Tanpola Articles Directory

As a small business owner you will be faced with plenty of issues. Added to that is the fact that you may not get paid on time, your invoices could let lost or worse still you could lose track of your account! This is where an online invoicing system can be very helpful and help keep your finances organized.

Various features
Today the choices and features available with online invoicing systems are truly vast. You can easily track, report and account for your finances using these online invoice systems. The reason an online invoice is so beneficial as opposed to a conventional offline system is that you can actually send invoices and get payment in real time! Thus you no longer have to wait for payments or suffer delays at the hands of your customers.

Account options
Many of the online invoicing systems today even have an option where your customers can log into their account and check their account information easily. Thus customers can simply visit your site and check the status of their payments and purchases online!

Payment gateway integration
You can even use your online invoicing system to integrate it with an existing payment gateway you use, such as PayPal. If you already have a PayPal account you can integrate these online invoice systems with your account. This way, when you get paid online it will automatically reflect in your invoice and account as well.

Geographical redundancy
For most small business owners it is often required to travel a lot for various sourcing or other business options. This makes it difficult to keep track of invoices or payments. In such a scenario an online invoice system can help you keep track. No matter where you are located these systems allow you to log in from the comfort of home, from your local library or even any computer located on the Internet in order to track your payments. Such a facility can be extremely helpful for many medium and small scale business owners.

Faster payments
If you are a small scale business owner then it can be very hard to keep up with rising costs of the business. Added to this, if payments are reaching you late it could mean you having to shell out costs from your own pocket! Especially for small sized businesses the luxury of waiting for a payment is ruled out. In such a scenario an online invoice system can help you get access to payments much quicker. Since everything is integrated and happens online customers also find it easier to pay you! Most of the time, the main reason that holds back payments is the inconvenience of sending a check or other payment mode offline. When transactions happen online, things get speeded up and you no longer have to worry about a late payments again!

No hassles
The other good thing about online invoicing systems is that they are easy to use. Thus you don’t need to know complex accounting jargons or terminologies. Thus such online invoicing systems are best suited for freelance professionals, independent business persons and small business owners.

SimplifyThis.com is an intuitive and simple online invoicing solution. You can quickly invoice your customer, send reminders, and track payments. For more information please visit: http://www.simplifythis.com

Product launches, stringent deadlines, market expansion plans and the need to innovate. Amidst all this you also have to think of your invoices and payments and keep finances in order. Does this frenzy of activities sound familiar to you? If so, it’s high time you invested in an efficient online accounting system. While it won’t be a miracle cure it will certainly help you get more organized, free up time and help you let your accounting be the least of your worries!

Think of the time!
Just imagine the number of hours you typically spend trying to come up with a suitable invoice system in manual mode! The thing with manual modes of invoice payments is that there is always a chance of delay and non-payment. You could even forget to charge customers for what is rightfully your due not to mention the constant back and forth of communication with customers all of which wastes a lot of time and effort.

Retaining records
As per tax rules you need to file and retain all of your financial records for a certain tenure. If you have an offline mode of invoicing you risk losing documents, damaging them, maybe even them getting stolen! As opposed to keeping hard copies of such documents an online invoice system enables you to seamlessly track, retain and manage financial records optimally.

Modern features
Using today’s online invoicing systems a business owner can gain access to a wide host of features. For example, if your payments are due from a particular customer you can send them reminders. You can list out all of your customer information and select any particular entry to take specific action. You can even raise new invoices automatically, integrate your online account with payment gateways like Authorize.net and PayPal as well as change contact information, billing information and much more. For all those charges that require you to send bills in the near future you can track them easily with such a system. You can avoid reinventing the wheel by listing out items and the services your business provides. That way, whenever you need to type it out you don’t have to type the whole thing. Many of the new online invoice systems even allow you to set up contract prices. These get automatically reflected in your invoices.

Right from daily charges, to tracking and automating periodical invoices to even getting a holistic view of your business you can do all this and much more with a user-friendly online invoicing system.

