David Cameron to confirm large businesses will be compelled to reveal average pay for male and female staff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwc5jKc-EgE

Hello from San Francisco! I’m Jim Alkove, I lead the Windows enterprise program management team. Today, Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore announced a new approach to the way we plan, develop and deliver Windows, with a first look at Windows 10. Windows 10 is the next generation of our OS that adapts to the devices you’re on and what you’re trying to get done with a consistent, familiar and compatible experience that enables you to be more productive.

Today we begin the process of sharing our plans with enterprise customers. We are doing this earlier than we’ve done in the past, because it’s important that our business customers have insight into our product vision. Their insight and feedback is critical as we build products to best meet their needs. Some of what we are working on will show up in the Windows 10 Technical Preview we’ll release on October 1st, and some will come in subsequent updates. We have a lot to share, so over the course of the next couple months, I’ll also publish a few follow-up posts to go a little deeper in a few key areas.

Windows 10 designed with enterprise customers in mind

Windows 10 will be our greatest platform ever for organisations and their employees. There are several reasons that business customers in particular should take notice of Windows 10. It’s not just more familiar from a user experience standpoint. We have built so much of what businesses need right into the core of this product – including enterprise-grade security, identity and information protection features, reducing complexity and providing a better experience for the modern needs of business. We’ve simplified management and deployment to help lower costs, including in-place upgrades from Windows 7 or 8 that are focused on making device wipe-and-reload scenarios obsolete. We’re also providing businesses with more choice in how quickly they adopt the latest innovations, and are delivering continued improvements based on customer feedback.

One converged Windows platform

Windows 10 also delivers one universal app platform, one security model, and one deployment and management approach. With the convergence of our platforms, that unified experience scales across devices. From the small, thin and light – up to the largest and most powerful laptops, desktops and all-in-one PCs. Windows 10 even scales to industry and ruggedized devices, purpose-built industry solutions, small foot print devices (Internet of Things) and all the way up to 85” touch-screen conference room displays.

Designed for the way you live and work

There’s virtually no learning curve required with Windows 10. For mouse and keyboard users, the Windows 10 user experience begins at the familiar desktop. The Start menu experience of Windows 7 has been expanded, providing one-click access to the functions and files that people use most. Windows 10 enhances existing productivity features like Snap. We also bridged the gap between the touch-optimised tablet experience and the mouse and keyboard experience by allowing modern apps to run in a window on the desktop – resulting in modern apps seamlessly co-existing in the desktop space alongside desktop apps.

Helping protect against modern security threats

Windows 10 also introduces a number of advancements in security and identity protection features that are easy to manage and don’t compromise the user experience. One such advancement is the work we have done to create user identities for accessing devices, apps and sites that improve resistance to breach, theft or phishing. This approach is important because it takes the concept of multi-factor solutions such as smartcards or token-based system and builds it right into the operating system, in turn also eliminating the need for extra security hardware peripherals.

We’ve also made progress in helping companies protect their business data. While BitLocker helps protects data as it resides on a device, once the data leaves the device it’s no longer protected. With Windows 10 we are able to provide an additional layer of protection using containers and data separation at the application and file level – enabling protection that follows the data wherever it goes. Whether the data moves from a tablet or PC to a USB drive, email or the cloud – it maintains the same level of protection. This solution will stand out because of its ease of use and ability to help protect data right at the file level. Users won’t need to change behaviour, use special apps, or move to a separate, locked-down environment to keep corporate data secure.

With the increasingly more mobile workforce, secure access to network resources is an important priority for every organisation. People need to connect to critical data and apps, from anywhere and across multiple devices in order to stay productive. Windows 10 provides organisations with tools to deliver more secure and more controlled VPN access.

Managed for continuous innovation

As mentioned, with Windows 10, we are aiming to reduce the need for the time-consuming and costly wipe-and-reload approach to OS deployment. We know that app compatibility is critical for business. While we strive to have great compatibility with all existing apps, we’ve added tools for compatibility testing. We are creating a streamlined, reliable in-place upgrade process that can be initiated using current management infrastructure. Through new dynamic provisioning capabilities, businesses will be able to configure off-the-shelf devices, without reimaging.

