approach companies you’d like to work for. Call or email and ask for the name of the person who makes hiring decisions, then write to them (try doing a hand-written, snail-mail letter perhaps – these are very rare and so stand out), setting out why you want to work for them and what you can offer them. But give an email address for replies and mention your LinkedIn page (see below) to show your are not IT illiterate!

4. Don’t use a silly sounding email address (my daughter used to use ‘dizzylizzy@…..’). Be casual but professional. Maybe use the word ‘accounts’ or similar as part of it.

5. Look for businesses with connections to areas where you already have experience and credibility, based on your other qualifications, hobbies or experience. In Tom’s case this was piano music and teaching, so perhaps he could start with music schools?

6. Get on LinkedIn to start building a personal ‘brand’. Use it to look for opportunities to link with potential employers and contacts who can help you now and in the long term.

7. Contact the AAT, which is the entry-level accountancy professional body for advice.

8. Sign up to some cheap courses to start learning the basics of accounts, maybe an accountancy A level, at a local tech college (or whatever they call themselves now).

9. But, practical skills are often more valued by employers than academic ones. Try getting on a cheap Sage course for their Line 50 software and/or get a book like this.

10. Google for videos and tutorials for other training resources for this sort of thing.

11. Of course you may need to do volunteer work to get some real work experience.

12. Interviews: when I interview people, I prefer them to interview me. I think you can judge a person better by the questions they ask than by the pat answers they give. Take a list of questions – mainly ones about the company (what it does, who its customers are, future plans and targets) and how you would be able to help them. Leave questions about “what’s in it for you” till the end.

13. Finally, be confident – you have loads to offer!

Let me know if there is anything else that you would advise people like Tom – particularly based on what influences you when you hire people.

Susan Robertson, Partner, The Head Partnership Solicitors LLP

Bullying and harassment are extremely common in the workplace, and can range from workplace banter and teasing, to ignoring people or shouting abuse. This can lead to claims for constructive dismissal and discrimination in some instances. With the government’s proposal to increase the period of continuous employment from one year to two years for an unfair dismissal claim, employers are likely to face an increasing number of discrimination cases, some of which are likely to derive from bullying and harassment. 

The Equality Act 2010 provides that any treatment that is linked to an employee’s age, race, marital status, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender re-assignment, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity (protected characteristics) is discrimination. 

Scope for liability for workplace teasing is extremely wide, especially as remarks about an employee’s family or partner can lead to claims for associative discrimination. Nicknames relating to a person’s age or race can lead to claims for age or race discrimination, and there has already been a case for harassment based on an allegation that an employee was homosexual even when it was known to be untrue. 

Teasing and name-calling must not be condoned as ‘horse-play’ and employers must look to protect their businesses against claims being brought. 

So what should employers be doing? At the very least, they must have an equality policy in place that reflects the widening discrimination law. The policy must be provided to all staff, and training must be provided – particularly to line managers. However, this alone will be insufficient if an employer chooses to do nothing on receiving a complaint. It is important to act swiftly with an investigation leading to disciplinary action if necessary; failing which, it is almost inevitable that tribunal action will arise. 

If you would like further information or guidance on these matters, give me a ring on 0118 9209490 or send me an email.

Quite a lot to tell you about this month so let’s get cracking.

Chris, Stacey and Poppy have been burning the candle at both ends over the past couple of months - not because of their busy Christmas parties schedule but because they have all been swotting and revising hard prior to taking exams during this past couple of weeks. They can now relax again for a while and enjoy the Christmas festivities without the added pressure of homework. I understand Chris’ round of parties has already begun; if you saw a lifesize Tigger over weekend looking a little the worse for wear it could well have been him! This is the ‘before’ look and I don’t think you want to see the ‘after’ one.

New client
We are delighted to confirm that Kirkpatrick & Hopes have been appointed as the Employee Ownership Association’s (EOA)  new accountants. Andrew Gray was a speaker at EOA’s conference in Birmingham recently.  You can find out more about EOA here.

LindedIn Workshop
Looking ahead to the New Year, many of you will be interested in a LinkedIn Workshop we are hosting on 11 January 2012, run by Steve Mills of Steve Mills Marketing. You can find full details here.

I can say that these Workshops are very popular and early booking is recommended. If you are looking for a last-minute Christmas present, how about booking someone on to the LinkedIn Workshop? You can even bring a laptop with you and connect to the internet and do the work as Steve speaks.

Happy Christmas
Do you know what the K&H Directors do on Christmas Eve?  You should really find out!  Click here.

This is a shot of our 2011 Christmas card, beautifully designed by some of the children of the K&H team:

There are not too many sleeps left to Santa, so I hope you all have a wonderful time and I wish you the best of everything both for Christmas and the New Year.

We will be closed for the Christmas/New Year period from noon on Thursday 22 December to Tuesday 3 January 2012.