The Importance of Financial Planning for Startups: Insights from Integrity Accountancy

Building a new company or organisation is a thrilling process that is full of challenges and opportunities. There are many aspects of building a business from scratch which includes finding the right people and managing the budget. Finances is not easy as it seems, it’s the most difficult task that cannot be established by the owner itself, hence he needs someone intellectual and experienced to navigate through the challenges of difficult finances. With the right guidance from an expert company such as Integrity Accountancy,we can help in making the wise decisions for a secure future. So, in this article, we will guide you with the importance of financial planning with the right accountant in Birmingham.

Why Financial Planning is crucial for Startups

It’s necessary to create a company’s secure future by helping create strategies and plans that will secure their finances. This also includes checking up on cash flow, picking the right budget,resource allocation and projecting future results for better decisions that might affect the stability of the organisation. Here are some of the main reasons why financial planning is indispensable for startup –

Budgeting and Forecasting – Firstly financial planning is important to create a realistic budget for an organisation. In a newly open business, it helps in allocating the resources effectively thus ensuring that every penny is spent wisely. Juggling company issues, expansion goals, and investments need the greatest decision-making as well. We can predict revenue and expenses with its help as well. Forecasting helps examine data and market trends which in turns safeguards their future.

Managing Cash Flow -Second, cash flow management is critical to a startup’s development and survival in the fiercest market. For startups who failed in the initial funding, the lack of profits sometimes leads to them running out of cash. Somanaging cashflow prevents any loss in the future. Keeping an eye on inflows and outflows, sticking to a budget, paying salaries on time, supporting growth initiatives, and assigning a manager who can help supervise the company’s financial planning are all necessary to maintain a healthy cash flow. You can hire an experienced accountant in Birmingham to help you develop cash flow statements and help you develop strategies to up your cash flow, such as helping you negotiate better payment terms for your suppliers and clients.

Setting Financial Goals – Third advantage of financial planning is to set clear financial goals that can help in measuring the progress and success of the startups. It helps in developing long-term goals and short-term benefits such as revenue targets, return on investment (ROI) and profit margins. In spite of potential obstacles down the road, companies may remain motivated and laser-focused on their long-term objectives with the support of all these financial targets. Companies such asIntegrity Accountancy can help you set achievable and realistic financial goals based on market conditions.

Insights from Integrity Accountancy

To hire a good accountant in Birmingham, you can look up to firms such as Integrity Accountancy that provide specialised services to their clients based on their requirements and needs. The following are some ways that an accounting firm may assist new businesses in achieving growth and financial stability:

Comprehensive Financial Analysis

Many Accounting firms understand how important it is to perform a thorough financial examination. And try to analyse different aspects such as profit margins, debt, liquidity and assets, to find financial health. These metrics help in finding the right solution for your problems.Comprehensive analysis helps in finding the strengths and weaknesses, which can help make informed decisions and select the corrective measures if required.

Customised Financial Plans

Every business is unique, so are their strategies. Standard one size doesn’t fit every company when it comes to financial planning hence, we help in creating customised plans that align with your requirements and goals.These tactics all depend on the features of your sector, your business strategy, and your needs for development. Customised financial solutions help in achieving the right financial stability and scaling the business whenever required.

Risk Management

Not to mention, every company has its own set of problems and issues. Startups are particularly vulnerable because of their market presence and the limited resources available to them. To help these beginners, an accountant will use all their knowledge and expertise to manage the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the business. Companies such as Integrity Accountancy will help in handling all the stress and the little details to create a backup plan in case of emergencies or concerns. They will also help you get ready for the transition to a brighter and secure future.

Conclusion

Startups are therefore a budding organisation that requires strengthening from its initial foundation. So, financial management is as important as finding the right people. Also, managing cash is a crucial aspect of every business. For an effective management of your budget, cash inflows, assets and other aspects, hiring an accountancy firm such as Integrity Accountancy is of utmost importance. With a focus on personalised services and products that can help you soar to newer heights;Integrity Accountancy can be your perfect accountancy partner.

How to Choose the Right Accountant for Your Small Business: Tips from the Experts at Integrity Accountancy

Do you wish to oversee the financial well-being of your business? Or do you need help managing your small business? Finding the right accountant for your business is extremely important to ensure that your company’s fiscal health is in good hands, compliance to the tax laws and for strategic growth of the company. An accountant assists you in running your daily business in addition to handling your money. Searching for “small business accountancy near me” can be a good start. Along with that hiring the best professionals from companies like integrity accountancy can reap you many benefits. So, in this blog we will learn about some essential tips for finding the best accountant for your small business.