SimplifyThis.com is an intuitive and simple online invoicing solution. You can quickly invoice your customer, send reminders, and track payments. For more information please visit: http://www.simplifythis.com

Knowing how to manage money can help you make smart choices. Your money will work harder for you. You’ll be more likely to avoid traps that can undermine your ability to attain your financial goals. You’ll be in a better position to pay off debt and build savings.

Calculate how much money you earn in a month after taxes. For this budget plan, use your net pay or take home pay. Include tips, supplementary income, side-jobs, investments etc. This is your income.

Figure out your expenses. The best way to do this is to save receipts for a month or even a couple weeks. Knowing how much per month you spend on groceries or gas makes the next part much easier. If you want to start writing your budget today, and don’t have receipts, that’s OK, it’s just a bit more difficult.

Read and post messages on personal finance and budgeting topics with other people from around the world. Everything from saving money on groceries, to understanding your credit rating. This will get you some good tips on where you might be able to trim.

Break your budget up into some basic categories. You might want to organize your expenses into needs - such as your loan and electricity - and wants - such as clothing and entertainment.

List all your spending under each of these categories. Let’s take Auto as an example: $300/month car payment, $100/month insurance, $250/month on gas, $50/month on maintenance, 10$/month on fees such as registration. So, your total Auto budget for the month would be $710/month. If you don’t know the exact amounts you spend, try to make good estimates. The more accurate you are, the better chance your budget has of working.

After getting an overview of your monthly expenses, look for anything that you can cut down to help you save money. For example, if you always eat out at work, try bringing left over or home cooked meal. You can also bring sandwiches and drinks. This can save you an average of $200 per month if you estimate $10 of lunch per day.

Limit your movie watching to once or twice a month instead of four times a month. For a huge family this can be a lot of savings. Before going to the movies, eat first to cut down on food and drink expenses. Just buy drinks or bring your own if you can. You can cut down transportation fees such as fare, gasoline and toll fees if you participate in a carpool or ride sharing.

A simple budget can be written on a piece of a paper with a pencil, and optionally, a calculator. Such budgets can be organized in three-ring binders or a file cabinet. Simpler still thre are the pre-formatted household budgeting or bookkeeping forms that creates a budget by filling in the blanks. It is really easy to budget if you want to, but as most people don’t follow thier own plan most are doomed to fail.

Gav Shannon is a Network Marketing Professional who writes about different topics that he feels may be of an interest.If You want to know more about him go to http://www.gavshannon.com

Bookkeeping based upon cash accounting principles is the easiest accountancy practise but not necessarily the most accurate or beneficial for tax purposes for the business. This is because cash accounting adopts the date of financial documents such as sales invoices and purchase invoices as the automotive date for those primary financial records to be entered into the accounts.

The date entered on the sales or purchase receipt is called the tax point. The tax point does not determine the spread of that transaction over the tax period which can be different when accounts are prepared on an accruals basis as opposed to a cash basis.

For the purposes of cash accounting the effective inclusion of the transaction in the financial records is the date the cash or bank receipt or payment was made. The tax point date on the document is not the deciding factor to include the item in the accounts. The determining factor is the date the transaction amount was received or paid out be that in cash or bank.

There are disadvantages to maintaining accounts on a cash basis in that records must be kept of all payments received and paid out and those records supported by the actual primary accounting documents to which they relate. That entails matching the financial documents to the payments and receipts records, a feature many small businesses might find onerous.

Virtually all professional accountants adopt an accruals basis for clients accounting purposes as it is based upon recording all financial information whether relevant to the tax period or not and then adjusting the management accounting profit indicated to produce the net taxable profit or loss.

By operating an accruals basis all financial documents are recorded according to the tax point date. If all financial transactions during the year were paid for in that year then the cash basis and accruals basis would produce identical results.

The main adjustment a small business or the accountant might make to accounts prepared on the accruals basis is to first prepare the set of accounts according to the tax point of the primary accounting records and then examine those transactions and adjust them according to their relevance to the financial period for which the accounts are being prepared.

