Clear Books Customer Support
We like to think that Clear Books has from the very beginning made every effort to engage with you about your ideas, questions & problems and to feedback what we are doing about them. Our customer support site, getsatisfaction, has been a key tool for this.
As we continue to grow we are getting more and more enquiries. On the one hand this is a fantastic reflection of new users taking the time to explore our online accounting app, but on the other hand it is impacting the development of new features. We are simply overloaded.
We are appealing for your patience as we organise and centralise our support process. The goal is to have the flexibility for our support function to scale as the requests continue to increase. Here are the steps that with your help we plan to take:
Support Emails
All support email enquiries are now logged in our customer support ticketing system. If the enquiry is a general idea, question or problem we will post it on getsatisfaction, send you a link and close the ticket. In other words please use getsatisfaction in the first place for any general enquiries. getsatisfaction is where we aim to centralise all enquiries.
Any support emails that are account specific or urgent will be dealt with appropriately via the ticketing system.
Ideas
If you have an idea, tweak, usability improvement or a feature request then mark it as an Idea on getsatisfaction. We will address ideas based on popularity of votes so please vote for the ideas you are a fan of.
Don’t be too disappointed if your idea only has one vote and has not been implemented – we’re overloaded remember and are prioritising based on demand.
Questions
Please continue to post questions on getsatisfaction. If a question is really an idea then we will change its status. e.g. ‘Can you introduce a Fixed Asset Register?’ is really the idea ‘Fixed Asset Register’ and should be voted for as described above.
Problems
If you have a general problem that is not impacting your account and does not contain financially sensitive data then please add it to getsatisfaction. If the problem is simple then we will deal with it on getsatisfaction.
If the problem is more involved we may import it into our ticketing system or you can email support directly.
Telephone Support
Our telephone support number is 08448 138 138. If we can answer a query on the phone we will. Otherwise we will take down details of your enquiry and open a support ticket.
API Queries
All API queries can be directed to api AT clearbooks.
Thank You!
We’re confident our organised approach will lead to a better support service and the rollout of more new features.
As ever, let us know your feedback…
MPs Offered £100 000 Worth of Accounting Software To Publish Their Expenses
MPs Offered £100 000 Worth of Accounting Software To Publish Their Expenses
London (04/02/10) – Every MP has been offered free online accounting software to publish their accounts publicly on the Internet. All 646 MPs are being offered a term’s use of the online accounting software worth around £100 000 a year. Through this service all MPs’ accounts will be open to scrutiny by the public.
Clear Books, the firm that runs the online accounting software, is hoping that the pledge will lead to a quicker and more transparent solution to the expenses scandal than through any government led initiative.
Tim Fouracre the Clear Books MD stated, “Today’s announcement that MPs have to pay £1.12 million back has inspired us to help clear up what Nick Clegg referred to as a rotten Parliament. We are laying down the gauntlet to MPs who need to step up and show us how open they are really willing to be.”
He added, “With the Legg report itself costing an alleged £1.16m, this will save the taxpayer further expense as Parliament will not need to develop their own system. Members of the public will finally have access to detailed financial data with all MPs’ expenses categorised. Our accounting software is online so it is the perfect platform for serving up this data to the general public.
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Contact: Nick Braithwaite
Email: press@clearbooks.co.uk
Tel: 020 7348 3411
Notes To Editors:
1. Clear Books Limited is an online accounting company more information can be found at www.clearbooks.co.uk.
Accounting Is Boring Viral Website Launched
Accounting Is Boring Viral Website Launched
London (04/02/10) – A new viral website entitled Accounting Is Boring has officially launched today. AccountingIsBoring.com spawned out of recognition for the large feeling of discontent there is on twitter towards accounting. Accounting Is Boring has already found a fan in tweeter and apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry, who tweeted her approval of the viral campaign. The viral website was also featured in The Independent’s Business Diary. Clear Books, an online accounting system, created the website with the aim of tapping into students, accountants and business owners who wish to spend less time doing their boring accounts.
The website consists of tweets from across the globe with references to how boring accounting is. Examples include @leifkendall tweet, “Spent two hours entering expenses into accounts software last night. Boring!”, while @brucieebruce touched on a popular theme with his tweet, “Accounting is so boring!”. The website also has a poll for people to vote on what they would rather be doing than accounting.
Clear Books MD Tim Fouracre stated, “The concept is very simple, we wanted to capture the frustrations towards accounting in one place and hopefully raise a smile at the same time.”
He added, “The website is not intended to be a direct jab at accounting. In fact we believe that there are new, even fun, ways to do the accounts. Accounting does not have to be boring”.
To be featured on Accounting Is Boring anyone who is on twitter simply has to include the words “Accounting” and “Boring” in a twitter message.