Some tips to find the right accountant

Understand the needs and requirements of the company

The first step to find the right accountant for your small business is to understand your company thoroughly. Along with that you need to understand your accounting requirements. Are you trying to discover someone who can take care of your business health, do basic bookkeeping, handle payroll, and file taxes? Or are you looking for someone that can provide you financial advice and also help you in strategic planning? After understanding these questions you will find the right accountant that has the appropriate skills and experience.

Experience and expertise

Next you have to identify the skill sets necessary for the right chartered accountant for your company. A good accountant will always have the necessary skills and experience to handle the complexities of your business. He or she will be more familiar with the financial challenges that come with small businesses and help you identify the right opportunities to save on your budget. Hiring professionals with specialized knowledge of your sector may also help you grasp your company and adhere to the best practices possible for its expansion and development. When you are interviewing for potential accountancy it is better to find the one with the most experience and expertise similar to your business. Or you can ask for references from other clients in the industry.

Check all the certifications and qualifications required for the job

A third criterion to find the right accountant for a small business is to check for specific certifications and qualifications. For example in countries like the United States an accountant needs a certified public accountant certificate to specify his license to work in the country. Every country and state have its own requirements for an accountant, so check for one that meets your specific educational and experience criteria. The CPA credential attests to the accountant’s professionalism and level of expertise in his field. You can also look for memberships in many organizations such as CPS that allows members with high reputation and best work to participate.

Assess Technological Proficiency

Gone are the days of hiring a local accountant with expertise and experience of several years. Nowadays a good accountant should be proficient with new technologies and should know how to use them to enhance his operations. Modern technology may assist you in daily tasks far more effectively than conventional ways, and it can also help you enhance your company operations. So, find any accountant that is familiar with modern digital tools and accounting software. They should be able to implement New Year technological solutions for your business requirements such as cloud-based systems that allow you to store bulk data more effectively. This digital software helps you in real time financial tracking and collaboration across different teams.

Consider Communication and Availability

The criteria to find the right accountant for your small business are to find out his availability when you are in a financial crisis. He should be able to communicate with your team with initial meetings, analyze your financial data and should act faster than others. Their quick thinking and responsiveness to return calls and email is the good factor to determine the best accountant for a business. A good accountant doesn’t only keep a check on your finances but he should be a supposed system that addresses your issues in a timely manner.

Approach to Problem-Solving

Every accountant has their own rules and ways to tackle the complexities of the financial world. Good quality of an accountant is the ability to solve problems quickly and be a strategic decision maker for your business. During the hiring process as the potential candidate how they have handled the complex task during their tenure and what steps they have taken to tackle the issue. Depending on the answers, you can find the right problem solver and quick thinker that can manage your business finances much more effectively.

Conclusion

Hence, from this blog we got to find where there are ways to identify the right accountant for your small business. Making the proper choice on time may have a big influence on financial success for an accountant. In order to solve problems more effectively at your firm, an accountant should be able to comprehend the needs of your organization, have appropriate expertise, and be knowledgeable about the latest technologies. Hiring an accountant can make all the difference, so make sure to follow these tips by Integrity Accountancy to keep your financial health in check.

Talk Money Week 2023

Integrity Accountancy provides a range of service benefiting business and business owners in a variety of sectors.

Over this next week, we have Talk Money Week 2023, which is an annual campaign that encourages open conversations about personal finance, money management, and financial well-being. We will be proving help and support to individuals during his time, primarily helping them when dealing with HMRC. We will provide details regarding the HMRC App, that can help boost and manage your finances.

First off, how do we use the HMRC app:

First step is simple which is downloading the app which is free.
Then follow the instructions on screen to complete the app setting, where you will be asked to sign in again.
Users will need to know their Government Gateway user ID and password to in, but after that can just select facial recognition, a short PIN or choose to use their fingerprint to get in quicker. If they don’t already have an ID and password, this can be created on the same sign in page.
As we can see it is a simple set up that’s required that doesn’t take too long and has simple steps with procedures to follow which already is demonstrating a easy and understandable introduction.

What does this HMRC new app provide?

Employee’s – Claim tax relief on employee expenses
Tax – If you have paid too much tax, it guides you on how to claim a tax refund.
Families – Claim and manage tax benefits.
Married or Civil Couples – Claim marriage allowance

Join us Integrity Accountancy Services over the next couple of days where we go over each service and analyse how they may be beneficial in depth.

