Do you need a bank overdraft?

The internet is transforming how we work and live.

I am not sure if all the changes are good but in business there are new ways of funding a business. This is important because it is not as easy to get bank support.

This post is about Market Invoice, which is an add-on to Xero Accounting Software.

This company enable you to access finance based on individual sales invoices. Their Website is www.MarketInvoice.com.

So, if you wait 30, 60 or 90-days for customers to pay you then you can use the system to bring the cash into your business quicker. This could enable you to grow and serve other customers.

To use the system your business must normally have at least six months of trading history and have annual sales of at least £100,000. Your businesses using us also need to pass our financial and anti-fraud checks.

You apply online and it takes no longer than 15 minutes. And, there are no costs.

As soon as your business is approved, you’ll get a log in to the platform. You then upload your invoice/s and (after checking) the system will schedule your invoice to sell in one of the twice daily trading sessions.

There is an online calculator on their Website. Based on an invoice of £50,000 being paid in 90-days, you’d get £42,255 within a few hours and £6,000 when the invoice is paid. This is a total cost of £2,745 – which is just over 5% of the invoice.

One thing you can do is add this onto your quotes and offer 5% discount for 7-day payment. After all, your business is not there to finance your customer’s business.

Remember, payment terms should always be part of the price discussion – if nothing else keep in mind the value of offering credit.

New Dividend Tax

This month’s budget contained a bit of a shock, a new way of taxing dividends.

No all the details are available yet so I won’t go into the ins and outs but this is likely to cost the typical owner of a small limited company over £2,000 a year, perhaps more when we know the full details.

That’s the equivalent of £175 a month and to put that into perspective, if you paid that off your mortgage every month you could repay it 7-8 years earlier. If you are new our young business, this could be a significant chunk out of your pension pot.

We are advising clients to do two things:

Action 1 – Profit Improvement Plan

One way to respond to the new tax of dividends is to review your business for ways to increase profit.

The idea is that you make more profit so that after tax you are no worse off. You may even be better off!

Use this calculator and see what potential your business has https://www.sackmans.co.uk/profit-improver/

Action 2 – Carry out a financial planning review

Any change in taxation like this should trigger you to look at your financial plans. You may want to tweaks a few things in response.

Now is the perfect time to have a review before the new tax kicks in April next year. I can either do this with you, for you or let you create your own plans using a simple but powerful software package.

For more information email me malcolm@sackmans.co.uk