A typical example of the difference would be the rent invoice for the business premises. Let us assume a quarterly rent invoice was received dated 1 December for the 3 months from December 1 to February 28 which was paid by the small business owner by cheque on December 31 and a year end date also of December 31

On a cash basis the rent would not technically be included in the accounts as it would be shown as a rent payment from the business bank account on January 2 or later if cashed by the recipient at a later date. Therefore that quarters rent would be included in the following year accounts not the current year as issuing a cheque is not a payment but actually a promise to pay.

If the rent was paid in cash prior to the 31 December then the whole 3 months rent would be included in the current accounting records. That treatment may have distorted the accounts as more or less than 12 months rent might have been included in the tax calculations.

On an accruals basis the rent invoice would have been entered in the accounting records with an effective date of December 1. Using accrual accounting the accountant or small business owner preparing the accounts would then deduct 2 months rent as a prepayment leaving one months rent in the current year accounts.

That is more accurate as the other side of the accounting would be for that same accountant or bookkeeper to further include the 2 months rent not already claimed to be included in the tax calculation for the next financial year. That is how prepayments are treated when a business uses the accruals accounting basis.

Further when using the cash accounting basis only those transactions paid for or received are included. On an accruals basis additional expenses can be added that may not have even been invoiced yet on the basis that the costs incurred were relevant to the accounting period for which the books are being prepared.

Cash accounting might appear easier but has the disadvantage of maintaining receipts and payments records in addition to the primary documents which should also be matched to the financial transactions to support the accounts.

Accrual accounting is based upon recording all financial transactions and then adjusting the end result to determine the most accurate net taxable profit. The accruals basis is favoured by accountants as it reaches an accurate tax liability as opposed to more or less tax being payable on the cash basis according to the credit control policies and practises of the business its suppliers and clients.

Terry Cartwright, accountant and CEO at DIY Accounting, designs Accounting Software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ providing accounting solutions for small to medium sized business in the UK with payroll software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm for up to 20 employees

Business costs and expenses as expressed as a unit cost of a product can vary significantly as purchase or production volumes change. The first stage in using marginal costing to generate higher levels of profit is to identify the variability of all the individual cost elements.

Costs which are a component part of the product would normally be classified as variable costs since each component would require to be bought in specifically for that product. The cost of items bought for resale would also be classified as variable costs.

Fixed costs would be items not relating to the volume of goods manufactured or sold. Examples would be the premises costs, machinery costs.

A number of business expenses would be semi variable in that they can in some circumstances be viewed as a fixed expense but in other circumstances could also be viewed as variable expenses. Advertising expenses might be regarded as almost fixed expenses to promote the business or products whereas promoting the business name would be largely a fixed cost while specific product related advertising might be viewed as a variable product cost.

Wages and salaries are an important cost to most businesses and would normally be classified as semi variable. Administration salaries are more likely to be fixed while direct labour costs will contain both a fixed and variable element.

To operate a marginal costing program identify the variability of each cost item and evaluate that marginal cost and the fixed overheads of the business. To use the marginal costing as part of an accounting for profit program apply different volumes to the marginal costs.

At the lowest volume the fixed costs might well exceed the marginal profit, which in accounting terms is called the contribution, being the difference between the selling price and the marginal cost. The point at which the overall volume produces neither a loss nor a profit is called the break even point.

Break even analysis is important to ensure there is sufficient market demand to be able to exceed the break even point and the marketing effort will ensure that break even point is not just reached but easily achievable.

A further stage in accounting for profit would be to plan various volumes, the effect those volumes have on variable costs and occasionally on fixed costs too. Determine what is achievable and what is not achievable, the effect on the volume of profit and set business plans accordingly.

In addition to higher volumes producing higher marginal profits the variable costs also reduce when volumes increase and these changes require to be accounted for. Even if goods are being bought in purely for resale the variable costs will vary with volumes.

Buying in 100 items of a product will be cheaper than buying in 2 or 3. Selling and delivering the items individually is likely to cost more in distribution co0sts than selling in parcels of 10 or 20.

By analysing costs and their variability in relation to actual and potential volumes gives the accountant a real voice to influence management decisions in the way the business plans are constructed and by routine checks on progress using marginal costing as part of the budgeting and reporting process maximum profits can be achieved by accounting for profit.

