by admin | Feb 2, 2016 | Accounting, Amaranthine, Enterprise, Professional
In our Trilogy of Value series (HERE, HERE and HERE), we explain that we deliver value-based services which make the often painful process of book-keeping a real delight. Is this actually possible, or are we making it up? Enter Receipt Bank Receipt Bank is an award-winning software add-on that converts all your bills, invoices and receipts into data, making it easy for you to send your financial information straight to us. Features With Receipt Bank’s flexible submission methods you’ll never lose another document as it’s simple to submit them instantly. You can submit in a variety of ways, choosing whichever are best for your business: Receipt Bank App (iPhone & Android) Email Post Dropbox …and more… Benefits Using Receipt Bank’s easy submission methods means that: You save time on sending in your paperwork, giving you time back to build your business You save space as there’s no need to store your physical documents You get all your financial data quickly and we are able to offer business advice based on a near real time flow of information I love it. How can I get it? If you’d like to get started with a leading edge accounting service which includes Receipt Bank, take a look at our service offerings for Enterprises and Professionals, and book a free consultation using the big red button below. About Aiteo Consulting Aiteo Consulting provides accounting, finance and advisory services to start-ups and growth businesses in the technology sector. By focusing on lean accounting techniques, intelligent use of financial data and a lifetime of experience in financial roles supporting technology firms, we provide a premium service to enterprises and...
by admin | Feb 1, 2016 | Accounting, Advisory, Amaranthine, Enterprise, Finance, Professional
Careful readers of our blog will have noticed, among the various important updates on topics such as security, budgets, and happy Christmases, an emerging theme has begun to … errm … emerge. In an earlier post (HERE), we picked up the gauntlet thrown down by our professional counterparts at KPMG and explained why Aiteo Consulting must be the accounting firm you are looking for. It’s definitely worth a read, and not simply because the Guardian Small Business Network described it as a ‘masterclass in blog writing’. @AiteoConsulting A masterclass in blog writing, well done! — GuardianSmallBiz (@GdnSmallBiz) October 23, 2015 In a follow-up post (HERE), which we can now designate as the second of a slowly developing trilogy, we introduced to you the idea of getting value for money out of your accountant – a task many find slightly more difficult than getting blood out of a stone. Your accountant should play the role of your finance director and should be central to your business. But what does that mean in practice? And if you hire us, how would we do it? So we come to the final step, and here’s hoping that, unlike the slightly more famous Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, we don’t actually end up with five instalments. So let’s talk about value. Value means different things to different people (diffr’n’t strokes for diffr’n’t folks and all that). And in order to deliver you a service that you value, we need first to work out together what you’re looking for and tailor our service accordingly. In order to do this effectively and efficiently, there is...
by admin | Jan 12, 2016 | Accounting, Amaranthine, Enterprise, Professional
Facing challenges as a growing small business? Maybe you’re looking for some extra funding and need to write a business plan. Maybe you’re weighing up the options about the right legal structure for the future. Or maybe you’re just ready to delegate, freeing you up to develop your business. If this is you, maybe now’s the time. Click through to our free guide, courtesy of our accounting partners at...
by admin | Nov 19, 2015 | Advisory, Amaranthine, Enterprise, Uncategorised
We recently attended a crowdfunding seminar hosted by Startup Direct and Paul Grant of the Funding Game. Simon, our Business Development Manager, was sent to make copious notes. So here’s his take on the Five Points of Calvinism. Err, sorry. Crowdfunding. Point 1: TALK Spend your time in this pre-prep phase generating contacts and talking to possible investors and buyers. This will serve two purposes: Your potential investors will feel more involved and in sync with your idea and vision. Then, when the time comes, they will be more likely to invest because this is their project, too. You’ll get a second opinion on your product or service. You may be working on false pre-suppositions about your target market and what they want. This will help you to find out more about the problem you are addressing. Point 2: UNITE This is where your real preparation takes place. You must drum up the promises you got from Point 1 and unite this into a sizeable committed line even before you launch your crowdfunding campaign. Your should have at least 40% of the funding for your round pledged before you begin your campaign. This will give your pitch more credibility when you launch because so many people have already chosen to invest in your idea. Point 3: LURE Reel ’em in! Use your campaign design to lure the remaining 60%, and never skimp on the work you put in before the campaign. A few things to keep in mind: Your message should be clear and simple, should have a summary of where you are, where you are going and what you need...
by admin | Nov 5, 2015 | Accounting, Advisory, Amaranthine, Enterprise, Finance
In a recent post (HERE) we looked at a Guardian Small Business article on choosing your accountant, and explained why Aiteo Consulting simply must have been in the author’s mind as she wrote. Now, if there is any truth to the chorus of complaint which often follows the words ‘I tried to speak to my accountant and…’, we might have to admit that in most minds, value and accounting services go together like blood and stones. So a recent article, published in the same august organ (HERE – if you must – but do wait until the end if you can), begins to grapple with the thorny question of getting value for money from your accounting services. Now, before launching into our analysis, we would like to say this. When a major accounting firm launches a new nationwide service targeted to small business, and the Head of the aforesaid service manages to write a clear problem statement for a national daily without it in any way coming across as an advertorial, we can only applaud. If you do look carefully, you’ll see that the author is indeed Head of Small Business Accounting for … well you can read the article to find out. After all they haven’t paid us to advertise on here! Credit where it’s due though, and we believe the article represents an excellent contribution to the debate about value. So let’s take a look at some of these themes. Entrepreneurs often pitch their businesses without knowing basic financial information. To be fair, an evening in watching Dragons’ Den wouldn’t be half as much fun without the...
by admin | Oct 21, 2015 | Accounting, Advisory, Amaranthine, Enterprise, Finance
There have been a couple of great articles published in the Guardian’s Small Business Pages. So let’s look at the first one, which gives a few pointers on choosing an accountant for your small business. “Where’s the link?”, we hear you say. Well HERE it is, if you really must click right now, but we know everyone in life is busy, especially you, so we’ve extracted all of the questions the Guardian thinks you need to ask and listed them below. And, just to make things really easy, we’ve given you our answers before you’ve even asked. And as you’ll see, we like this article a lot. You could be forgiven for imagining that only our professional ethical standards prevented us from slipping the author a fiver to write it. Why? Well let’s see. Q. Are they regulated by a professional body? YES – we are. Aiteo Consulting is an accredited Member in Practice of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the world’s largest and leading professional body of management accountants. CIMA has more than 227,000 members and students in 179 countries, all of whom work at the heart of business. CIMA also has very strong relationships with employers and sponsors leading research. And through CIMA’s joint venture with the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), we also hold the globally recognised designation of Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). By the way, CLICK HERE for the public record. Q. Do they have PI cover? YES – and we’d be surprised if an accountant was operating without it, to be honest. Q. Can they act as your business partner? YES – and this is exactly...
