Case Study: Meet Dave

Meet Dave, a contractor from the Midlands. Travelling is part of Dave's job as he works all over the country. When it comes to filing his expenses he isn't the best and usually finds them scattered around his work van, clothing and even down the sofa. That was before Dave used Clarity365.

Since using the online business software he has saved £2,000 a year alone on expenses. Yes you heard it right. By using a trusty app whenever he is on the road, he can simply take a photo of his receipts and upload them to his account. He can even give his accountant access so that his financial records are all in order!

Want to know more? Read Dave's full story here.

Tax Relief and Incentives for Business

Investing in Business has rapidly grown over the past years, particularly with the rise in cloud based business solutions and ideas.

Therefore there is a growing amount of diverse finance, as opposed to the traditional loan from the bank. Examples of this would be crowd funding and peer to peer lending.

Crowd funding has taken a huge rise as of late, everything from business propositions all the way to a very recent one where the Neath Community need to raise £11,000 so they can have their Christmas Lights switched on. In fact, thanks to Crowd Funding they have now raised £16,500 so it really does show an online support for new businesses and incentives whatever they may be!

The good news is that actually if your new business meets specific requirements then you may also be entitled to help with business rates or tax relief for research or development. This is all thanks to the wonderful people at Business is Great.

So why not check out their links and see what you could be entitled too today:

• Business rate reliefs

  An overview on which properties are eligible for discounts on their business rates, and how to apply for these reliefs
  

• Enterprise Zones

  There are currently 24 Enterprise Zones across the UK and they support new businesses through a range of incentives
  

• The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)

  This aims to encourage investment in small and early stage companies by reducing the risk to investors of investing in these types of companies
  

• Employment Allowance

  Employers can reduce the amount of National Insurance contributions (NICs) they pay for their employees by up to £2,000.
  

• Annual Investment Allowance

  Currently stands at £500,000. How to claim, what is covered and how to calculate it
  

• Capital Allowances

  A tax relief designed to allow the cost of certain of your company or organisation's assets to be written off against its taxable profits
  

• Enterprise Investment Scheme

  Helps small companies raise finance by offering tax relief to investors who buy new shares in their companies. Check here to see if your business qualifies
  

• Venture Capital Trust (VCT) Scheme

  Designed to help smaller companies raise finance by offering a range of tax reliefs to investors who invest in VCTs, who in turn onward invest or lend to small and medium sized businesses
  

• Capital Gains Roll-over Relief

  You may be able to delay paying Capital Gains Tax if you either sell (‘dispose of’) some business assets or use all or part of the proceeds to buy new assets. This relief means you won’t pay any tax until you sell the new asset
  

• Research and development tax credits

  Small businesses can get 225 per cent tax relief on their research and development spending
  

• Patent Box

  Eenables companies to apply a lower rate of Corporation Tax to profits earned after 1 April 2013 from its patented inventions and certain other innovations.
  

• Social Investment Tax Relief

  This provides a range of income and capital gains tax reliefs which can be claimed by individual investors for investments they have made in social enterprises, with a view to helping people and communities. It is in place for investments made or capital gains arising in the period from 6 April 2014 to 5 April 2019
  

• Tax reliefs for the creative industries

  A group of five corporation tax reliefs that allow qualifying companies in the creative industries to claim a larger deduction, or in some circumstances claim a payable tax credit when calculating their taxable profits
  

• Entrepreneur's Relief

  When an entrepreneur sells or closes their business, they need only pay ten per cent Capital Gains Tax on any qualifying profits
  
  
  
  (source: http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/tax-relief-and-incentives-for-businesses-and-investors/)
  

Lego Vs group interviews

I used to love Lego as a child, I could build an awesome tower using all the bricks out of the bucket fobbing off any of the instructions to build an airport or submarine as that was dull, no instead I'd make some Picasso style creation which in my eyes, was simply amazing and another bonus was how quickly you could swallow one and then end up in A&E (mine was within approximately thirty seconds, and it was a red specific brick).

Lego is still just as popular as it was back in my youth, I visited a friend who has a five year old boy and this young whippet had recently moved on from the big Lego bricks to the small ones (growing up you know) and I found myself losing all sense of time and reality working alongside him, then I suddenly thought; I have done this before in adult hood and no, I didn't choke on one.