Terry Cartwright, accountant and CEO at DIY Accounting, designs Accounting Software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ providing accounting solutions for small to medium sized business in the UK with payroll software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm for up to 20 employees

Medical billing has become one of the most cost effective ways of operating a medical practice. No matter how big or small the practice is, medical billing can reduce the amount of time and energy that is spent filling out and submitting claims forms, allowing you staff to attend to the needs of your patients and office duties. Usually, a medical practice needs to hire one person for this position and most often it is very expensive.

Submitting claims forms to insurance companies can be a tedious and frustrating task. Endless hours are spent filling out forms and sending them to the insurance company everyday. The insurance company reviews medical form and if there is an error, which happens often, it is rejected and returned to the medical provider to be redone. When this happens, the workload for the medical biller is doubled. It can be overwhelming at times.

Another factor is that insurance companies receive millions of claim forms each week. They sit in stacks on employee desks until they can be processed. This can take weeks or even months for the claim to be reviewed, and if it is denied, the whole process starts all over again. It can be maddening, especially if the medical practice is depending on the refund from the insurance company.

A medical billing company can assist a physician practice on many levels. First, the personnel are highly trained and have a working relationship with most insurance companies. They are able to get claims processed faster than a single practice. The next factor of this type of company is that they file all of your claims electronically and submit it to the insurance company computers. This means that your claims do not sit on someone’s desk for an undetermined amount of time. The claim is either accepted or rejected immediately.

The acceptance level of a medical billing company is over ninety percent, which means that your claim will be paid n a matter of days and not weeks or months. If a claim is rejected, the medical billing company will correct the error and resubmit it. They also track each payment to find where it is in process and when the payment will be sent.

This is a great benefit to small practices that depend on the insurance payments to meet weekly or monthly obligations.

Medical billing services can be used by any type of medical practice. Big or small, no matter what the specialty is, the same quality service is offered.

Doing a simple Google search for medical billing will yield you with millions of links. It is important to research the ones that you are interested in as each has their own pricing and terms of service.

Many medical practices that have made the decision to use this type of service have been impressed with the results. They have found that they have more time for their patients and their staff can perform their duties more efficiently because of the time that is saved.

Peter Geisheker is CEO of The Geisheker Group marketing firm. http://www.geisheker.com
One of the types of clients that Peter helps are medical billing companies. http://www.apexmedicalbilling.com

Do I have to enter mileage and vehicle running expenses in my taxi accounts.

Entering the mileage covered by the taxi is optional as the cabsmart package automatically chooses the most expensive cost which produces the lowest tax liability for cab and taxi drivers. The cabsmart taxi driver accounts package can be used by either entering your vehicle running costs or the vehicle business mileage.

Alternatively the cab driver can enter both taxi running costs and the taxi mileage in which case the cab smart formulae within the taxi accounts package automatically selects the highest cost to produce the lowest tax bill.

Would the cabsmart taxi driver accounts or the self employed accounts package be most suitable for a driving instructor.

Either accounts package would suffice but on balance the self employed accounting solution would be better as it has greater sales analysis of income not required for cab and taxi drivers. The purchase expense spreadsheet of cabsmart is specific to taxi driver expenses while the self employed package has increased analysis not required by taxi drivers whose variety of expenses tends to be more limited to vehicle running costs.

The cabsmart package is most suitable for taxi, cab, private hire drivers, van and lorry drivers to produce the accounts and complete the tax return.

The taxi fuel expenses and mileage do not appear in the profit and loss work book. The taxi expenses were not transferred from the purchase spreadsheet to the monthly profit & loss account in the financial accounts workbook.

The profit and loss account in the taxi financial accounts file is updated automatically and so if this is not happening the links are not working or there is a data entry error. A data entry error is caused if on the purchase expense spreadsheet you may have entered the taxi expense item such as fuel expenses but have not entered the code letter to analyse that expenditure using the list of letters in the user guide.

The P&L account would also not be updated if you have changed a file name.

