January 2020 Update

It’s been far too long since I wrote a blog post – therefore, amongst my New Year’s resolutions for 2020 (which include learning French for the 5th year running), I plan to make amends and post here more often. Let’s see how it goes!

Last year was rather eventful here in Weybridge:

After a 6-month search, we finally moved into a new office. A fully serviced and renovated building with plenty of space, meeting spaces and surrounded by many other SMEs. I would have preferred a place with a skate ramp in reception (like our client at WeWork Waterloo) or a free kombucha tasting tap (like our client in Battersea) but we’ll have to make-do with free tea bags. I don’t drink tea, but it’s the thought that counts!

We became Xero certified and a Bronze partner. This means we receive a 15% discount on Xero platform costs when we are the billing account owner. A communication went out about this during the year which failed to clarify that we do need to pay the subscription to Xero on behalf of the client in order to achieve the discount. Unfortunately, we were mis-lead that this would automatically happen by our account manager. Still, it’s not too late if you would like to transfer the billing account to my email address and receive the discount on the pass-through costs. Check here for how to transfer this in Xero.

Finally, we developed a Power BI solution and have been rolling this out to select clients through 2H and into 2020 1H. Typically Power BI is useful for product based businesses, allowing them to filter and view product margins at various levels (for example Distribution Channel, Product Category or SKU), but it can also work and be useful for service based businesses. If you’ve not been introduced to Power BI yet and would like to know more, just drop me a note for a demo either directly or through our contact form.

Looking forward to 2020, we’re planning a refreshed Management Accounts pack for April 2020. We’ve had some feedback that the current pack is a case of ‘death by numbers’ (that one hurt, but we take it on board!). Some in-roads were made to provide a more summarised front sheet, but this was always an interim solution until we could re-design the entire pack into something more readable and intuitive. The new pack will also be issued with an additional layer of security from April 2020. The month end schedule of control and reporting will continue as per FY19, with pack delivery on working day 8.

Enjoy the rest of January and I will catch up with you all soon!

James