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Contact: Nick Braithwaite
Email: press@clearbooks.co.uk
Tel: 020 7348 3411
Notes To Editors:
1. Clear Books Limited is an online accounting company more information can be found at www.clearbooks.co.uk.
End of Year Accounts
End of year accounts will be filed by many accountants on behalf of small businesses across the UK over the coming months in what is commonly known in the accounting world as ‘busy season’. This coincides with the fact that Companies House has recently released a new abbreviated accounts pdf tool through its web filing service, something that will be useful to small/medium sized limited companies.
The end of year accounts PDF is accessed from within a company’s account on the WebFiling website. It saves time by populating sections of a company’s abbreviated accounts. The pdf can be downloaded and guides you through the process of filling out abbreviated accounts.
Companies House has certain criteria defining the size and type of business and whether they can file abbreviated accounts. For more information please read this link before completing and submitting abbreviated accounts as part of your end of year accounts.
Now it’s not like we want to brag here at Clear Books, however, thanks to our abbreviated accounts tool your end of year accounts are even easier to complete. Clear Books users simply have to click a button to generate a fully populated set of abbreviated accounts. There is no need to fill in any financial data as it is all populated from the system. For more information about how this is done please see this previous blog post on abbreviated accounts.
It is recommended that you get your accountant to review your your end of year accounts before submitting abbreviated accounts.
Snow Proof Accounting Software
Clear Books is accounting software that defies winter’s icy grasp. If you live in the UK you will no doubt have noticed that it has been snowing; some people are saying that it is one of coldest winters since 1963. If you need proof take a look at this picture from the BBC taken on Thursday January 7th 2010. There has been wide spread disruption across the UK as a result of this with schools and businesses having to close due to hazardous conditions. So what does snow have to do with accounting software?
VAT Changes
VAT is changing on the 1 January 2010 with a return to 17.5% from the temporary rate of 15% imposed since 1 December 2008. This will affect VAT registered Clear Books users in the following ways.
Normal Invoicing
We have always had the option for both 17.5% and 15% in the VAT rate select boxes. Remember to use the 17.5% rate from 1 January 2010. We’ll warn you in the system if you enter an invoice date post 1 January 2010 and forget to use 17.5%.
Presets, Defaults, Recurring Invoices & Bank Import Rules
Where the rate is currently 15% we will automatically update to 17.5%.
Flat Rate Scheme
For users on the flat rate scheme we will close off your scheme so that from the 1 January 2010 you will be forced to enter your new flat rate percentage before you can continue using the system. The appropriate flat rate percentage will be applied to invoices dependent on invoice date (or payment date if cash accounting).
10 Tips For Speed Networking
In our quest to spread the word about Clear Books and online accounting software the team headed down to the business start up exhibition that was held in Olympia just over a week ago, considering it is just across the road it would have been rude not to. It was a great event and from walking round the venue it was clear that accounting software was well represented in both online and offline forms.
One thing that caught our eye was the speed networking event.
Clear Books meets Enzo Calzaghe
He has trained one of the most successful British boxers of all time (Joe Calzaghe - 46 fights, 46 wins) and he has picked up a BBC sports coach of the year award along the way. He is Enzo Calzaghe and last night Clear Books bumped into him during a strategy meeting… in the pub.
He saw a lot of fighting spirit in this candidate…
…and thought these two would go the distance.
Crunchies – Vote Clear Books for “Best Bootstrapped StartUp”
I’ve regularly blogged about how Clear Books has grown since our initial idea back in July 2008. I’ve talked about gaining our first paying customers, moving into offices and have published our sign up numbers to track our start up story.
So please vote for us in the “Best Bootstrapped StartUp” category for a crunchie award. The crunchies are organised by technology blog TechCrunch. Click the badge below to vote.
Companies House Webcheck built into Clear Books
Today we are pleased to announce that we have worked with Companies House to make their webcheck service available right inside Clear Books. This means you can order from a huge range of official documents that have been recorded with Companies House for over 2 million companies.
documents without needing to re-enter your card details each time.
If you ever extend credit your customers, or pre-pay your suppliers then this is a handy tool to let you find out more about their financial circumstances.
Certain information is available completely free, such as….
- Registered Name, Address and Company Number
- Type of Company, and Area(s) of Business
- Date of Incorporation, Last Accounts Filed Date, Next Accounts Due, Last Annual Return Filed, Next Annual Return Due
Other documents are charged at £2 + VAT, and will be automatically added on to your monthly Clear Books bill (no need to get your credit card out each time!) There is a huge range of documents available, but some of the most popular are:
- Form AA – Annual Accounts
- Form 363a – Annual Return (A Full List of Directors and Shareholders)
- Form 88(2) – Allotment of Shares
- Form 288a – Appointment of Director or Secretary
- Form 288b – Termination of Appointment of Director or Secretary
To access these documents simply navigate to Reports > CH and search for the company you are interested in.