The third potential reason is that when the cabsmart financial accounts file was downloaded you opened it first before saving and that has caused the link structure to corrupt. The simple solution is to download the taxi driver accounts templates again and save before opening and the link structure is preserved.

Taxi was sold and the sale value entered in the assets schedule but now the profit and loss account is showing a REF error message everywhere.

The REF message is an indication that a data entry error has been made. It is likely that you may not have entered the date the taxi was sold or you have not entered the written down value of the vehicle. Check those items and enter them and the REF message on the fixed assets schedule will disappear and when that goes then the REF message throughout the profit and loss account in the taxi financial accounts will also disappear.

I bought the cabsmart taxi driver accounts package several months ago but have lost it as my computer crashed. Do I need to pay again.

No problem and no need to buy again. Return to the confirmation link that was sent to you after purchase and download the taxi driver accounts package again. If you no longer have that email forward a copy of your paypal receipt and the link to the cab smart download page will be resent immediately.

What capital allowances can I claim from using my private vehicle for my taxi business.

Enter the vehicle description and cost in the fixed assets schedule in the category for vehicles less than 12,000 pounds and the capital allowance will be calculated automatically. As this is a private vehicle which is not wholly used as a cab the percentage of private vehicle use can be entered in the box provided and the capital allowance on the taxi will be adjusted accordingly.

Cars used as cabs or private hire vehicles are not subject to the first year allowance or the annual investment allowance which was introduced. Writing down capital allowances can be claimed for vehicles used as a taxi and were 25 percent of the written down value prior to 5 April 2008 and 20 percent after that date.

It is also worth pointing out that hackney cabs are in fact classed as a commercial vehicle and the first year allowance or the new annual investment allowance is claimable on those taxi vehicles. Commercial vehicles such as hackney cabs are treated for tax purposes in the same way as plant and equipment.

How do I enter a new taxi purchase in the taxi driver accounts.

Enter the total purchase price of the taxi in the expenses spreadsheet showing the date of purchase, description and total purchase cost. Use code letter F to analyse the expenditure to fixed asset.

Visit the fixed assets sheet and enter the date and description of the taxi plus the total cost. The formulae within the cabsmart taxi driver accounts package automatically calculates the capital allowances which it also places in the boxes on the tax return.

Terry Cartwright, accountant and CEO at DIY Accounting, designs Accounting Software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ providing accounting solutions for small to medium sized business in the UK with payroll software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm for up to 20 employees

Client asked for user name and authorisation code or password when attempting to download accounting software.

The client is probably attempting to login to the paypal site or has found another area on the website where a user name and password are required such as the DIY Accounting affiliate member area. The client has made an erroneous assumption of how to access the accounting or payroll software. The correct solution if the client was not returned by paypal directly to the download page is to click the URL sent in the confirmation email which was sent following the accounting software purchase.

After payment client was not returned to the website to download the product

This can happen when payment is made by credit card or the paypal sequence is interrupted in some way. All internet purchases from DIY Accounting receive a confirmation thank you note which contains a link to the download page from where the accounting or payroll software can be downloaded.

How do I download the product from the website.

Create a new accounts folder on your computer. Right click each of the links on the download page and save each accounting template directly to that folder on your computer hard drive. If the spreadsheets are opened before saving this can cause problems as the original links could be changed to temporary links.

The accounting software files do not link together.

Problems with excel spreadsheets that have been downloaded link together but may not if the structure has been inadvertently changed.

If the name of an excel workbook has been changed the links from that file to other files will be broken unless the name change is made in a specific way, that way being to open all linking workbooks so that when the new file name is changed the linking structure is preserved. It is strongly recommended that the names of the accounting workbooks are not changed, the simplest solution is to either change the file name back to the original file name provided the changed name had not been saved or download a new file with the original linked name.

If the accounting templates were opened first before saving then these files are stored on your computer with temporary links for you to view them. If that file is then subsequently saved then what is being saved is the temporary links not the original links which causes the files not to link together and the accounting software is prevented from updating the financial accounts template. The easiest solution is to delete the file and resave from the download page direct to your accounts folder without opening the files first.

