Bit of a niche one, but I’m hoping some people here won’t mind sharing how they do things.


I work in logistics for a big healthcare company and spend most of my time buried in parcel data – couriers, failed deliveries, weird surcharges, that kind of thing. It’s all very glamorous.


On the side I’m looking at whether a “lightweight tender” approach (basically a proper review of rates and service, but without the corporate bollocks) actually makes sense for smaller UK businesses, or if most people just want something that works and don’t care beyond that. It's a service that would hopefully secure cost savings for many SMB's. We saved 25% on one of our divisions return parcel prices this year. Whilst we have a huge business and scale, savings from doing parcel tenders are extremely common, even if we aren't talking about tens or hundreds of millions in yearly spend on parcels. Even at £20,000 yearly parcel spend it is not only possible, but common to have relatively large savings percentages, and who would complain about a couple grand in savings?


If you run a UK business that ships physical products, I’d love to hear:
– Which couriers you’re using (RM / DPD / Evri / DHL etc.)
– How you ended up with them (price, recommendation, easiest to set up…?)
– Whether you’ve ever properly reviewed what you’re paying since you first set it up
– What winds you up the most about your current setup – cost, reliability, tracking, surcharges, lost parcels, something else?
– Is this service would potentially be something you'd be interested in doing for your business on a 'no savings no fee' basis?


I’m not trying to flog software or anything here, just trying to work out if the problems I see at work actually show up in smaller businesses too, or if I’m overthinking it.


If anyone would be up for a quick chat about how you handle shipping in your business, I’d really appreciate it. Happy to share what I’ve seen go wrong (and right) on the logistics side in return – might help you avoid a few headaches down the line.


If this isn’t ok for the group then mods feel free to remove.

Hi, I run a franchise business with my friend, we are self employed. 21 months before our contract end date we asked about renewal options and also what happens if we decide not to. Our franchisor has now stopped us from taking any enquiries or bookings beyond our contract end date, this will jeopardise our business in that by the time our renewal discussions come into place 3-6 months before the end date we will not have any bookings in the diary and will not want to renew due to it no longer being a profitable business and we would be almost back to square one. Our franchisor knows the importance of us being able to continue taking enquiries now and we can’t see anything in our contract to say she is able to stop this a whole 21 months before our end date, does anyone have any experience with this? Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks

Morning,

We have been using Whatsapp Business quite successfully and wondered what everyone's experience with it is?

We use it for incoming enquiries regarding services and general communication.

The main issues we have is
-having a linked device log out and then struggling to reconnect as we work remotely. It means someone has to get hold of the one main phone...
-Missing messages that have been made read

Look forward to hearing of how you get on with it

Daz

How do we go about finding an accountant who has experience of handling a community benefit society's statutory accounts run under the Charity and Community Benefits Society's act of 2014, controlled by the FCA and based on the quickfile accounting programs?

Hi all, I’m in the middle of some inheritance tax planning. I’ve just sold a piece of agricultural land for £500k (held it for 10+ years). I want to give the money to my daughter now.
My accountant says if I give her the cash, I have to live 7 years or it’s taxed at 40%. But... if I use that money to buy other farmland and gift her the land instead, it might be exempt from IHT immediately because of "replacement relief."
It sounds a bit like a loophole—is this standard practice or is it more complicated than it sounds?

David

There's a couple of accounting terms that keep tripping me up:

• Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year
• Accruals and deferred income

For last year's accounts for my LTD company I had paid my accountant's fee upfront. He put that fee under "Accruals and deferred income" which I thought made sense at the time.

Now, upon reviewing it all against some more formal definitions, it no longer makes sense to me.

I've looked up the definition for "Accruals and deferred income":

Companies House definition:
Accruals and deferred income


CH's definition is quite generic but it does say "subsequent accounting period", which would suggest the accountant was right to put it where he did, However I then found this in a UKBF post:

Accruals and deferred income - accruals are costs incurred in the period but not billed. Accounts must show all costs incurred in a period so you need to add payments, unpaid invoices and accrued amounts and deduct opening creditors and accruals to arrive at the cost for the year.

