Alison Tosh

by Andrew Neill

Would you believe that for many, the summer months bring disappointment and sadness, sometimes even leaving many feeling bereft…. But how can this be? Well, The Premier League is off season….

Now, whilst this is devastating news for football fans, leaving them twiddling their thumbs… the same can’t be said for the footballers. They may not be playing every week but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped working….

This also applies in the world of business, no matter who you are or what your business, there will come time when you find yourself in the “off season”, but it isn’t always a bad thing.

For those businesses starting up, it’s often the early years that present companies with quite a few “off seasons” (in every sense of the term), but with careful planning and guidance these can really be used to the advantage of the business. Take the example of Bournemouth Football club. They will take part in the top flight of English football this season for the first time in their history. Yet in the last 20 years the club went into administration twice and nearly ceased trading forever. Their success story can be used as an inspiration to almost any business; there will be periods where your business is not at its best and may even be making a loss, but use those times to train for the next “Season” of profit and growth.

Perhaps your business is a lot like the football league, scheduled around certain time periods in the calendar. If you are a home fuel provider then your “Season” is going to be winter whilst summer will be the expected quieter period.

Arguably, challenges, and indeed failure, can be the most successful aspect of business as it allows us to strive for improvement. There is no business which can forever continue to grow year on year and never experience difficult spells. However, you can mitigate the chance of failure. Just like the off season in the football calendar, you can combat it. Business owners can prepare for the off season with contingency plans and other actions.

If you are a business owner and you want to prepare for uncertainties and strategically plan how to use your “off season” to the Business’s advantage, please contact us at Ross Boyd Limited on 02895 320 155 or by emailing info@rossboyd.co.uk. We have vast experience in supporting businesses and actively taking a role in making your business successful, even in the “off Season”.

Ross Boyd Limited has been making the headlines of late, with two appearances in the last week! Click on the images below to see why we’ve gone and got our name in print…

Saturday 6th  June saw the bunting unfurled and the gazebos erected as Ross Boyd Ltd held their first Family BBQ! The firm is keen to offer clients something extra.

Over 100 clients and friends were welcomed to Ballydrain Road for a burger, a beer and a spin on the Bouncy Castle! And although the weather was less than
favourable early in the day, the clouds held on to their rain and at times there was even a hint of sunshine! Unheard of for a BBQ in Northern Ireland in June! Kids young and old were catered for with some serious competition in the football department, outstanding displays of bouncing prowess on the bouncy castle, faces painted to a standard that Van Gough would have been proud of, and live music really set the day off!

The event was a great opportunity for clients new and longstanding, to come together and catch up with the team and get an update on the latest innovations in Cloud accounting and developments in the world of Xero, all while enjoying the finest of foods, cakes and wines.

We also held a raffle in aid with prizes kindly donated by Established Coffee, Joli Designer Clothing and Neill Wines, in aid of The Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice which raised over £250 for this great cause, as well as creating some happy winners at the same time. A really worthy cause I’m sure you’ll agree and thank you to those who took part.

We would like to thank everyone who attended the event and we really look forward to welcoming you all to our next one. If you couldn’t make it never fear, our next one won’t be too far away, so watch this space! Although we can’t promise there’ll be face painting, fun is always guaranteed!

We strive to offer a range of technical and more informal events to assist clients achieve great financial management and profitable business growth.

Ross Boyd Limited are delighted to have been short-listed for The Belfast Business Awards 2015, Business Growth Award, alongside some great company!

RBL are offering a Second Year Undergraduate the opportunity to join us for six to eights during the summer.  This is a great opportunity to gain valuable experience, work on your skills and build experience by working in a professional environment.

Please express your interest by emailing careers@rossboyd.co.uk by close of business, Friday 24th April 2015

Crowdfunding is a hot topic at the moment. Many businesses are now bypassing the traditional route of bank-lending as it often just isn’t up to speed with today’s fast paced business environment.

Crowdfunding is a growing phenomenon that brings together businesses and investors via very efficient websites. Put simply, crowdfunding allows businesses to set out a business idea along with a funding target and deadline. Investors can then donate between £1 and several thousand, receiving an investment return via interest payments or goods of a comparable value.

Crowdfunding is gaining momentum throughout the UK, with the local business angel network Halo recently reporting that it was worth £1.7billion in the UK last year, with around 4% of small business funding being raised through this channel.

