Steering your Business in the right direction

Knowing your business finances is like having a map to your treasure! If you don’t know where your money is coming from or going, you might end up lost in the wilderness of debt or running out of supplies. But if you keep track of your cash flow, expenses, and profits, you’ll be the savvy captain steering your ship toward success.

And what ship doesn’t have a First mate, someone that stands with you shoulder to shoulder in during the storms and the quiet peace of a sunny day.   That’s where we come in.  We can help you manage your finances on a monthly basis and provide insight into your business in the form of reporting, such as cashflow forecasting, and project cost analysis.  We can also process your payroll requirements to ensure that there is no mutiny on board.

So if you have a business destination in mind and need someone to untangle the number coordinates then contact us and we will help you sail in the right direction.

Has your business outgrown the time you can spend on the finances?

Most new business owners will wear all the hats within the company, admin, sales,  marketing, finances and content creation, but there comes a point where you have to choose between spending time on the work that generates the money or the financial administration.  By outsourcing your financial tasks you can free up valuable time to focus on your core business activities and growth.  

With cloud based accounting solutions available today such as Xero or Quickbooks, you will have instant access to your data and there is no need to wait for reports or financial summaries as you have someone regularly updating your accounts so you can generate them at any time, meaning you won’t lose sight of the figures just because you don’t physically carry out the work.

By choosing to outsource you can keep your overheads down and save on software, training and office resources.    The fluidity of outsourcing also allows you to adapt as your business grows, so you can gradually add hours and adapt to increased transaction volumes without making a high up front financial commitment.  It also means you can customise the services you outsource to match your financial needs, making the best use of the outsourcing function.

So if you want to:

·         Reduces the time spent on administrative tasks.

·         Free up resources for more strategic activities.

·         Have access to expert services without employing someone in house.

Then consider outsourcing your bookkeeping and payroll functions to Bookkeeping by Fox Wood, where we help you see the wood for the trees!

What can we do for you?

At Bookkeeping by Fox Wood we can carry out professional business services tailored towards your business needs.  Some of the services we offer include:-

Recording Financial Transactions:

We can track all financial transactions, such as sales, purchases, receipts, and payments.

Maintaining General Ledgers:

We create and maintain a general ledger that records all financial activities and ensures they align with the business’s financial structure.

Reconciling Bank Statements:

 We compare the business’s financial records to bank statements to ensure accuracy and address any discrepancies.

Credit Control:

 We can help manage your sales ledger and chase for payments.

Payroll:

We can calculate and process employee wages, ensuring taxes and deductions are handled properly.

Preparing Financial Statements:

 We can generate reports like balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and cash flow statements, providing a snapshot of the business’s financial health.

Tracking Expenses:

Bookkeepers help monitor expenses and assist in budgeting and financial planning.

So if any of these services meet your business needs, we invite you to reach out to us today!

2025 New Year’s Finance Resolution Ideas

10 Top tips for 2025

1.) No one likes to hear it but review 2024 spending. You have 12 months of evidence showing you exactly what you spend your money on and it can be so valuable. On most banking apps you can search up transactions with specific companies over the last 12 months and add up your spending. If you want to check how many times you had a sneaky take away and how much that cost you over the year you can work this out pretty easily! Where did all those £’s go?

2.) Check your Direct debits and standing orders! This is one of my friend Jo’s pet peeves, direct debit for the gym membership you started 3 years ago but never went to? or if you are lucky a standing order to a savings account that you forgot about, we wish!

3.) Check your Subscriptions! With all the different streaming channels out there and that favourite show we just had to watch, it’s easy to accumulate a whole bunch of subscriptions that we don’t need, so check and pause till then next season of that hit show comes back on.

4.) Special event coming up or fancy holiday? Work out how much it’s going to cost and put aside some money each month, if it’s that trip of a lifetime to the Masai Mara in Kenya, it may take a little longer than saving for the wedding weekend in coastal Worthing but working out your goals makes it easier to save for them!

5.) Start saving for Christmas in January, I know I know, you just put away all the Christmas decorations and dry January is apparently 100 days long but planning ahead and saving a little each month can take the pressure off in December and maybe make January not seem so long.

6.) Set up a spreadsheet- this is one of my favourite to do’s. When it comes to money I do not like surprises! This is an easy way to keep track of your incomings and outgoings and can help with money decisions…. do I buy a new TV this month so would waiting till June be better financial bet?

7.) Review your pensions - get all your pension information together and go see your friendly neighbourhood financial advisor, they will be able to provide an accurate view of your current pension status and help you make plans for the future. That granny annex at your children’s future mansion is not a guarantee!