Adult Lego

So where have I, as a fully fledged adult toyed with Lego before. I had this terrible flashback to when I was about 18 and I went for a interview for an established company (a'hem) which began with an initial "telephone interview", you know where they used to ask you:

"If you had an angry customer would you...1. punch them in the face, or 2. relax because remember, the customer is ALWAYS right

I was passed onto the secondary stages. However just to digress, how could anybody fail those interviews...the only thing I can think of is that a large amount of cats are applying for jobs, as they blatantly couldn't press the right button on the keypad. I look back now and it almost felt like I was going for the final stages of Britain's Got Talent, all for a call centre role on minimum wage and not forgetting the 24 hour, 7 day a week shifts I'd have to start forcing myself to go too.

Second stage

In I walk, all fresh faced and nervous about what was about to happen, and suddenly I find myself surrounded by other people whilst quickly being split into teams. This was new to me, and I did feel like I was enrolling to the Army. "Sit down and be quiet" squawked a particularly Alpha female manager, if she'd asked us to do ten sit ups...we probably would have done.

Then, said Lego was slammed by said Alpha female onto the table into our pathetic groups, with some straws. Our objective was to...well build something. There I am, as a mortified teenager suddenly realising I was never going to get this job as: A: I used to literally build towers and B: Swallow them so all in all, not good.

In the end

I look back and think who does this anymore in such an excruciating manner? Well tons still do, as I know a friend that went to a interview recently for a very well known shoe brand, and he was told, at the prime age of 39 to sit on the floor in a circle and in pairs, paint a picture to express how he "felt about the brand" needless to say he didn't stay. Though I did argue that at least they had glitter pens as well as paint so why not get creative? He didn't find that funny.

Yes, I've had other interviews that were excruciating, for example I was asked "how would you sell this pen" I mean come on...and I answered terribly as I started listing its qualities, like it was a fine wine but it wasn't, it was a bic.

Here at Data Clarity we don't do anything like that. We don't ask people to build Lego or to pretend they were dealing with a difficult person. Nope, because we actually want to learn about the persons history and soul, as that's all that matters to us - not if they can build a bridge with Lego. If the person wants to become part of the Data Clarity team then we'll happily have them on board for their personality as if the attitude is right, the rest can be taught. We'll always expand in the right way.

With Clarity365 you'll Be Able to get on with your Day - Try Us For Free!

Here at Clarity365 we know how busy you can be, and with that in mind we've spent the last three years developing this software, we love it and that's why we're offering you a free trial! check us out today, you won't be let down!

Its all in the Cloud!

Cloud computing is moving into mainstream businesses

It doesn't seem long since the expected reaction to talking about ‘the cloud’ was a mixture of befuddlement and skepticism.

But this emerging technology, once viewed as niche and a little ‘out there’, is slowly but surely starting to become a normal part of our business world.
This is one of the findings of research carried out by the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) into the adoption of cloud services by companies in the UK.
The cloud is a general term used to describe accessing data, services and applications from external servers – rather than needing to be stored on your PC or handheld device.
The CIF survey, based on interviews with 250 British companies, found that 79% had now ‘formally’ adopted at least one cloud-based service – an increase of 15% on previous figures.
But the figures also indicate the move to the cloud is happening gradually and rather cautiously rather than a dramatic shift – as some analysts had predicted.
Most of the businesses, 45%, said they were currently using just one cloud service, with just 14% saying they were using four or more.
The most popular uses were for web hosting and data backup, followed by collaboration tools, business apps and video conferencing services.
At the moment, therefore, most organisations are adopting a hybrid approach; integrating traditional on-site IT set-ups with these new cloud based services.

Alex Hilton, chief executive of CIF, says that:

“Nine out of 10 companies will continue to invest in on-premise IT alongside and integrated with cloud solutions. In other words, we are in-fact seeing the normalization of cloud in the hybrid IT market.”

The adoption of cloud services allows companies to significantly reduce IT spend with no need for internal servers or software maintenance. Users can access cloud services from any device with an online connection.
Clarity365 is one of a new generation of business tools using the technology to transform the way organisations operate – replacing manual, paper-based expenses with more efficient digital processes.
The growing use of cloud services is allowing companies to explore new mobile working methods with a move away from the traditional reliance on a 9-to-5 office based approach.