Tip 1 – Support for employees – claim tax relief on employee expenses

Did you know you and your employees may be able to claim tax refunds on work-related expenses? Making a claim online via GOV‌‌‌.UK takes minutes and guarantees that you get 100% of the money back, if eligible.
Use the online claim service to check eligibility and a full list of work expenses, including:

Uniform and Clothing
Buying work related equipment
Professional fees, union membership and subscription
Using their own vehicle for work travel (excluding journey from home to work)

You can claim tax relief by phoning HMRC if you’ve already claimed the same expense type in a previous year and your total expenses are less than either £1000 or £2500 for professional fees and subscriptions. You must use the HMRC form to make a claim. HMRC cannot accept claims made on any other version of the form. you must claim tax relief by post if you’re claiming either on behalf of someone else or for more than 5 jobs.

You cannot use this service if you:

are claiming on behalf of someone else.
complete Self-Assessment tax returns (except current year claims)
are claiming for expenses over £2,500.
are claiming for more than 5 different jobs.

An advantage of claiming expenses would be that this reduces your taxable income and the tax you must pay. However, you’ll need to submit a claim by post using HMRC’s postal form. This may be time consuming, and postage is the only form HMRC accept.

If you would like to know how to claim back taxes through a letter formally, please do contact us on 0121 777 5361 where we give you free consultation resolving your queries.

Tip 2 – Support if you’ve paid too much tax – claim a tax refund

If you feel as if you have paid too much towards you tax, claiming a Tax Refund is easy through the HMRC app. You may feel you have paid extra tax on the following income:

pay from a job.
job expenses such as working from home, fuel, work clothing or tools.
a pension
a Self-Assessment tax return
a redundancy payment
UK income if you live abroad.
interest from savings or payment protection insurance (PPI)
income from a life or pension annuity
foreign income

How do I get my HMRC tax refund?

Your tax calculation letter will tell you if HMRC will send you a cheque and, if so, you will receive this by post.

What do I do if I am too late for a repayment?

If you think you have overpaid tax in tax years that are closed to claims, there is a rule known as Extra-Statutory Concession B41 which can allow HMRC to repay tax for those earlier years.

How long does it take to get a refund?

This a common question, the answer is usually somewhere between 5 days and 8 weeks.

You can get a refund on any taxable income you’ve paid taxes on, including:

Pay from your current or previous job.
Pension payments.
Income from a life or pension annuity.
A redundancy payment.

Tip 3 – Support for families – claim and manage Child Benefits

Claiming your child’s benefits can be done 48 hours after you have registered your child for birth. If you were eligible for Child Benefit before HMRC got your claim form, and you have not claimed the benefits straightaway, your claim may be automatically backdated up to a maximum of 3 months from when you have applied.

What do I need to apply?

your child’s birth or adoption certificate
your bank or building society details
your National Insurance number
your partner’s National Insurance number if you have one

However, if your child was born outside the UK:

your child’s original birth or adoption certificate
your child’s passport or the travel document they used to enter the UK

Any documents you send will be returned to you within 4 weeks.

Who should make the claim?

Only one person can claim back for the child’s benefits, it cannot be both parents, so this will need to discuss among them who is the better parent to claim. The person who claims will then get National insurance credit towards there state pension but only if there not working.

How can you claim?

There are three ways of claiming for your child’s benefits, and these are:

Post – This may take a longer and will need to be filled at the child benefit office.

Phone – you will need to phone Child Benefit helpline on 0300 200 3100 where they will require National Insurance number or Child Benefit number.

HMRC App – Fill out the Child Benefit claim form, then send it to the Child Benefit Office. It can take up to 12 weeks to process a new Child Benefit claim.

You get Child Benefit if you’re responsible for bringing up a child who is:

under 16
under 20 if they stay in approved education or training

How much is Child Benefit?

If you’re eligible, you’ll get £24 a week for your first child and £15.90 a week for any children after that.

Tip 4 – Support for couples married or in civil partnerships – claim Marriage Allowance

Marriage Allowance lets you transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife, or civil partner. It’s free to apply for Marriage Allowance on with the HMRC app. This can reduce their tax by up to £252 every tax. To benefit as a couple, you need to earn less than your partner and have an income of £12,570 or less. Your partner’s income must be between £12,571 and £50,270 (£43,662 in Scotland) for you to be eligible. You can backdate your claim to include any tax year since 5 April 2019 that you were eligible for Marriage Allowance. If your partner has since died you can still claim.