Windows 10 helps keep customers secure and up to date

Windows 10 will be delivered in a way that gives more choice and flexibility to businesses. As a result, a business can pick the speed of innovation that is right for each group of its users, rather than apply a one size fits all solution.

Businesses will be able to opt-in to the fast-moving consumer pace, or lock-down mission critical environments to receive only security and critical updates to their systems. And businesses will have an in-between option for systems that aren’t mission critical, but need to keep pace with the latest innovations without disrupting the flow of business. And the choice isn’t one or the other for businesses; we expect that most will require a mixed approach where a number of scenarios can be accommodated.

Consumers, and opt-in businesses, will be able to take advantage of the latest updates as soon as they are available, delivered via Windows Update. Business customers can segment their own user groups, and choose the model and pace that works for them. They will have more choice in how they consume updates, whether through Windows Update or in a managed environment. And for all scenarios, security and critical updates will be delivered on a monthly basis.

Enabling management for every scenario

Windows has always offered device management capabilities that businesses need, leveraging the power of Active Directory and System Center to enable full control over Windows devices. With Windows 10, we will extend built-in mobile device management (MDM) capabilities to embrace new mobile-first, cloud-first scenarios and bring MDM capabilities to traditional laptops and desktops. Customers will be able to benefit from the simplicity of managing from the cloud (using services like Windows Intune) while having the controls they require. Whatever your scenario, Windows 10 will help meet your management needs.

An app store that is open for business

Windows 10 will also include a single app store that’s truly open for business. We’re planning for the new, unified app store to allow for volume app purchases based on existing organisational identity, flexible distribution and the ability for organisations to reclaim or re-use licenses. Organisations will also be able to create a customised store, curating store experiences that can include their choice of Store apps alongside company-owned apps into a separate employee store experience.

Experience Windows 10, starting tomorrow

We hope that you are as excited about Windows 10 as we are. Starting October 1st, we’ll launch the Windows Insider Program making available a technical preview of Windows 10 for its participants. We welcome your participation in the program where you can be among the first to experience new builds as soon as they’re available and have an opportunity to influence product development decisions through the new Windows Feedback app directly within the product. We’re confident you’ll enjoy Windows 10 and look forward to hearing what developments and new features you are looking forward to for your business.

It took a top flight lawyer to tell the tax profession what they didn’t want to hear: That they are out of touch with the zeitgeist on matters of tax avoidance.

Des Hudson, former Chief Executive of the Law Society and current chairman of the Taxation Disciplinary Board was addressing the great and the good of the tax profession at the CTA Address. His core argument was: There is a disconnect between the tax profession and what society demands on tax behaviour. To bridge this gap the tax profession must reconnect with society as a whole.

A member of the audience said the standard of behaviour tax advisers should adhere to is to advise clients to pay all the tax the law requires – not a penny more – and that clients should be assisted to pay as little tax as possible. Des Hudson said this was exactly his point: such behaviour is no longer socially acceptable.

If organisations and individuals are seen to be avoiding tax, even through legal means, that is wrong.  He went on to say that society’s expectations of the tax professional now goes beyond telling clients what the law allows, and arguing if you don’t like what the law allows then change the law. That position is no longer seen as persuasive, and the tax profession will fail when using that argument.

Tina Riches of Smith & Williamson made the point that current world of tax advice is completely different to that perceived by the public, as the tax cases going through the courts now are a result of what happened ten years ago.

Several members of the audience also emphasised that a big stumbling block to reforming the behaviour of certain tax practitioners is that the “tax profession” is not regulated; anyone is free to call themselves a tax adviser and is accepted by HMRC to provide tax services.

If Government wants to alter the way the professional bodies act they should consider whether tax should become a protected profession, with statutory rules on who can provide tax services. Des Hudson accepted that restricting who can provide tax services, such that those practitioners are subject to the professional bodies’ ethical code and rule book, is in the public interest.

Another view from the floor was that the profession should fight back and argue against the positions put forward by some of the so-called representatives of “civil society”, that the UK would be in a horrible position if tax legislation was applied in the way those representatives want. Des Hudson said it was too soon to do this, as informed public opinion is currently against tax avoidance.

