WinWeb

Keeping up-to-date with your Small Business Banking Online

December 29, 2009

With the help of OnlineOffice, it has never been easier for you to get an instant overview of all your banking activity, wherever you are in the world and at whatever time you choose.

The Banking section of OnlineOffice is the main hub for all activity relating to your bank accounts. This will include deposits, payments, and the transfer of money between accounts.

It is simple to add multiple accounts and set overdraft limits that will automatically recalculate your Cash Position Forecast. You can also easily enter payments that are not related to suppliers and set your account up to handle recurring payments such as direct debits or standing orders.

Bank reconciliation is a necessary error checking process that involves comparing figures from accounting records against those on a bank statement. If there are any transactions in the accounting records not found on the bank statement, they would be classed as outstanding. Regular reconciliation helps reduce errors and makes it easier to find missing purchase and sales orders. With OnlineOffice, you can instantly reconcile your bank statement up to the end of any month or period.

The Banking module is of course fully integrated with all other parts of OnlineOffice and is only one of a huge number of useful functions that subscribers benefit from using.

Try OnlineOffice free for 30 days @ WinWeb OnlineOffice

Planning the Year Ahead for Your Small Business

December 24, 2009

Christmas can be a great time of year to take a step back from your day-to-day business tasks and assess how your business has done over the past 12 months.

How many of your business goals have you achieved? Were these goals recorded and amended as needed throughout the year? It can be easy to put simple tasks like goal recording on the back burner when things get busy, but keeping them in mind throughout the year can provide you with a useful insight when its time to assess.

Assessing how your business has preformed will give you valuable information on how best to plan for the year ahead. If you didn’t get as many customers as you planned for, maybe you could spend more time on marketing next year. If you found yourself doing the same tasks repetitively, maybe you could outsource to improve your efficiency.

Whatever you choose to plan for, make sure you take some time off. Running a small business takes a lot of time and effort so you’ve earned the break!

Seasons Greetings from everyone at WinWeb.

Recording Income & Expenditure Online for your Small Business

December 22, 2009

The Nominal Ledger (sometimes known as the General Ledger) is the main accounting record for any business using double-entry bookkeeping. It usually lists accounts for current and fixed assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, gains and losses. It is often divided into two sections – the left hand showing debit transactions and the right listing credit transactions.

The basics of the Nominal Ledger are really quite simple. Businesses spend and (hopefully!) make money. The Nominal Ledger is an important way of determining whether you are making a profit, simply by looking at two core figures – the amount of money received and the amount spent.

As the business grows, it is likely to need more detailed information about which of its activities is profitable. By analysing the figures further, it may become apparent that some of the services offered are making a heavy loss and need adjustment. This is why all data in the Nominal Ledger is allocated to an appropriate Nominal Account.

Each Nominal Account is given a unique Nominal Code so that it can be easily identified. Accounting transactions are then assigned with these Nominal Codes so that it is possible to view what has occurred in that area of the business over a set timeframe. Therefore, the Nominal Ledger is essentially a list of the Nominal Codes within your accounting structure.

Try out the Nominal Ledger in OnlineOffice free for 30 days @ WinWeb OnlineOffice

Preparing Your Small Business for the VAT Change

December 18, 2009

Despite a continuing recession the UK VAT rate is set to switch back to 17.5% on the 1st of January 2010, after having been reduced to 15% for the past 13 months. It would be sensible for small business owners to prepare for this right now, before the Christmas break.

You need to make your customers aware of the rate change in some way. If you have a physical sales outlet, display an announcement somewhere about the rate change and how it affects your prices. Your website should display a banner or pop-up that will inform the customer about the change. This will help to avoid misunderstandings and disappointment.

Try to take advantage of the change in the run up to Christmas. Encourage your customers to purchase the items they want right now, instead of waiting until January. You should stress that the January sale is taking place in December this year!

The change will also affect your accounting and confusion may arise as a result. Remember that supplies and purchases bought before 1st January 2010 will always be charged 15% VAT, regardless of whether payment was made or received by that date.

WinWeb customers will notice that OnlineOffice automatically changes to the new VAT rate of 17.5% on the 1st January. Don’t worry if you find you still have transactions to post at the old rate of 15% – it is simple to enter these correctly.

Read our Helpdesk entry here for further information.

Why Working Online With An Accountant Will Benefit Your Small Business

December 17, 2009

One of the greatest benefits of OnlineOffice is the way it allows you to work collaboratively with your accountant, wherever they are based. Many accountancy firms are quickly realising that using online software gives them a great advantage over the competition.