Click to expand...

This definition is more specific, and it talks about "costs incurred in the period but not billed".

In my case the accountant's fee was 1) paid and billed upfront and 2) not incurred in the period (because the accountant always does your accounts when the accounting period is over), so I'm confused.

Also, "Accruals and deferred income" is a sub-item of "Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year" which, again, would suggest this accountant's fee is part of the debt my company owes, which is not the case because it was paid upfront.


Is it just accounting practice to do it like this, or is there something else going on?

Thanks for clearing up any confusion!

Hi Guys

I am curious to find out what everyone is using now for financial forecasting, I used a desktop version of Sage Financial forecasting for many years but it doesn't like modern operating systems and Microsoft 365, I got so frustrated with it losing functionality I built my own system but I am keen to get feedback on what is the "go to application" these days, is it Fathom, Futrli, Vena or something else

Regards

Steve

I am so stressed.

I was self-employed up until 5 years ago and then moved back into self employment at the start of 2024 when my mum became ill.

I asked HMRC to reactivate my account and like a total fool thought nothing more of it. I tried to log into my self assessment account at the start of my week to file my tax and pay with my government gateway ID. However my password wouldn't work. Then I realised that the email linked to the account was a blueyonder email that was disbanded by Virgin Media last year.
I've rang the online team 3 times to get my email changed. I've got through personal security fine, but keep failing at the business security. I have scoured my documents but they keep asking me info I do not have (the month and year I registered for self employment, the month and year I started trading). Basically it was 15+ years ago and I have autism. My mum did everything for me, including looking after all of my documents. Now she is in a care home with dementia and I don't know what happened to them.

I'm stuck. They have said I have to file a paper return and maybe appeal the penalty because of my disability. I am not going to lie and say that its made me so anxious that I'm consumed by it.

I really don't know what to do. They said I can't close the account and open a new one without going through security questions.

Does anyone have any advice?

Reviewing again our couriers, Not sure if we have the volume to go direct to couriers (sending on average over the year 75 a day) or use an aggregator like ParcelHub or InXpress

Hello everyone!

In July 2025 I completed the Verify Your Identity process with CH and got my personal code. Today for some reason I checked the details of my company on the CH website (in the company information section) and to my amazement I saw that both me and my other director (also verified in July) have until November 2026 to verify our identities (both in Directors and PSC sections). I don't quite get it – how is it possible that the same authority that got me verified has not updated its own records? Has anyone come across the same situation? What didn't I do (if I didn't)? Also, I got verified as Director (if I remember correctly) but do I also need to verify my identity as PSC separately? I'm not sure there's any help article on this on the CH website or I couldn't find it.
Please share your experience.
Thank you!

Hi all,
I am currently developing a website for my business. The site will be informational only (a business profile / portfolio ), and no orders or transactions will be processed through it. However, I am considering adding a “Contact Us” form that would allow potential B2B partners to send us a message along with their name and email address.

I would like to understand whether having this type of contact form would mean that I am required to register with the ICO and pay the data protection fee, given that my business is not currently required to do so.

As an alternative, would simply displaying my business email address and/or phone number on the website—rather than using a contact form—avoid the need to register?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you.

Looking for an independent engineer in Humberside who deals with commercial ( coin operated)washing machine repairs . Any recommendations, please?

Hi all, new here. Hope I've posted in the right place. Looking for a sense check.

I am about 10 years into my career and about to try consulting for a short trial period of around 3 months with a couple of startup clients. The work is hands on delivery, day rate based, around 3 to 4 days a week, and while it's nuanced, I am working inside IR35.

This tax year is already a bit messy for me due to PAYE work earlier in the year, a bonus, parental leave and redundancy, so simplicity is a big factor. I am trying to decide whether to invoice directly as a sole trader or go through an umbrella company and submit timesheets.