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Kate Upcraft from AccountingWeb puts together some top tips that might offset the time you spend on .Gov filling in feedback forms – which do work sometime so don’t be discouraged – and wading through search results.

First off, use ‘filter by organisation’ box this can reduce several hundred results to dozens, which is a relief. I also like the email subscription as it allows me to see everything that HMRC have published that day, not just the selected items that HMRC decided could make it onto ‘What’s new’, often days after the announcement.

One of the structured email forms I’ve used a few times lately and that has always delivered is the ‘my tax code is wrong’. In my case it was to assist employees who needed spit allowances over two jobs. Completing the text box with the relevant suggested split has always led to correct P6s arriving with a couple of weeks.

Staying on the tax code theme employees with company cars should be aware that they should consider using the new service that HMRC is trialling to tell them that they have been allocated, changed or ceased to have a company car. Whilst the employer will provide that information via the P46 (car) form and post year end on the P11D, these are quarter/annual return windows so it is always good advice for an employee to let HMRC know of a car change immediately given the potential tax impact of the benefit.

For employees, too, the change of circumstances structured email is also vital. With the change of policy from April 2015 in respect of address usage that I mentioned in my last article, some employees will need to use the form to ‘lock’ their correspondence address with HMRC to one of their choosing rather than have this overwritten by the address provided by their employer or employers via the FPS. To amend a name, marital status or gender of course the form is obligatory for employees (or a letter or phone call) as these personal details can never be amended if supplied by employers, only if the employee provides them direct to HMRC.

Employers were glad to see the various calculators on the HMRC website given a reprieve and moved over to .Gov particularly the PAYE, NI and SMP calculators and they are all helpfully on one page. Staying on the maternity theme the tables that provide all the linked dates for SMP purposes can be found here and for SSP. I am bound to say though that it was a pity the SMP calculator was not up to date before the start of the tax year so that accurate results could be given looking ahead to 2015/16.

Come July HMRC hope that many employers will chose to use the online registration tool to advise them of the adoption of payrolling for benefits next April and within the same month (July 2015 that is) it is the deadline for the move to online share reporting via the PAYE online portal.

Finally there has been press coverage lately of a problem with one of the new i-forms (P55) to claim a tax refund if you have had an incorrect tax deduction applied to a flexi-drawdown or uncrystallised pension fund lump sum withdrawal under the new pension freedoms. HMRC have promised to review the form and many of us would like the Government Digital Service think again about the design of the new i-forms that you can’t print off as a pdf anymore so you have no idea what data to assemble before you sit down at the PC. Aside from the pension freedom refund forms there is also the generic tax refund online process.

So whilst .Gov and i-forms aren’t perfect yet, dealing with HMRC digitally is going to be the way forward as thy have less and less resources to answer the phone or respond to our letters. I will be fascinated to see how digital tax accounts progress with the new government.

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FRC launches series of measures aimed at improving the quality of corporate reporting at smaller quoted companies.

THE FRC has launched a series of measures aimed at improving the quality of corporate reporting at smaller quoted companies after finding that many accounts fail to meet investor expectations.

Many smaller quoted companies lack sufficient skilled resources and are unable to keep pace with new reporting requirements, the reporting watchdog found in a review of reporting by companies listed on junior stock markets.

It said it will develop ways of providing more focused training to finance staff; provide guidance to audit committees and boards on evaluating the adequacy of a company’s financial reporting function and process; promote options for reduced disclosures against IFRS against such companies; and provide annual guidance to boards of smaller quoted companies on the current issues, areas of focus for investors and common errors.

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THE GOVERNMENT is considering a review of a tax on banks in order to discourage multinational banks considering leaving the capital and establishing their HQs overseas.

The chancellor is to outline plans for the review in a speech later this week, in which he will say the government is committed to maintaining the competitiveness of banks, the Sunday Times reports.

After a scandal-hit year, HSBC is currently assessing the viability of relocating its financial centre to Asia, while Standard Chartered is also undertaking a similar process.