It is a legal requirement to keep accurate financial records relating to your business. This can be a mundane task, but OnlineOffice makes it a far more efficient and cheaper process overall. The information stored is also easier to manage and will help you and your accountant review the performance of your business in a much more timely fashion than was ever possible in the past – this is critical in today’s global recession.

You can give your accountant 24/7 access to your account and they will see every entry. This will help to ensure that no mistakes are made. Your accountant will benefit from a greater knowledge of the financial reality of your business. The benefit of this is that there is unlikely to be any nasty surprises or panic over financial issues at year end. Collaborative working with your accountant will allow them deal with issues as they arise throughout the year.

Try OnlineOffice free for 30 days @ WinWeb OnlineOffice

Small Business Online Networking Through Twitter

December 15, 2009

Roland Millward, founder of The Entrepreneur Club, gives the following advice on networking your small business through Twitter.

It is true to say that a great deal of business is generated through networking with like minded people. To that end there are many networking groups where people can meet over breakfast and build business relationships and make new contacts. You will have also seen websites designed specifically for the same purpose, for example LinkedIn.

However have you thought about the power of Twitter? Twitter enables you to locate people that share your interests or that would be good networking partners. Once you have found the people that you would like to network with introduce yourself using the mention sign @ before their Twitter I.D. by simply saying, ‘hello’ and tell them that you are now following them and look forward to keeping in touch.

Treat your conversation in the same way that you would if you were physically meeting them for the first time. Don’t try to sell your services or do deals of any kind, simply be friendly and build a relationship.

It is a good practice to spend a little time each day looking at the ‘tweets’ that your contacts have made and re-tweet some of them. This will build a rapport and your tweets are also likely to get re-tweeted. Make sure you reply to any messages and keep in touch with people with a brief message when you can.

It is amazing how you can build up a good network in a short period of time without leaving your keyboard!

Get more useful small business tips and advice @ The Entrepreneur Club

Complete eCommerce Solution for Small Business and Home Office

December 7, 2009

e-Commerce is more than just selling online – it is the complete value-chain from supplier to your customers, including business process improvements for your own business. Let us look at all the parts that make a complete small business e-commerce solution.

Any modern business – large or small – deals with suppliers, customers and the internal workings of running a business. E-commerce solutions help to streamline the complete business cycle:

• Business Planning
• Generating leads
• Building relationships
• Managing projects and tasks
• Online marketing & sales
• Quotes & Invoices
• Bookkeeping & accounting
• Powerful reports & tax returns

Understanding that all the above are e-commerce tasks will allow you to look for the online software components necessary to deal with all the necessary issues needed to make your business successful.

Our OnlineOffice is a single end-to-end business management system for small business owners wishing to streamline their business processes and spend more time on business development. All the above functions are covered in OnlineOffice and running a business has never been so simple and cost-effective.

Find out more about WinWeb OnlineOffice.

Market Research For Your Small Business

December 4, 2009

Shell LiveWIRE, the UK’s biggest online community for young entrepreneurs, offer the following tips when launching a new product or service.

Whatever your business, it will only succeed if customers like your product or service and are prepared to give you money in exchange. That is why it is important to undertake thorough market research and to assess the results of that market research carefully. Do not get overly carried away with your enthusiasm – see things as they are, not as you would like to see them. Before launching a new product or service you need to be able to:

• define your position in the market place;
• define your product or service;
• identify your potential customers, their needs and expectations;
• determine the price your customers will be prepared to pay;
• identify the level of quality and service your customers require;
• describe your competitors, what they offer and their strengths and weaknesses;
• describe how best to communicate your message to your prospective customers;
• decide where your advertising campaign should be conducted;
• estimate your potential market share.

The more detailed your market research, the sounder more reliable the rest of your business planning will be. Market research identifies customer potential. Take time to do it properly and repeat it until you get results that are reliable. Remember, by finding out what customers want and then providing them with it at a profit, your chances of success are vastly increased.

Find more detailed help and advice @ Shell LiveWIRE

Unleash The Power Of Your Web Browser With OnlineOffice

December 3, 2009

It can be annoying and time-consuming when software on your computer has to regularly download updates from the Internet in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest version.

You often have to reboot your computer after installation and there is no guarantee that you will not face problems with the latest update that could take the manufacturer a long time to patch.

This is why the future of software is moving towards applications that run inside your web browser. It removes the hassle of ever having to update your software again. It also means that developers can react quickly to issues that arise and release a new version far quicker then traditional software vendors ever could.

This software model, known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has grown in popularity over the past few years. WinWeb have been providing this type of on-demand software for a number of years now. Users of OnlineOffice are able to check their e-mail, store files, work on their business accounts and much more – all from within their web browser.

Try OnlineOffice free for 30 days @ WinWeb OnlineOffice