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Finances

Looking for a more up-to-date Xero Overview?

Accounting Software for Irish Business 

Xero is beautiful accounting software that runs in the cloud — so business owners and their advisors always have instant access to real-time financial data: any time, anywhere, on any device.

Every small business owner knows cashflow is the key to success. The dashboard in Xero is designed to show your business cash flow at a glance. You instantly see how much cash is in the bank, which customers haven’t paid their invoices and which bills you still owe. It’s also easy to keep an eye on important numbers like revenue or wages.

Xero connects with over 5,000 banks globally — to automatically import and categorise all your latest banking, credit card and PayPal transactions.

Check out this Xero video to get the latest information

With Xero accounting software, your customers can view invoices online, so the moment your invoice is opened, it’s updated to show it’s been viewed. You can even schedule invoices to be emailed automatically — so Xero is doing a lot of the billing and collecting for you, around the clock.

To help you get an even better understanding of your finances, you can invite your accountant to collaborate with you and produce management reports. They can add commentary, add footnotes to specific figures and even insert graphs to highlight what’s happening with your finances.

You can also run your business on the go, using the Xero Touch app on your mobile. Check the balances of all your bank accounts and credit cards in one place and send invoices on the spot. While you’re out and about, you often spend money you need to expense the business. With Xero Touch, you simply snap a picture of the receipt — it’s instantly uploaded, ready to submit on your next expense claim.

XERO finances for your Irish Business

With a live view of your finances, it’s never been easier to stay on top of cashflow — freeing you up to do your best work.You can also contact a professional accounting form that specialises in implementing Xero in your business. aperio offers a free consultation to let you know what is involved.

2 Min Reading
Finances

Outsourced Accountants

Outsourced accountants can be very beneficial for businesses as they can provide guidance and expertise during key points in a company’s life-cycle. This allows the business owner to focus on other things while knowing they have a reliable accountant working for them. Furthermore, outsourcing has shown to be more cost effective than hiring an in-house accountant.

Finding peace of mind is one of the most important commodities in any business. With our transparent system and process, you can be at ease knowing how your work will turn out.

Our transparency starts from the very beginning. Knowing what the upfront monthly cost will be, you as the business owner can budget for that cost. This is great for cash-flow purposes. Every autumn, you are not facing an accounting service bill on top of having just paid Corporation Tax to Revenue.

Outsourced Accountant

Using an outsourced accountant can make the day to day running of your business easier and without you having to try to manage your finances. And if something goes wrong, it doesn’t affect you financially, because you’re only paying for their time.

When it comes to outsourcing, you should always consider the rate per hour and how that will impact your business. Cash flow and budgeting are two major challenges when expanding your company, Outsourced accountants allow you to pay by hour, weekly, or monthly.

Outsourced Accountants should offer a customised service to meet all your needs. They provide proactive and personalised financial management, taxation, international services and more for your needs.

One way to drive your business forward is by meeting with a business coach. They can help you set realistic targets and they’re completely transparent, helping you start out on the right foot.

Transparency also curtails the chances of fraud within your business. See this article on 4 Tips To Protect Your Business From Internal Fraud.

Accountancy Outsourced Options

Outsourced accounting services can provide timely (usually monthly) financial management reports where you can see all parts of your business, so you’re never in the dark about your numbers

If you have any questions about this article, please feel free to contact us.

2 Min Reading
Finances

How To Reduce Your Chances Of A VAT Audit in Ireland

VAT audits are the elephant in the room that Irish businesses don’t like to talk about. For any business, audits can be hugely time-consuming and stressful. If you are in business, the last thing that you want to worry about is a VAT audit. It’s best to have the support of qualified accountants and business advisors. 

Who needs to pay VAT in Ireland?

Generally in Ireland, you must register for VAT if you are an accountable person.

A person carrying out only exempt activities or non taxable activities may not register for VAT. However, a person carrying on exempt activities or non taxable activities may have to register for VAT in certain situations, for example:

 acquiring goods from other EU Member States

Or receiving services from abroad.

Check out the official Revenue website to learn – who needs to pay VAT. 

Seeing as so many businesses require audits, first-time experience with a VAT audit can come at the peak of your resources. It may also be considered a considerable amount of money to spend on your company. It’s important that businesses provide accurate documentation of their sales and purchases from a tax perspective. If you are unable to do so, the Irish Revenue may charge you for errors in your reporting.

However, with the appropriate software, advice, and systems in place, you can avoid accidentally being audited by saving time and money. Simply put, the easiest way to avoid a potential VAT audit is to ensure your financial records are easily accessible and up-to-date.  This ensures you will have the correct answers to any Revenue inquiries before they become audit issues.

In the past, many accountants needed to liaise directly with Revenue on behalf of the client. We’ve dealt with them in the past and know how to find what they’re looking for easily.

 

What Is A VAT Audit?

This means that when you submit your tax return, the officers of the Revenue Commissioners will try and make sure that they are calculating your income, charges and profits correctly. This can be done to make sure none of them are omitted from the return! A VAT audit may also be carried out to check that the tax credits, reliefs, etc., claimed are due.

 

Steps Before A VAT Audit in Ireland

Just in case you are wondering the kinds of things we might ask from you during a VAT audit, sometimes they may ask for your general information like your turnover and what kind of changes have been made to your business. A point of information here, whether aperio acts on your behalf or not, don’t ignore such a request for information from Revenue. Make sure you engage or you may be sending the wrong message.

Revenue may have a question about your business or product. They’re going to ask an “aspect” question, which is when they want to know more about something. This isn’t standard practice and may be handled differently depending on the situation. Generally, you’ll need to visit your own office for this particular task. Some requests for this type of thing may involve a long wait time so it’s important you have your documents organised beforehand.

As companies are submitting more and more reports to verify their operations, they are generating more data in the process. When these reports lack up-to-date information they can lead to faulty assumptions or leads. This can be disastrous when it comes to VAT audits because the UK government is proactive when it comes to phasing out businesses that make unsubstantiated claims.

3 Min Reading