8.) Wills - Review your Will and provision for after your death, not a nice thing to consider which is why a lot of people leave it too late but getting your affairs in order gives you piece of mind and ensures that your money goes where you intended and not to that one relative….you know the one!

9.) Knowledge is power! Find a good podcast or book and develop your ideas and thinking around money. Even just a small investment of your time in learning about money can make decisions easier and better suited to you in the long run.

10.) Contact your local AAT licensed Bookkeeper and make 2025 your financial year!

This is an opinion piece and should not be considered financial advice. For tailored guidance and support with your financial decisions, we recommend seeking assistance from a qualified professional.

Check those Direct debits - you might find hidden treasure! (Or a small saving)

Today I want to talk about direct debits, standing orders and subscriptions.

Have you reviewed yours recently? A good friend of mine was recently tasked with reviewing the monthly outgoing at her new place of work. She discovered that three years previously someone had on-hired a ladder but it had not been off hired and they had paid for the monthly hire of this ladder for over three years. When she tried to off-hire the ladder, it turned out their company had misplaced it so the hire company ended up charging them for a replacement ladder. This took the cost of a £50 hire to a £2,500 cost!

Top tip for 2025, review your direct debits, business and personal! You never know, you might be able to save yourself some money!

This is an opinion piece and should not be considered financial advice. For tailored guidance and support with your financial decisions, we recommend seeking assistance from a qualified professional.

Be Useful…..

Has anyone seen the documentary ‘The Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary’ on Netflix? Each episode focuses on a different part of his career, Body Building, Movie star and Politician and what I found interesting are the common threads of motivation and work ethic that run through each of his careers. It was very inspiring and prompted me to buy his book ‘Be Useful – Seven tools for life’ which I read over the Christmas Period.   It’s an easy read and very practical, with the book divided into seven sections that focus on different tools/ideals that he applied to his work with examples in his career where these stood out or where particularly useful.

Embarking on my journey with the networking group BNI, I was struck by the similarity between Arnold’s message of be useful and BNI’s concept of Givers Gain, the premise of which is pretty simple, help others. We all got to where we are with a helping hand from someone else and we do work better and stronger together.

I saw a great example of this last Friday, it was very icy in Horsham, West Sussex, where I live and as I walked up my street with the dog at 6am I thought it was curious that someone had left their ice-scraper strategically placed on the windscreen.  As I got further down the road I noticed another person had done the same and it took, I’m embarrassed to say the third  car before I realized that I had stumbled on a really good advertising technique.  Someone had taken advantage of the cold weather and trudged up and down the local roads in the early hours of the morning to place ice-scrapers on the windscreens of all the cars. A great example of being useful and fulfilling a need without any expectation of immediate return.

It made an impression and certainly made several people’s days easier that morning. It also made me hopeful for business, we can make a life for ourselves and build a business and incorporate helping others at same time. I’ll end with the last paragraph from Arnold’s book - Spoiler alert…….

‘It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, how much or how little you have, how much you’ve done or how much you have left to do. In every case, giving more will get you more. Want to help yourself? Help others. Learn to start from that place, and that is how you will become the most useful version of yourself - to your family, to your friends, to your community, to your nation …. and to the world.

Bookkeeping and the Arts

Did you know that many years ago artists and mathematicians worked side by side and mathematics was considered an art form in itself?

Woodcut illustrating the proportions of the human face from Luca Pacioli’s Divina proportione

The visionary genius who came up with this diagram of facial proportions was an Italian man called Luca Pacioli who lived in the 14th century.   Luca was a professor of mathematics, a friar and also best friend and math tutor to one, Leonardo Da Vinci, known for such works as the ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘The Last Supper’

Leonardo Da Vinci helped create the illustrations for Luca’s book Divine Poportione.

Luca also wrote a book about mathematics and card tricks but is perhaps best known for his comprehensive guide ‘Summa de arithmetica, geomertia, Proportioni et proportionalita,’ a collection of the mathematical workings employed by traders of the time with logical applications and examples. You will be using his methods in your business today as he is generally considered to be the Father of Accounting and Bookkeeping and is famous for taking the conceot of double entry bookkeeping and applying in an organised and efficient manner. Luca is quoted as saying ‘don’t go to bed until your debits equal your credits’, the moto of every good bookkeeper.  

So the next time you see the Mona Lisa gazing down at you, think of Leonardo Da Vinci, think mathematical proportions, think Luca Pacioli, think double entry bookkeeping, and think Bookkeeping by Fox Wood. 

Mona Lisa