What do you need to apply?

You can apply for Marriage Allowance online. It’s free to apply online with the HMRC App. If both of you have no income other than your wages, then the person who earns the least should make the claim. If either of you gets other income, such as dividends or savings, you may need to work out who should claim.

If you cannot apply online, you can apply:

Through Self-Assessment online if you’re already registered and send tax returns
by filling in Marriage Allowance from MATCF and sending it to the address on the form

How would your personal allowances change?

HMRC will give your partner the allowance you have transferred to them either:

by changing their tax code – this can take up to 2 months
when they send their Self-Assessment tax return

If your new Personal Allowance is lower than your income after you’ve made a claim, you might have to pay some income tax. However, you might still benefit as a couple.

How you tax code changes:

You and your partner will get new tax codes that reflect the transferred allowance. Your tax code will end with:

‘M’ if you are receiving the allowance
‘N’ if you are transferring the allowance

Your tax code will also change if you’re employed or get a pension.

Get your Tax Return done early!

Are you putting off filing your tax return? Are you one to put it off until next year, given the deadline is 31^st January 2023? Getting your tax return submitted early could attract several benefits.

Let’s take a look at eight reasons why we think getting your tax return prepared and submitted early is beneficial.

Know your liability-Filing your tax return early will ensure you know your tax liability earlier, claim all allowable tax reliefs as early as possible and avoid last minute panic.

Receive a repayment sooner– You are entitled to a refund from HMRC if you have overpaid tax during the year. If you have overpaid tax, it is advisable to complete your tax return as soon as possible, so that you can claim this refund. This could improve your cashflow.

More time for tax planning– Preparing your return early enables you to consider any tax planning opportunities, allowing you to implement them in time for the following tax year.

Do you owe less than £3000 in tax? there is an option to have this tax collected through an adjustment to your tax code. This means any tax owing would be collected from your monthly salary over 12 months. This is effectively an interest free loan from HMRC. However, you must file your tax return before 31 December and elect to pay this way.

Avoid late penalties– Filing early will give you time to address any problems and avoid HMRC’s late filling penalties. If you miss the January 31st deadline, you will incur a £100 penalty.

Need to contact HMRC– If you have attempted to get in touch with HMRC’s personal tax helplines in January, you will most likely know their hold music by heart.

With increasing pressure on already stretched resources due to the coronavirus pandemic, and new customs requirements due to Brexit, it is all set to get even worse.

According to HMRC’s own data released last year, the average wait time for callers had risen to almost 14 minutes, and 49.2% of callers had to wait for more than 10 minutes to be answered. Filing early will mean avoiding this.

Avoid stress and Minimise Mistakes– HMRC says that 26,562 people filed their tax return between 11pm and 11:59pm on the January 2021 deadline.

While leaving it late might be unavoidable for some, it does carry the risk of making more errors than necessary, and mistakes can lead to fines. HMRC charge 0 to 30% of the tax due if people have been careless.

Also leaving filing until the last minute could mean not being able to get important information, such as dividend certificates and bank interest details, before the deadline.

Gives you more time to research Professional advice– You can include the costs of hiring a professional accountant or adviser as a tax-deductible expense. It gives you more time to find the right professional to help you out. It’s important to do your research and make sure you find someone with a great reputation, as bad advice can cost you time and money.

Their advice can help you set up a proper record-keeping system, also, their knowledge of tax and expenses could go towards reducing your overall tax liability.

For a free no obligation meeting click here: http://integrityaccountancy.com/contact-us

Autumn Budget 2021

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is due to announce the Autumn Budget on

the 27th of October. This budget usually entails financial and economic reports, and an update on the state of public finances. He will also announce changes to tax rates, any tax-free allowance adjustments and detail out plans for future government spending.

What we already know for this Autumn’s budget

We know that higher taxes are on the cards in the spring as the government finds ways of paying for their high rates of spending.

Here are some changes that we already know about:

National insurance contributions will increase by 1.25% from April next year.

Dividend tax will increase by 1.25%, which means investors will have to pay more on their earnings.

We also know that the government will give a £500m Household Support Fund to councils to help the most vulnerable families in England this winter.

In under two weeks’ time, we will know more about other economic changes, and how our finances will be affected both for our businesses and on an individual level.

If you’d like a free meeting with a Chartered Management Accountant, please contact us on 0333 444 1539.