HSBC – Europe’s biggest bank – said in April it was prompted by “regulatory and structural changes” in the industry. It makes 80% of its profits in Asia.

A finance ministry spokesman declined to comment directly on the report but said: “We are committed to maintaining our position as a global financial hub.

“As set out at the budget, it is right that, as it becomes more profitable, our banking sector makes a fair contribution to fixing the public finances.”

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THE BRITISH ECONOMY is on firm footing as it grew faster than previously thought in 2014 and with solid, steady and sustainable growth predicted into 2016, according to the CBI’s latest economic forecast.

The confederation is predicting 2.4% growth for 2015 and 2.5% in 2016, representing a slight downgrade on February’s forecast of 2.7% and 2.6% respectively. That’s largely due to weaker-than-expected official GDP data for the first quarter of 2015, which it believes is a blip.

Following first-quarter growth of 0.3%, it is expecting a strong rebound in the coming months with quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.8% in Q2, 0.7% in Q3 and 0.6% in Q4. This also follows the official upgrade of growth in 2014 as a whole to 2.8%, from 2.6%.

Despite the optimistic growth prospects looking healthy at home, there are headwinds to the recovery, with a still sluggish eurozone and renewed uncertainty over Greece’s economic future.

CBI director-general John Cridland said: “Our members are feeling more upbeat than some of the recent official numbers suggest, with our surveys showing that retail and the service sectors in particular are performing strongly.

“Businesses on the ground are seeing a pretty solid recovery. Business investment is making a strong contribution to growth, while solid consumer spending is being underpinned by rock bottom inflation, low interest rates and rising incomes.”

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A slowdown in what is now, on some metrics, the world’s largest economy could be a mixed blessing, writes George Buckley.

Up until the 1980s, China hardly featured in trade with the G7. The country taking the largest proportion of its goods in the first half of that decade was Japan, thanks to its geographical proximity, with the remaining G7 nations each accounting for less than 1%.

That changed from the mid-1980s, as the US moved to 20%, according to recent figures. The UK was later to the party, with Chinese import penetration rising from just 0.5% in 1990 to 9%. It is no wonder that, on purchasing power parity terms, the IMF expects China to be worth close to a fifth of global output by the end of this decade.

China achieved its rise by focusing on trade and investment, at the expense of spending. But that is changing, and the transition to a more balanced economy has been responsible for the slowing in China’s growth rate. The government expects growth of 7% this year; other forecasters are less bullish and some believe reported growth overstates the true rate. Deutsche Bank’s (DB) economist for China is expecting a ‘mini hard landing’ – growth falling to below 7% in the first half of this year. To compare, growth averaged about 10% per year in the decade to 2010.

One reason for our view is that policy easing has not happened as quickly as we might have expected. Moreover, fiscal policy is not picking up the slack (China is in the midst of a fiscal contraction) and the property market is suffering.

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Does Sage ending the 2012 and 2013 version for Sage 50 Payroll affect you?

Sage have contacted their resellers to inform them that as of April 2015 Sage 50 Payroll v.2012 and v.2013 will be withdrawing updates and support for your software. It will become non-compliant with legislation and may face compatibility issues with other software.

As you know, being unsupported can cause problems, and in recent times Payroll legislation has changed rapidly. The introduction of Real Time Information (RTI) and Automatic Enrolment has meant businesses are benefiting more than ever from legislatively compliant and up to date software.

We are able to provide a no-obligation consultation to assist you with looking at alternative solutions. Sage are encouraging their users to move to a monthly payment alternative which is not always recommended and there may be more cost effective payroll solutions available.

For more information or advice, please contact us by completing the form below

 

Most organisations have to reconcile supplier accounts as part of their audit processes, which is an arduous task. But is this good for business?

Reconciling the supplier account ensures supplier balances are accurate for financial reporting and profits are maximised by ensuring no credit notes are missing or invoices duplicated.

In principle, the process for reconciling supplier accounts is very straightforward.  The supplier’s credit control department sends a statement of account, which contains the unpaid invoices on the their sales ledger, to the buyer’s accounts payable department.  The accounts payable team at the buying organisation compare the statement to their accounts payable ledger(s) to identify any differences.

