Oakes Accounting Ltd

23/10/2026

Here's a quick financial exercise that could be worth doing this week. Open your business bank statements and identify every recurring software subscription, membership and online service.

Then ask yourself: Are we still using it?

It's surprisingly easy for businesses to accumulate subscriptions as they grow.

You sign up for a free trial. You introduce a new system. Someone leaves the business but their licence remains active. You upgrade to a package with features nobody uses.

Individually, the costs might seem insignificant.

But five unused subscriptions averaging £40 a month add up to £2,400 a year.

And that's before considering duplicated software or plans that are more expensive than the business actually needs.

Try reviewing:

✔️ What you're paying for
✔️ Whether it's still being used
✔️ Whether two systems do the same job
✔️ Whether your current package is appropriate
✔️ Whether annual billing would offer a genuine saving

Not every financial improvement needs to involve increasing sales.

Sometimes it's simply making sure the business isn't paying for things it no longer needs.

📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

21/10/2026

A customer paying late isn't just frustrating.

It could be costing your business money.

Under the UK's late commercial payment rules, businesses may be entitled to charge statutory interest and fixed compensation on qualifying overdue business-to-business invoices.

Where statutory interest applies, the rate is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, although contractual terms and other conditions can affect your entitlement.

There's also fixed compensation depending on the size of the debt:

💷 £40 for debts up to £999.99
💷 £70 for debts between £1,000 and £9,999.99
💷 £100 for debts of £10,000 or more

You may also be able to recover reasonable additional debt recovery costs in qualifying circumstances. Of course, charging interest isn't always the right commercial decision for every customer relationship. But knowing your rights is important.

A late invoice isn't something your business should automatically have to absorb without question.

Review your payment terms, make sure they're communicated clearly and have a consistent process for following up overdue invoices.

📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

19/10/2026

Your business might look very different today from when you first took out your insurance.

Perhaps you've started offering new services, invested in expensive equipment, taken on employees or begun working from different premises.

But have you updated your insurance to reflect those changes?

It's something that's easily overlooked, particularly when policies renew automatically.

Depending on your circumstances, changes to your business could affect the cover you need or the information your insurer expects you to disclose.

A few things worth reviewing:

✔️ Are your current business activities accurately described?
✔️ Is your equipment covered at its current replacement value?
✔️ Have you taken on staff or changed how you operate?
✔️ Are there any exclusions you haven't considered?

Insurance is often treated as another annual business expense. But the real value is knowing your business has appropriate protection when something goes wrong.

A useful reminder: review your cover whenever your business changes, not just when the renewal arrives.

📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

Oakes Accounting specialise in providing a tailor made accounting service, including bookkeeping and tax for small businesses.

16/10/2026

We've all heard: “Just put it through the business.”

But your business bank card isn't a magic tax-saving card. Before making a purchase because you think you'll "get it back on tax", ask three things.

1. Is there genuinely a business purpose? Personal spending doesn't become a business expense simply because the company paid for it.

2. How will it actually be treated? Different purchases can have different accounting and tax treatments. An everyday running cost isn't necessarily treated in the same way as equipment or an asset.

3. Would I still buy it without the tax saving? Tax relief generally reduces the cost of qualifying expenditure.

It doesn't make unnecessary spending free. If you spend £1 solely because you want to save a fraction of £1 in tax, you're still worse off financially.

Buy what the business needs. Then make sure it's treated correctly. Not the other way around.
📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

14/10/2026

Here's a quick exercise for any business owner: Take your biggest customer and calculate what percentage of your total revenue they represent.

Then ask: What happens if they leave? A large customer can be fantastic for a business. But becoming too dependent on one can create customer concentration risk.

If one client represents a significant proportion of your income, losing them could affect:
→ Cash flow
→ Staffing requirements
→ Profitability
→ Your ability to cover overheads
→ Your plans for growth

This doesn't mean you should turn good customers away. It means you should know the risk exists and plan accordingly.

