How to get your first customer
How to get your first customer It’s the classic catch-22. You know that you can do the work, but you don’t have anything to prove it because you haven’t had a customer yet. It can be so frustrating to be stuck...
Clear Books auto enrolment features – Stages 4 & 5
We’ve now released stages 4 & 5 of our auto enrolment features, designed to help Clear Books Payroll users comply with the UK Government’s new workplace pension regulations. If you’d like to see what features we’ve released already, see our...
How to improve presentation skills
How to improve presentation skills An important part of most jobs, and particularly if you’re running your own business, is standing up and presenting in front of large groups of people. Whether it’s for a pitch, a conference, or even...
SEO podcast with Nic Cohen (founder of U-First)
SEO podcast For the latest podcast in our series, we spoke to Nic Cohen from U-First (an online and digital strategy consultancy). Nic spoke to us about what SEO is, why your business should consider incorporating SEO into your marketing...
What is important to your employees?
Employee stress and burnout are at record levels in the UK, and while there are a lot of factors that play into this, one factor is that some employees aren’t getting what they want at work. So what do they want? You...
Tax return deadline | Key tax dates 2016
Tax return deadline 2016 Self Assessment is the method that HMRC uses to collect your Income Tax. This tax is usually deducted straight away from your wages, pensions and savings. If you’re a person or business with another source of...
Digital tax accounts initiative
What is the digital tax accounts initiative? Living in the digital age, the process of buying goods or services is dramatically different to even 20 years ago. Before computers, smartphones and the internet, buying a product or service would have...
What is bookkeeping? (Introduction, basics and concepts)
What is bookkeeping? At Clear Books, we aim to make accounting as simple as possible — so you can spend less time worrying about keeping track of your accounts and more time growing your business. With this in mind, we’ve...
How to increase your concentration
As you’ve probably guessed, we’re huge fans of all things technology — we can do things now with software and apps that we couldn’t have even dreamed about ten years ago! But there is a downside to all this, which...
5 ways to make your online persona secure
Online safety is one of those things that everyone knows they should take seriously, but tends to get lost in the day to day activity. But with one in five people in the UK having had at least one online...
Clear Books auto enrolment features – Stage 3
Today we’ve released ‘Stage 3' of our auto enrolment features, designed to help Clear Books Payroll users comply with the UK Government’s new workplace pension regulations. If you’d like to see what features we’ve released already, see our blogs for...
How to beat Blue Monday
How to beat Blue Monday If you’re feeling down in the dumps today, it’s probably because today is reported to be the most depressing day of the year. The concept of Blue Monday was first publicised by Sky Travel in...
Clear Books nominated for 2 awards at 2016 Business Finance Awards
We’re delighted to announce that Clear Books has been shortlisted in 2 categories at the upcoming 2016 Business Finance Awards. The ceremony, which takes place on 9th March at the Royal Garden Hotel in London, will see Clear Books in...
Clear Books Preview – try a brand new feature for January
Each month, we release a set of new features into Clear Books Preview - an area of your account where you can start using the latest Clear Books updates before they are available on general release. All Clear Books customers can...
Clear Books auto enrolment features – Stage 2
Last week we released the first stage of our new features to help Clear Books Payroll comply with the UK Government’s new Auto Enrolment pension regulations. You can read about these 'Stage 1' features in our blog here. Tomorrow (Wednesday...
Is your business ready for growth finance? The questions you need to ask
At some stage in the business life cycle, there will be a need for finance. If your income against outgoings doesn’t create a positive cash flow, or if you don’t have sufficient reserves, you’ll need to find funding outside the...
How to fund your new business
How to Fund Your Business When you’re starting a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of brainstorming, branding, and product development, and tempting to think that as long as you’ve got a great product or service,...
10 strange facts about VAT
VAT was introduced as a “simple tax” but since then it’s become so complicated that it’s been described as “a fiscal theme park in which factual and legal realities are suspended and inverted.” Sound like an exaggeration? Consider these ten...
Clear Books auto enrolment features – Stage 1
Last month, we set out our auto enrolment plan to let Clear Books customers know what we’re doing to ensure our Payroll application complies with the upcoming changes to workplace pensions. Today, we’re releasing ‘Stage 1’ of our auto enrolment...
How to eat better at work
Loads of us start the New Year with a resolution to eat better and generally be more healthy. But it’s 3PM again, and the vending machine is calling your name — that packet of crisps has never looked better. Even...
Support for older versions of Internet Explorer ends on 12th January 2016
If you currently use Internet Explorer, it’s important that you’re aware of some upcoming changes being made by Microsoft. From 12th January 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer will receive security updates and technical support. Currently, Internet...
Clear Books integration with Receipt Bank
Clear Books integration with Receipt Bank If you’re wondering what Receipt Bank is, it’s a time-saving tool that can extract the key information from your invoices, bills, and receipts and store them in the cloud. Clear Books provide an integration...
How to keep up with changes in your industry
There’s no question that keeping up with the latest changes in your industry is a good thing (in fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s crucial). But when you’re in the middle of running a business, it can...
Happy new year!
We hope everybody had a relaxing Christmas period with family and friends, and we want to wish all of our readers a healthy and happy 2016. One of our favourite things about the new year is the opportunity it brings to start afresh...
End of year checklist for your business
We’re so close to the end of the year now, and it’s tempting to check out and just leave everything until the new year. But a little preparation in your business now can help make your transition into the new...
Clear Books support over Christmas
We will have reduced telephone support available over the Christmas period. However, our support team will still be here to help by email right through the bank holiday weekend. Our Christmas support hours will be: Thursday 24th December: Email...
Clear Books team doodles Christmas in 30 seconds (2015)
Following on from last years Christmas drawing challenge, I asked the team to take part in the same activity where each team member was assigned a random Christmas-related word that they had only 30 seconds to draw. Like last time, most panicked and spent the first...
Clear Books fundraising – Christmas Jumper Day
Each month at Clear Books, we hold an event in aid of a different charity. As we have a relaxed dress code in the office, a ‘dress-down’ day won’t work, so we do a ‘dress-up’ day instead, where Clear Books...
Newly Certified Partners | Michael Godsmark & Nikki De-Hann (Woodville Accountancy)
What was your background before you started your practice? I worked in a couple of practices whilst training in Chorley and Preston. However, I had a change of career in between as a DJ, music producer and nightclub promoter. I...
Newly Certified Partner | Kevin Doran (Platform Accounting)
What was your background before you started your practice? As boring as it may sound, numbers have always been my thing! I joined HSBC at an early age, working first within the high street branch network before moving onto their...
