Accountancy vs Bookkeeping

Accountancy vs Bookkeeping

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Accountancy vs Bookkeeping

 

For somebody who doesn’t work in finance, it can be difficult to distinguish the difference between accounting and bookkeeping, as there are some administrative areas that can overlap depending on the structure of a business and how many employees it has working in its finance department.

However, while bookkeepers and accountants share common goals, they do support your business in different stages of the financial cycle.

Bookkeeping is more administrative, recording financial transactions. Accounting is more subjective, giving you insights into your business’s financial health based on the information provided by bookkeepers.

If you’ve ever wanted a clear definition between accountancy and bookkeeping, keep reading.

What is a Bookkeeper?

Bookkeeping is a legal requirement for all businesses of any size to carry out, and it refers to the recording of the financial transactions of a business, whether a sole trader, a partnership, or a limited company.

A bookkeeper will record all transactions either manually or within an ERP system like XERO and keep copies of all invoices, receipts and evidence of these incomings and outgoings.

The role of a bookkeeper will include:

  • Recording financial transactions
  • Posting debits and credits
  • Producing invoices
  • Preparation of financial statements (balance sheet, cash flow statement, and income statement)
  • Maintaining and balancing subsidiaries, general ledgers, and historical accounts
  • Completing payroll

What is an Accountant?

An accountant has expert knowledge surrounding taxes and accountancy. A business needs to consider more than just the in’s and out’s calculated by a bookkeeper, the right accountant will guide and act as financial business partner, ensuring all allowable expenses are claimed and all decisions are tax efficient to not only the business but the owners, directors, and partners.

The role of an Accountant will include:

  • Preparing adjusting entries (recording expenses that have occurred but aren’t yet recorded in the bookkeeping process)
  • Reviewing company financial statements
  • Analyzing costs of operations
  • Completing income tax returns
  • Aiding the business owner in understanding the impact of financial decisions

Designated Accountancy Services

All business owners want to have complete control of their business finances and have an up-to-date view of their financial performance. Our team of Designated accountants are experts who work with you on a flexible basis, whether you need support one day a month, one day each week or more.

Designated is a Xero Bronze Partner and our finance team are Xero certified advisors, trained by Xero to deliver you the best financial support.

Do you wish you had answers to questions like these?

  • How much tax will I need to pay next year?
  • How much profit did we make last month?
  • What do you mean by Tax Digital?
  • Am I managing payroll in the most effective way?

If so, then our Accountancy services may be your solution, please get in touch:

Vicky Garbett, Head Of Accountancy vicky@designatedgroup.com 020 7952 1460 

Build your brand using Content Marketing

Build your brand using Content Marketing

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Content Marketing

Content marketing is a word banded around a lot in business but do you know what it means and how it can be important for your business?  

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. This content will drive profitable customer action, whether it be booking an appointment or making a sale.  

Content marketing is at, it’s core, educational and not promotional. It is designed to be valuable, to start or build upon a relationship, increasing trust and visibility of the brand.  

But why is content marketing important for your business? There are a number of different reasons, but a solid content marketing strategy helps many aspects of your digital marketing.  

Content marketing strategy comes before your social media strategy, you’ll need to understand what is valuable to your target market and create posts which can be shared and saved by your followers.  

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), search engines like Google reward businesses that publish good quality, consistent and valuable content.  

Are you interested in generating PR content for your business or brand? Successful PR strategies address issues your audience cares about, not the business themselves.  

Pay per click (PPC) is when you pay for ads and for each click on them but relies on good quality content to hook the user into your website.   

Are you planning on increasing your email subscriber list? Content is key to creating these emails and driving traffic and leads for your inbound marketing.  

Content marketing requires work, persistence from all parties involved and patience for the results to come in but it can have many benefits to your business.  

  1. Your content marketing strategy can make sure you’re found by the right people and potential customers. Answering people’s key questions by creating blog posts, ebooks or videos for example can be a good place to start.  
  1. Your content is only as valuable as its ability to attract new people to your business, and compel them to engage going forward.  
  1. Content marketing can help acquire new customers. You’ll be able to be a trusted source for them and they’ll want to hear from you and purchase your products and services.  
  1. You’ll be able to create more loyal customers, which potentially increase sales through cross-selling or upselling.  

So if you’re looking for someone to start to help you on your content marketing journey, we’d love to work with you. 

For more information about working with a virtual marketing team on michelle@designatedgroup.com

 

Virtual business support and what it means for sustainability

Virtual business support and what it means for sustainability

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Virtual Business Support Sustainability

Virtual Business Support and What it Means for Sustainability. 

The term work-life balance took a complete turn during the height of the pandemic. While many missed the mid-morning coffee machine banter, others thrived by spending more time with their families, had time to focus on their mental and physical well-being and some even uprooted their lives completely, re-locating to areas they would actually like to live with no lengthy commutes to consider. Saving a small fortune in the process.

For the employee, remote working or even a hybrid model is an easy sell. Fortunately, most employers have been willing to look at the future of work for their business.

The benefits of remote working for employers include:

  • On-premise cost savings
  • Productivity of workers
  • Mental health and wellness of employees
  • Expansion of talent pools
  • Communication improvement

But that’s not all. One of the most beneficial and impactful arguments for remote or hybrid working models, sits with sustainability.

The UN believes 14 of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals can be solved or advanced through virtual work. Living and working sustainably is more than just good business.

In the world today we are facing several threatening global issues, a health pandemic, economic crisis, climate change, mental health emergency and not to mention the entanglement of race and inequality. Though remote working won’t eradicate these issues entirely, virtual jobs have the power to change the lives of employees, businesses, and communities across the globe by impacting:

  • The Economy: When employees are spread across countries rather than packed into cities and hotspots, wealth can spread and help to uplift poorer communities.
  • The Environment: Working remotely means shorter commutes, lighter carbon footprints, reduced air pollution, carbon emissions but it also has a knock-on effect on things like food production, energy usage, elimination of physical office waste like stationary with cloud technology. Fast fashion which is a topic currently discussed a lot will be impacted, employees won’t have the need to purchase as many clothes.
  • Diversity: Equal remote work earns equal opportunity.  It turns out that when managers are focused on the what of results, suddenly the who, when, and where doesn’t matter as much. Consequently, traditional discriminatory factors like race, age, gender, and family status are reduced or eliminated in virtual workplaces.

Here at Designated, we saw the benefits of remote working long before COVID-19 made it almost mandatory for businesses to adapt to using virtual and cloud technologies.

Managing Director Jane Braithwaite has been able to build Designated with an unlimited pool of talent, sourcing industry experts across PA, Accountancy, Marketing, HR & Recruitment both locally and globally to the benefit of all Designated’s clients. There is no traditional 9-5, no distractions, lengthy meetings and no burnout or stress from commuting. The work is done quickly and efficiently using the best virtual business support teams available.

Remote business support allows business leaders to focus their time on what matters. With flexible support options available you can choose to hire a virtual PA, virtual marketing team or a virtual accountant when, and how you need it.

For more information about virtual business support contact Michelle Elliot on michelle.elliott@designatedgroup.com