Accounts Payable Audit: Is it worth the time?

Mary Accounting, Advice, Business, Finance, Software, Technology

Accounts payable is the outstanding sums of money owed to and by your firm. In the course of doing business you will provide products and services to a range of parties, who will pay you for them. However, payment is not immediate; usually an accepted period of time will elapse before the invoices are fulfilled. This may be 30 days, though in some instances it can be two months or more. In other cases just 14 days is considered acceptable. An accounts payable audit explores what money is due to your company. Recovery audit software can be used to investigate the different invoices that are outstanding and work out whether they should be paid (by you), or should already have been paid by clients. One of the most important categories of overpayment for businesses is duplicate payments, which can arise either accidentally or intentionally through fraud (a company that receives a large number of invoices may not realise if a duplicate comes in, and will pay it without thinking). Whichever one, you will want to avoid these and other forms of unnecessary overpayment, whilst ensuring that those who owe you money pay it promptly.

Most businesses underestimate the financial impact that accounting problems cause. If your accounts are in order, you will be paying suppliers on time. However, others may not be treating you with equal courtesy. There will be those who pay late – perhaps consistently late, or perhaps some have never paid you for certain jobs. Then there are suppliers who have incorrectly invoiced you, or instances where human error has resulted in inaccuracies on an invoice or a copy; invoices typically have twelve fields of data on them, so this can be a common occurrence.

Researchers suggest that roughly one in a thousand transactions is an overpayment, with duplicate payments being one of the most common errors. If your business entails a big volume of transactions, you could be losing large sums of money in this way. An accounts payable audit will tell you exactly how much account errors are costing you every year. Recovery audit software will enable you to claw this back, but this is something you should pursue quickly: the more time passes, the lower the chance of reclaiming the money. Additionally, where the errors are a result of fraud, you may need to take legal action – and, at the very least, put in place measures that stop it occurring again.

Please visit https://www.fiscaltec.com/

Make the most of payroll services to make your life easier if you are a self employed contractor

Mary Accounting

As contracting has really taken off lately, and particularly since IR35 became law in 2000, there has been a growth in the number of contractor umbrella companies.  These companies offer the opportunity to be on the CIS payroll, working for a few different companies at once.  You can then take advantage of the payroll services supplied by the contractor company, who will process your timesheets themselves and send invoices to clients on your behalf.
Joining a CIS payroll has a number of positive features.  It gives you the independence and flexibility that comes with being a self employed construction industry professional, and enables you to be subcontracted to most UK construction companies.  Being self employed boasts advantages in itself.  You will pay less of a National Insurance contribution, and will be able to offset certain expenses against your tax liability on your Self Assessment tax return.  There is also the benefit of being eligible to work for companies who will not necessarily contract you directly.
It is fairly easy to start working for a commercial contracting company like Liquid Friday, which offers services within the commercial and public sector.  You will need to discuss the paperwork that needs to be completed with the company in question.  The first step is to register online or complete the registration forms.  This is important so that you can be verified with the Inland Revenue.  If you are eligible to work in the UK, the process should be able to get started.  If you are self employed you will need to send a timesheet, generally fairly early in the working week, so that the appropriate client can be invoiced.  When the client approves the invoice, your timesheet will be processed and the payment will be transferred into your account.  It is vital to make sure you know what the insurance policy of the company is, as this is obviously particularly relevant to the construction trade.  As a general rule of thumb, you should make sure you are covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance and Combined Liability Insurance.
The benefits, then, of belonging to a contractor umbrella company are surely apparent.  One of the most time consuming things about being self employed is handling your invoices and liaising with clients, and being on the CIS payroll will certainly eliminate all these tasks.  The payroll services these companies offer will almost certainly make it worth your while completing the small amount of paperwork that is needed to sign up.

Please visit http://www.liquidfriday.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.liquidfriday.co.uk/

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