None of the accounting spreadsheet templates opens.

This happens if you do not have excel installed on your computer as the accounting spreadsheets are written on excel spreadsheets and if excel is not installed your computer does not recognise the file type. Alternatively the excel spreadsheets will open if an open source spreadsheet package has been installed on the computer.

In a similar manner when the accounting templates are saved to a CD Rom the status changes from active to read only. This is because excel is not installed on the CD. The excel files automatically change back top being usable when the templates are then moved back to a computer where either excel or an open source spreadsheet package has been installed.

Having saved the accounting templates from the download page when I click the file name my computer tries to connect to the internet.

This is because the client has often not actually downloaded the accounting workbooks to their computer but instead has saved the links from the download page. As these links are linked to the source of the templates which are stored on the internet the client is returned to that source. The solution is top revisit the download page and actually download each file to your computer by clicking the link to the accounting template and then clicking save in the dialogue box.

When I open the monthly accounting template there are no tabs along the bottom of the page to navigate from one sheet to another.

This is because the client has possibly saved the links not the excel files themselves and is looking at a single accounting worksheet rather than the whole accounting workbook on the internet and not an accounting template saved on your computer. The solution is to revisit the download page and right click each link to actually save the accounting workbooks to your computer.

It is also worth pointing out that when the square box at the top right of the worksheet has been clicked to reduce the size of the spreadsheet and that spreadsheet is located further down the computer screen so the bottom part is not visible then this may also result in the navigation tabs being hidden from view. This is corrected by clicking the square box to reveal a full page view.

Terry Cartwright, accountant and CEO at DIY Accounting, designs Accounting Software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ providing accounting solutions for small to medium sized business in the UK with payroll software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm for up to 20 employees

HMRC will advise the new tax code change from 543 to 603 which was announced in May 2008 and the date the new tax code to be applied which is expected to be September 2008. The amended tax code is entered as a new tax code on the employee details tax amendments section of the payroll file and the tax reduction is then automated at the date the new tax code is applied.

The income tax deduction calculated by the DIY Accounting payroll package is different to the inland revenue CD Rom.

Small differences can occur because the DIY Accounting payroll system has in the past used the revenue manual tax tables whereas the inland revenue employers CD Rom use a percentage calculation. In fact the manual tables jump in pounds and tax tables can increase by four pounds between different look up rates which can create small differences.

In the current financial year many of the financial income tax and national insurance calculations have been changed in the DIY Accounting payroll calculations to a mathematical percentage basis. Differences can still occur where the subject of the calculation is rounded to ignore the pence.

All these differences are minor and immaterial and adjust themselves since tax is calculated on a cumulative basis. HMRC percentage calculations also differ from the calculations using paye look up tables for similar reasons.

Employee gross pay was entered and no national insurance contribution was calculated.

The national insurance contribution table applied is shown in the column to the left of the employees name on the payroll sheet and you will probably see the letter C when because this employee is of working age and not a second employment the national insurance table letter should be A. Check the date for both for this employee which may have been omitted or entered wrongly.

Income tax deducted for my employee who is on a normal tax code was much higher than normal.

The income tax code column to the left of the employees name on the payroll sheet may appear as zero which should show the tax code. To resolve the tax code check the employee starting date has been entered and the numerical value of the tax code in the employees details and the date that tax code should be applied.

When I try to enter wages on the payslips a dialogue box appears with the message that the payslip spreadsheet is protected.

No entries are required to the payslips file. All entries are automated from the payroll file and the protection prevents corruption of the formulae in the payslip file. The entry on the payslip file can be changed by entering the required gross pay on the payroll workbook and the payslip will automatically update itself from there as part of the paye system.

I cannot see any tabs at the bottom of the payroll software workbook.

After entering the employee details navigate to the month in which you wish to enter gross pay by clicking the tab buttons at the bottom of the excel spreadsheet. If you do not see any tabs at the bottom of the sheet you may not be viewing the full sheet. Click the square box at the top of the menu bar to view the full sheet and the tabs should then be visible.