Accounts payable time pressures

The challenge arises because accounts payable teams already have a full schedule managing the day-to-day activities of processing invoices through to payment.

This is exacerbated by the fact that supplier statements are in paper or PDF-based formats, and can include thousands of transactions. To identify exceptions, the accounts payable team needs to manually check details on the accounting system of every transaction listed. It can take hours, and sometimes days, to reconcile one vendor.

The result is that organisations do not find it practical or possible to reconcile every supplier, and therefore focus their time on their largest suppliers to ensure that they are paid on time.

This avoids disruption in supply chains and ensures liabilities are accurate for cash flow forecasting and financial reporting.  But, it means they are potentially denting their profits due to errors going unidentified on statements.

Automation offers a partial answer

For some time, technology of some degree has been used by many organisations to automate invoice processing.

Scanning and workflow were initially deployed to remove paper from the process, followed by OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to automate invoice entry.

Then to a lesser degree, supplier portals and e-invoicing networks started to drive further adoption of electronic methods of communication between buyer and supplier.

But if an invoice does not pass the checks and controls organisations have in place to prevent errors, manual intervention will be required to resolve the issue, regardless of how the invoice was received.

Even with the best controls and technology in place, invoice errors can still slip through the net, which reinforces the importance of reconciling supplier accounts by comparing their statement to the accounts payable ledger.

Supplier statement reconciliation is an opportunity for accounts payable to spot invoice discrepancies before they are paid and to make sure the invoice process is complete.

Identifying discrepancies

The key is to identify any invoices or credit notes on the supplier statement that are not on the accounts payable ledger or vice versa.

Identifying incorrect invoice numbers will reduce the risk of duplicate invoices. Other common scenarios that only tend to be spotted through reconciling the supplier’s account include identifying invoices entered with incorrect currency, and invoices on the ledger that are, in reality, credits.

Reconciling supplier accounts ensures supplier liabilities are accurate for financial reporting and profits are maximised. The latter comes partly from ensuring that no credit notes are missed and duplicates are minimised.  Potentially more significant is that it enables the periodic clearing of accruals on the balance sheet from goods being booked in, but no invoice having been received. By reconciling supplier statements to a point in time, more of these liabilities can be cleared and returned to profit.

Technology adopted for ‘heavy lifting’

Accounts payable and shared services are increasingly being required to undertake more statement reconciliation as part of their control processes.

As this needs to be achieved with no increase in headcount, in the drive to reconcile as many supplier accounts as possible, accounts payable are looking for automation technology to do the ‘heavy lifting’.

Cloud benefits

Automating the supplier statement reconciliation process using a cloud-based application solves a problem for the CFO without the need to invest in the software and infrastructure associated with on-premise applications.

It also gives them an opportunity to assess whether other ancillary processes can be moved to the cloud to further evaluate whether it’s a viable option for other core financial applications

Although there is not a wholesale migration of core ERP financial applications to the cloud, CFOs are dipping their toes in the water by trying out bolt-on financial applications for specific processes such as supplier statement reconciliation.

This is backed up by various surveys indicating that CFO intentions are to increase their use of cloud-based technology.

For example, Hackett Group’s recent Purchase to Pay Study (P2P) found that 45% of respondents were leveraging a combination of on-premise and cloud P2P solutions, 18% planned to eventually migrate all P2P solutions to a software-as-a-service or cloud deployment model, while 13% were piloting cloud solutions.

Raising the profile of accounts payable

Technology continues to change the role of shared services.  For the accounts payable team, it removes the manual, repetitive data entry tasks, thereby allowing users to focus on managing exceptions and adding value for internal as well as external stakeholders in the process.  Statement reconciliation also benefits the supplier as it ensures they are paid and that their customer balances are accurate for cash flow forecasting.

Reconciling supplier accounts ensures that supplier liabilities are accurate and profits maximised.  Financial results for the company are therefore accurate, which means that both the CFO and auditors are happy.  This is good news for accounts payable because it raises their profile within the organisation due to the vital, and now visible, role it plays.

Posted by Daniel Kimpton- Statement-Matching.com

Pegasus Software can help with all of the above. Please contact us for more information.