Recent Posts

Forum Questions

Recent Posts

First order to the U.S please help with customs reqs!

L
BeautyStartUp said:
Hi, I've just got my first online order from the U.S which is exciting. BUT I need help with customs requirements. The order is small (way under the import threshold).

1. How do I find the correct customs number to put in the Royal Mail International Tracked shipping order (it's beauty products - a cleanser)
2. Do I need a separate form to fill in and if so where do I get this?

Any help most appreciated. Have been searching for a while but finding HMRC less than easy to navigate.
Click to expand...

Fill out a CN22 for smaller value parcels, and attach to the parcel. CN23 for higher value items.

If you use "Click and drop" to post your items with Royal Mail, you can add all the HS codes and values in the system and all this will be electronically submitted.
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

Hitachi Invoice Finance

D
While I do not have direct experience of Hitachi, have a quick read of
  • Invoice Factoring (Ifac) ) – This is a typical facility whereby the Lender will do all your collections on invoices for you. Very useful if you have a large debtors list and don’t have an in-house credit controller.
  • Invoice Discounting (ID) – Exactly the same as an Ifac facility however, you will look after all your credit control.
  • Confidential Invoice Discounting (CID) – A confidential ID facility whereby none of your suppliers or debtors will know of you using such a facility.
  • Selective Invoice Finance (SIF) – This is where you can select specific invoices to have Factored in order to raise capital, the repayment works the same as a standard Invoice Finance facility.
  • Spot Factoring - You choose one large invoice usually upwards of £50,000 as security to raise capital for the business
Shop round and see where you can get the best deal
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

SquareSpace and SEO vs Other Platforms like Wordpress

fisicx
BBC, Apple, NASA, Sky News and others.

There is a big movement towards JS rendered sites using tools like gastby: https://www.gatsbyjs.org/

Wordpress (with it's clunky new Gutenberg editor) and other site builders will be left behind. It's not going to happen overnight but over time the way content is delivered is going to change.

Everything in the CMS will be the same - it's how the content is delivered from the server that changes.
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

Energy contract in the wrong name

NickGrogan
The energy ombudsman only deals with domestic and micro business issues. Based on the figures above you don't sound like a micro business, or have you rounded the figures?

An erroneous transfer might work, but they can take 12 - 15 weeks to process and doesn't always go through.

Appealing whilst doing the ET could give Total a reason to reject to erroneous transfer.
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

finance lease or hp

Gordon - Commercial Finance
mjb6964 said:
didn't realise they did hp with balloon?
Click to expand...

Yes HP with balloon, the best kept secret in the motor trade. All the good bits of PCP, without being terrible for customers....like PCP!

HP with a balloon is a really good way of keeping your payments down, and a reputable broker working in your interest would structure your finance in such a way that you balloon is considerably less than what your expected residual value will be. That way you're protected against anything unforseen forcing you into a negative equity position, you don't need to worry about mileage, and when your balloon comes around if you want to keep the vehicle, you can generally spread the balloon over a couple of years too.

The main thing to consider in comparing HP with finance lease is the VAT. On HP you need to pay the full VAT up front, and if you're VAT registered of course you can get that back. You can even get a 3 month VAT deferral often so that you're never out of pocket.
On a finance lease, there is VAT on each monthly rental, so you pay 20% more per month, but its like spreading the VAT over the full term rather than paying it all up front essentially. Useful for businesses who are not VAT registered....
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

EU VAT reclaim

A
Hi Sam

If import VAT is incurred in the EU country of import, this will not be recoverable through the UK VAT return. If the goods once processed are moved to the UK, there will likely be a registration requirement in the country of dispatch. UK acquisition tax will then be payable through the UK VAT return when the goods arrive. The overseas VAT would then be recoverable through the local VAT return. You should also consider if any import VAT relief/suspension is possible.

Of course, the treatment may well change in a few weeks...!

Richard
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

Return laws for customised goods sold online?

C
But and a bib but with clothing is the returns after misuse, like
Wear once for the night out split the hem deliberately and return
Test with makeup on and leave marks around the collar and return
Return with a strong odor from the garment which was not there at dispatch to them
Wrong size
Wrong Size
Wrong size
Wrong colour red
Wrong colour black
Screwed up with none of the original packaging
Does not match my lipstick/ shoes/ handbag

Its fun selling clothing and to sell ladieswear, you need to be able to take abuse without causing offence every day, whilst putting up with everything you sell being wrong to 75% of the ladies population and dealing with a large number of dishonest customers

Just my opinion
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

How to grow my business?

R
bob2019 said:
Depending on your type of business, a quick route to online visibility is advertising through Google Adwords. This involves choosing key phrases or words that you want to target when someone does a Google Search. Depending on how much you are prepared to pay depends how high up on the results page you can get.

Like anything quick, it requires investment and testing. Be VERY careful - my opinion is to never link it to your bank account through Direct Debit, just top it up manually so you know you have complete control of your budget. Even though there are budget options etc within the panel, Adwords is very good at eating funds very quickly without you realising and I prefer the manual top up method.

Whilst it is easy to set up an account and get clicks from AdWords, you may want to speak with a specialist to ensure you are getting the most for your money - you want to minimise the amount of people clicking your advert and costing you money if they are less relevant customers or less likely to convert to sales.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

UK small business employing contractor in Sweden

B
I have spoken with HRMC and it may be possible for them to remain employed but on an NT (No Tax) code and X NIC code so that they are paid Gross of any tax etc each month and then they are responsible for their Tax declarations etc in Sweden.

I will investigate this on both sides and post the final outcome here as no doubt other people will have a similar question in the future.
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

Balance Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention

M
Erika Jones said:
In any business, there should be a balance between the two strategies customer acquisition and customer retention.
Click to expand...

That is over generalising - I've been involved in two different businesses in which the service provided will generally never be needed by the same customer twice. They can recommend friends/family, but they will not be back themselves. Focusing on retention there would have just been silly.

You need to know metrics are important for YOUR business, there is no hard and fast rule.
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

Messy Accounts

MyAccountantOnline
Blood Lust said:
I am on assignment with a company whose accounts are a mess and I`m struggling to fix it.

I have spent a month posting a backlog of transactions onto Sage 50 for their financial year 2018 to 2019 and correcting transactions which were posted using the wrong bank account nominals. This part isn't so bad although the bank recs dont balance anymore. They dont balance as I have altered the bank nominals for many transactions to their correct ones.

I also have a further 500 transactions left unreconciled from their previous financial year. Most of these their staff weren't able to reconcile because they used the same kind of incorrect bank nominals etc. I cannot touch these as that year is closed.

What is the correct procedure for fixing this as I have never encountered a set of accounts as bad as these before?

Do I match all outstanding transactions in the rec windows for each bank account?
Then manually alter the nominals for each to show the correct amounts?

If it was my company I would start their financial year afresh on Sage 50 but is this allowed and even possible?
Click to expand...

If the records are that bad I'd start from scratch.

In my experience very often re-doing it properly is a lot quicker than trying to sort out a mess.
Click to expand...
Upvote 0

Retail Merchant Services Milton Keynes

K
Hi Judy.
I've heard nothing further from RMS so no news is good news.
Stick to you guns. The important thing is not to enter into any dialogue with RMS unless it's by letter sent via Recorded Delivery. Has your husband had any communication with the actual card provider ie. Elavon? I wrote to them also advising that the contract had been mis-sold to me etc. They were happy to cancel their side of things - got the impression that they had "issues" with RMS!
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Upvote 0
Load more

Filter

Top Bottom
Community
Articles
Menu