This is only meant to be a 3 month trial to see if this way of working suits me, although it might extend beyond that if it works out. I'm not looking to optimise tax, just avoid unnecessary admin or headaches for a short test period.

Is there anything obvious I am missing that should push me one way or the other? Any common pitfalls with umbrellas for this kind of setup?

Thanks in advance.

Hey,

My Wife didnt like how her 6 month probation meeting went at her job and decided to resgin with the required 2 months notice as stated on the contact as the resignation was post probation period.

My wife's resignation later originally stated 2 weeks notice as she thought because the probation final day / meeting was on a Friday and the letter was handed to them at the weekend it would count. HR replied and confirmed it would need to be 2 months from 23rd November. Further discussions ensued as they tried offering a different role which she declined on 19th Dec. She then replied suggesting she believed "29th Jan should be her last day if she calculated correctly" and asked HR to confirm if this was OK. HR replied same day thanking her for confirming and that her last day would be 29th Jan 2026.

No further communication was made until today when my wife got into the office to find access to all services was revoked and she was asked to leave and work the remaining notice from home on a few small handover items. She asked for this in writing and was sent this a few hours later which also stated that her last day would be 22nd Jan. She replied stating this should be 29th as agreed.

They have appologised saying this was a mistake and sorry for the confusion but her notice was handed in on the 23rd November so her last day would be 22nd.

Is there anything she can do in regards to this? I know it seems petty but it feels like theyre trying to save some pay and it feels quite unfair as she has made plans around this.

Thanks for reading!

Hi there,

Since lockdown I've been dabbling in 'copywriting', I use the term loosely as I seem to have solely secured content-writing gigs, I have quite a few years of experience in manufacturing and have been using that experience to write blog posts for manufacturing companies. A little bit technical, little bit persuasive, but mostly it's about keywords, links, and all that SEO stuff.

I'm happy with the niche I've carved, and I'm happy with the rate I'm getting, but all my work so far has been through UpWork. It seems being verified as a UK native helps a lot in winning work there.

I see many manufacturing companies that have blogs and 'news' sections on their website that I could help them with, but they're often very hard to contact, and usually, even the people in charge don't know what a copy/content writer is, as they use a marketing expert to handle it all.

So I tried contacting marketing agencies and have had little interest. Just wondering if I need to keep improving my approach (email copy and image) or if its just that these agencies are reluctant to hire the services of freelance writers?

Also, what margins are they typically working at? One of my long-term clients pays me £110 per article flat rate, typically 1,000 words (I don't charge per word don't worry!) and with a decent amount of information and relevancy, with the usual SEO focus. That said I've never actually got as far as discussing rates.

Anyone with experience of agencies that can shed light?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some honest feedback on a tool I'm building.

I feel like nowadays, whether you run a business or want to build a personal brand, you are "forced" to create content. But the learning curve sucks:

1. You either watch 20-minute YouTube tutorials full of fluff just to learn one basic concept.
2. Or you buy expensive courses that are pure theory and boring as hell.

My idea is simple: Gamify content creation learning.

I'm designing Omnia, a tool for people who want to improve their online presence (Sales, Virality, or Authority) without spending hours studying. The goal is to train your "creator eye" with quick 5-minute daily challenges, so you instinctively know what makes a video work.

For the past few days my domain has been receiving DMARC reports even though it has not sent any emails out.

My understanding of DMARC is that the various mail providers for thei recipients send you daily summary reports for any activity that has taken place for the previous day.

Example of my expectations:

Yesterday

• 2 emails sent to @google.com addresses
• 1 email sent to @comcast.net address

Today

• DMARC summary report from [email protected]
• DMARC summary report from [email protected]

But yesterday there were no outgoing emails from my domain, and yet those 2 providers sent me reports anyway. The reports' timestamps are indeed for yesterday.

Question: Is it possible these reports are generated because my email provider is attempting "retry" activity from my domain over past emails that may have not reached recipients?