When I open the payslips file I receive an error message saying read only, non repairable error has occurred.

This is likely to have been an interruption during the download process that has corrupted the payslip file. Download the payslip workbook again direct from the confirmation email sent to you after purchase.

We bought the up to 20 employee payroll package and now have 23 employees.

Make a second copy of the payroll software, saved into a separate folder and split the payroll into two parts. Perhaps use one package for one department and the other package for a different department or use one for existing employees and the other for new starters.

Do I purchase a new payroll software package each financial year or can the payroll software be updated for more than one year paye purposes.

The payroll software include that years tax rules to
enable the packages to automate the production of that year tax returns. Each year has new tax rules embedded and being on excel rather than a database then it is necessary to purchase a new package each year.

Does the payroll software automatically generate the amount payable to the inland revenue each month.

The payroll package automatically calculates the income tax and national insurance and collects the information on a paye payments schedule so you know exactly how much to pay each month. The paye calculations also complete all the revenue forms including the P35 annual employers return which is required when you file the paye information with the revenue at the end of the financial year.

The payslip workbook is not automatically updating from the payroll spreadsheet.

The payslip updates automatically and there are no calculations on the payslip file or links out of that file. The most likely cause is that the payslip file was renamed and has broken the links from the payroll file. If you have saved the file after breaking the links by renaming the solution is to download the payslips file again without changing the name.

Terry Cartwright, accountant and CEO at DIY Accounting, designs Accounting Software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ providing accounting solutions for small to medium sized business in the UK with payroll software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm for up to 20 employees

Firstly, what do I mean by a financial goal? For most of us, that would generally be a goal to either increase income or reduce consumer debt. Of course there may be times in our lives where we want to increase consumer debt to acquire goods and services sooner or to reduce our income as a trade off to have more time but in this article, let’s set those situations aside. In particular, let’s look at the scenario of reducing consumer debt by 50% in six months.

My standard formula for goal setting is to select a coach, have the required resources in place and to have a plan-A and a plan-B in place so let’s see how a financial goal fits in with this.

Selecting a financial coach these days is difficult indeed. Most financial advisors will only try to sell you products, thereby limiting their own risk in a highly litigious environment. If your goal is to reduce your personal debt by 50% in 6 months the financial advisor might be dismissive if there is no chance of selling a product into your situation.

Similarly, a debt financer will try and sell you a product that appears to reduce your debt but in fact does very little. Finally there are educators, who provide information but are prohibited by law to give financial advice. While they can give illustrations or tell you what they did, they cannot specifically advise you what to do and therefore cannot really be your coach.

I am aware, however, of some wealth creation companies that provide ‘integrated’ solutions providing all of the required professionals in a single meeting. By nature, however, the cost of this service is out of reach of many. One solution might be to use self-help websites and software to help resolve this situation, in conjunction with education and perhaps a visit to a financial advisor if necessary.

What resources do you need to reduce personal debt? Well first of all, you must be able to measure and control what you are spending. Yes, I am talking about the dreaded budget. With internet banking and plastic cards, it is relatively easy to download transactions from all of your banks and put them into a spreadsheet. I believe that the most important tool, however, is the banking system itself. With high interest-earning no-fee accounts available it is possible to use the banking system and the utilities to do a lot of the budget accounting for you.

The Plan-A is what you will do if you are on track to achieve your goal. Is there some kind of reward for achieving your goal? Clearly to reduce personal debt, you must have a system to control what you spend, so at a minimum a separate card account and bills account but more likely around 9 high interest no fee accounts and one card account per partner, preferably a debit card (or secured credit card).

The Plan-B is to identify the biggest risk and what to do if it happens. If, for example, you think that your car might need $1,000 of repairs but you can’t set aside that much money over the next 6 months, what will you do? Will you change the deadline, or cut costs in other areas? Can you do without a car?

Finally, tracking a financial goal and measuring the level of success is straight-forward when you have the right tools in place, such as internet banking.

Glen Smith aka Glen The Goals Guy has been running both goal-setting and budgeting workshops.
Visit http://QuickStartGoals.com or http://BillBanisher.com