Your accounts can tell you much more than whether you've made a profit. They can show you where your business may be vulnerable.
📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

12/10/2026

If your company's financial year is nearly finished, now is a good time to speak to your accountant.

Why before year-end? Because while you're still in the financial year, there may be decisions you can actually make.You can review:
→ How profitable the year is looking
→ Expected tax liabilities
→ Planned business expenditure
→ Pension contributions and remuneration planning
→ Whether customers owe you significant amounts
→ Cash needed for upcoming commitments
→ What the next year is likely to look like

Once the year has finished, your accountant can prepare the accounts and calculate what happened. Before it finishes, they can help you plan what happens next.

So don't think of your year-end as simply a deadline for your accountant. Use it as a financial planning point for your business.
📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

07/10/2026

It's not the nicest question to ask. But it's an extremely useful one.

Take the cash your business has available and compare it with the essential cash commitments it needs to meet each month.

That gives you an indication of your cash runway.

For example:
£30,000 available cash.
£10,000 essential monthly cash requirements.

Roughly 3 months of runway, before considering other cash movements and available facilities.

Why is this useful? Because two businesses with £30,000 in the bank can be in completely different positions.

One might need £5,000 a month to operate. Another might need £25,000.

The bank balance alone doesn't tell you how financially resilient the business is. Knowing your runway can help you decide when you can safely invest, when costs need attention and how urgently you need to respond to a fall in sales.

Don't just ask how much cash you have. Ask how long it would last.
📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

05/10/2026

This is particularly worth knowing if your income or business profits vary significantly from year to year.

The standard pension annual allowance for 2026/27 is £60,000, although some people have a lower allowance depending on their circumstances.

But here's the part that's easily missed:

You may be able to carry forward unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years.

That can become relevant if, for example, you've had an unusually profitable year and want to make a larger pension contribution.

It isn't simply a case of looking at this year's £60,000 figure, though.

Your previous pension contributions, earnings, pension membership and whether restrictions such as the tapered or money purchase annual allowance apply all need considering.

So if you're planning a significant pension contribution, don't automatically assume this year's headline allowance is the end of the calculation.

There may be unused allowance sitting behind you.

This is one of those areas where planning before 5 April can make a significant difference.

📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

02/10/2026

You're busy enough to hire.

Great.

But before advertising the role, there's a calculation worth doing.

The cost of employing someone isn't simply their headline salary.

Depending on the circumstances, you may also need to budget for things such as:

• employer National Insurance
• employer pension contributions
• equipment and software
• training
• recruitment costs
• other employment-related overheads

Then comes the question businesses often miss:

How much additional gross profit does this person need to help generate for the hire to make commercial sense?

Suppose the total annual cost of adding someone to the business was £40,000.

If your average gross margin were 40%, you wouldn't simply need £40,000 of additional sales to cover that cost.

At that margin, you'd need £100,000 of additional revenue to generate £40,000 of gross profit.

That's a much more useful calculation before hiring.

Growth decisions should be based on the economics of the business — not simply how busy everyone feels.

📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk

02/10/2026

Let's say your business has £8,000 of fixed costs each month. And after the direct costs of delivering your work, you retain an average 40% gross margin.

How much revenue do you need before you've covered those £8,000 of fixed costs?

Not £8,000. It's £20,000.

Because: £20,000 revenue × 40% = £8,000 gross profit.

Only after that point do you begin generating operating profit, assuming those figures capture the relevant costs.

That's your break-even point. And it's a far more useful monthly target than: “Let's try to beat last month.”

Once you understand break-even, you can start answering better questions:

What happens if costs increase?
How much more do we need to sell before hiring?
What happens if our margin falls?
How much revenue do we actually need to hit our desired profit?

Your sales target shouldn't be a number picked because it sounds ambitious. It should have maths behind it.
📞 0151 342 7669
🌐 oakesaccounting.co.uk