Thanks

My question is in relation to the treatment of purchased software in the accounts and how that might impact corporation tax.
The company bought the said software outright, including the IP and source code, and that software is now used as the backbone for our service offering.

My accountants have designated the software as an intangible asset and intend to amortise the cost over 10 years. However, when completing the tax return they have added the amortisation back so it has no impact on our corporation tax liability, claiming ths is due to it being an intangible asset.

My questions are:

1. Can anyone confirm whether this expenditure should be treated as capital, like plant and machinery, and therefore subject to capital allowances, or as an intangible fixed asset?
2. Depending on which of the treatments in question 1 is correct, what is the treatment for corporation tax purposes?

Thanks

I'm launching a new website centered around tradesmen; plumbing, electrical etc. I'll spare the details but its basically a lead gen site for London with a USP.

My question is landing pages. I've previously run a local pluming business and SEO was fairly easy as we had one service. The home page focused on our immediate area and we had several landing pages covering adjacent neighbourhoods. On top of that, a couple of service specific pages e.g bathrooms, boilers and so on. This meant just a handful of landing pages, nice and easy. N.b. This was all pre AI LLM.

However, this new site covers multiple trade services and the whole of London. This could result in a vast combination of high traffic keywords with service names, areas and sub-areas in the city.

What is best practice here? Having a sea of landing pages doesn't seem the right move. Is it just a case of finding the best combo of high volume, low competition key words and focus on a handful of them?

We're a small business using QuickBooks and have just taken out a mobile phone contract. I was hoping for some clarity on which account this would be best listed in.

I'm in Panama and I'm looking for someone to set up a UK company In order to use stripe to take payments from an app in the Android store.

As far as I can see, because I'm living abroad, there would be no tax payable in the UK. but I also understand that I need an accountant who knows how to write my general meetings And resolutions properly so that I don't shoot myself in the foot and end up paying UK tax.

If I understand it right, I should be looking for a chartered accountant? There must be tens of thousands of those in the UK. How would I go about finding someone who's going to do me the minimum effective job for a decent price?

I'm not really looking for tax advice. I understand my position fairly well. I just need someone to do the job without making a mistake.

I'm not sure of the rules of the forum here. I guess I'm probably not allowed to ask for a personal recommendation?

Are there any websites where I can compare accountants like I could compare apps or doctors and see what people think of them? Apart from Google Maps, of course. I don't think Google Maps is very useful because it's limited to one area. And I don't really care where the accountant lives because I don't live in the UK.

Hi, On Amazon I've noticed a competitor winning a new 'Another way to buy' box. Does anyone here know how you get this box? I'm guessing it's a paid-for feature but I can't find out much about it anywhere? I have a screen-shot showing the box but I can't see a way of adding a photo here.

I’m planning to start a dropshipping/affiliate marketing business and wondering whether I really need a website. Can I just rely on social media platforms to generate traffic and sales, or is having a site essential for long-term growth and SEO?

Previously, I’ve tried small campaigns using just social media with some success, but now I want to scale. There are so many products and niches, and I’m not sure whether creating multiple landing pages for each product is necessary, or if I should focus on just a few key pages/posts.

Would love to hear what works best in 2025 for beginners vs scaling businesses.

I’m getting to the age where I should be thinking of retirement so I am considering my options. I own a small company in the Northwest of England which manufactures it’s own unique product. This is a type of control valve used by many companies as part of their production/testing procedures.

With 20 years of sales there are several thousand of these products in use worldwide and they have a very good reputation for reliability and performance so we get many repeat orders. There is also a good spares and servicing market where they have no alternative but to come to us, which people are happy to do. With more effort the sales could be increased considerably, there are very few companies making this product and I believe we are the only UK manufacturer.

The product has a good profit margin and based on the last three years profits alone an online website came up with a value of £2 million but I believe with it’s own product it’s worth much more.

My options are to employ someone to do some or all of my work which means I would continue to receive a good income, but not be fully retired, or to sell it outright.

What are people’s suggestions and is there a reliable company who would sell it for me?