Businesses typically find that crowdfunding offers a much quicker and less onerous way of raising funds, although interest rates can often be higher than high street banks, depending on credit profile.

At RBL, we can help you decide the most appropriate way to fund your business. We regularly deal with the major crowdfunders, as well as banks and other finance providers. We also have expert advisors on hand to help you put together a strategic business plan, assist you with funding applications and make sure your business makes the most of the funding it receives.

If you would like our help and advice please get in touch at info@rossboyd.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you and getting you in with the ‘in crowd’.

Xero – The Beautiful Accounting Software…

We are holding another Breakfast Seminar at our City Centre Offices to showcase Xero… the Beautiful Accounting Software

We’d love it if you could join us for a cuppa, a croissant and a chat about how Ross Boyd Ltd., together with Xero, can make your life that little bit easier and really change the way you do business.

Friday 20^th March 2015 8am- 9.30am
Thomas House 14-16 James Street South
RSVP events@rossboyd.co.uk by 17/03/15

By Andrew Neill

The most recent publication of the annual European Football Rich-List has garnered many a headline, including how Real Madrid have done it again and gone and claimed top spot for the tenth year in a row! The list is made up of publicly available information and uses Clubs’ total revenue as the measure of wealth.

However, this isn’t the only way you can measure the relative wealth of a business. Net profit, cash-flow or net assets are also great indicators. There is a well-known saying that “turnover is vanity, profit is sanity but cash is reality” and this has real relevance for many small businesses still struggling to recover from the recession.

So let’s have a look at how viewing business wealth from different angle changes how profitable they really are!  We’ve looked at how the Top 10 richest European football clubs compare when using alternative measures of wealth. So let’s see how it changes things….

 
So apart from Real Madrid, all the other clubs have different rankings depending on how you assess their wealth. Most striking is the shift in position for Paris Saint Germain, occupying 5^th place on the rich list when measured by Revenue, slumps all the way to last place when assessed on profitability and net assets.

The table really underlines the importance of properly understanding what information matters when you’re making informed commercial decisions. Whether that’s assessing a potential business acquisition or just understanding how your business is really performing, having the most appropriate financial information available is what’s important. Here at RBL we are experts in working with SME businesses to ensure their accounting systems generate the information that is right for them, and they have clear growth business plans. So why not get in touch with Sarah-Jane Valentine at Ross Boyd Ltd on 02033 977 755 to book in for a free consultation and make sure your company is at the top of the Premier League.

Revised guidance in relation to contingent assets for 2015/2016

By Brian Stewart, Associate Director

The Pension Protection Fund recognises certain types of contingent assets in its calculation of the PPF levy, including guarantees given by related companies which are known as ‘Type A contingent assets’.

Some recent important changes resulting from the PPF’s recent determination regarding the 2015/16 levy are as follows:

• Trustees now need to give a more robust certificate regarding the Guarantor’s ability to honour the guarantee.  The certificate is now required to be in positive terms (unlike prior years) and requires the trustees to certify a fixed cash sum (‘the realisable recovery’).
• Broadly speaking the amount which should be certified is the lower of:

(a)    any cap defined by reference to a fixed amount in the guarantee; and

(b)   the amount which the trustees are reasonably satisfied that the guarantor could meet, if called upon.

• The certified realisable amount can be lower than the amount covered by the guarantee, enabling trustees to change the realisable amount each year without having to formally amend the terms of the guarantee.
• The trustees must also take account of the likely impact of the immediate insolvency of all the employers, other than the guarantor where that guarantor is also an employer. Trustees should not place value on a guarantor’s investments in the scheme employer unless they are confident that value would survive employer insolvency.  Careful consideration is required to assess the impact of employer insolvency on the guarantor, as the value of the guarantor could be impacted by numerous factors.
• While the PPF recognises that trustees are not specifically required to obtain a full covenant assessment of the guarantor, a detailed review, in some form will often likely be necessary.

We believe that Trustees and employers should now be considering these issues to ensure compliance with the PPF’s deadline of 31 March 2015.  Our pension advisory team are experienced Chartered Accountants who have provided covenant assessments and contingent asset certifications to a significant number of schemes and we are happy to explore the updated requirements in more detail with you. Please feel free to contact us on 02033 977 755 or email us at info@rossboyd.co.uk to discuss further.