Avanti share their August highlights

August is a notoriously quiet month as everyone jets off for their annual summer holiday.  However, it was another busy month for the Avanti team.  While some staff members went on their hols, others stayed behind to pick up the workload and assist clients.  MD, Victoria Sharp, was available on weekends, offering proactive advice online and meeting clients in the office on Saturdays to provide an accountancy service out of hours. #NotAllHeroesWearCapes

Here, Avanti Group summarises how they have helped their clients during the past month:

An investigation from HMRC can be random, are you prepared for such an event and its onerous burden?

Avanti can help with tax investigations!

• Having a qualified/experienced agent carrying out your various financial activities such as VAT, Payroll, Bookwork, Yearend Accounts & Tax can eliminate an investigation happening in the first place, or our checking service provides a cost-effective option to add peace of mind before submissions to HMRC
• We can provide advice about the result of an investigation and the next steps to take
• We offer a fee protection insurance policy, that provides funds to pay for our fees in the event of an investigation
• We become the main contact for the HMRC inspector, allowing the client to continue with their business.  At each stage we keep the client informed and nothing is done without their approval

We can also help identify scam mail 

Avanti saved a client from potentially losing £6,000 instantly, as well as possibly linking themselves to money launderers. Not only did we prevent the client financial inconvenience and damage to reputation, we also hope we have saved them any more stress.

We received a testimonial from a client that reinforced for us why we do what we do, it’s all about helping business owners achieve their goals for us “When I first became self-employed, Victoria met with me and gave up her time to talk about all of the benefits of trading as a Limited Company, and all of the things to be careful of.  She is a wealth of knowledge.  Since then, she and her staff at Avanti have helped with all manner of queries, including when I got an unexpected bill through from HMRC as I had decided to do my own payslips and wasn’t doing it right – I swiftly changed to having Avanti do this job for me and they got rid of the fine that HMRC were asking me for!” – Samantha Thorpe.

Team News

We hired two new members of the team and look forward to welcoming them in the coming month, watch this space for new team member introductions.

Money laundering

Our theme for the month was money laundering, and we hope that we helped you to understand if you are vulnerable and what you should be considering if you suspect suspicious activity:

1. Has someone been vague or reluctant to talk about the exact sums of money involved in a deal, or who the investors are?
2. Have assets appeared suddenly or has somebody floated the idea of making a loss?
3. Have there been sudden changes to your working relationship with partners or other businesses?

The government has become increasing vigilant in its efforts to combat money laundering over the years by passing anti-money-laundering regulations.  These regulations require financial institutions, such as accountants, to have systems in place to detect and report suspected money-laundering activities.

Did you know that if you are asked to provide documents for an anti-money laundering check, the following documents are not accepted?

• Provisional driving licence
• Mobile phone bills
• Credit card statements

Software

Are you aware that Avanti can offer discounts on Xero accounting software?  To find out why you should choose Xero, click here, with making Tax Digital on the Horizon, having cloud based software is the way to go.

Tips for networking successfully…

The Power of Facebook Groups

Don’t just use Facebook to promote your business and advertise what you do.  Use the power of Facebook groups to build a community around your business. View competitors as fellow collaborators, building mutually beneficial relationships.

• Make your community a place where advice can be shared
• Allow your community to see the human side behind your business too
• Respond to queries and interactions, so that contributors feel valued
• Support other businesses

Essentially your Facebook community should be treated as any other networking group that you physically attend, it may be virtual, but it will lead to real connections and business if you nurture it.

Connections

Whether it is your first meeting, or you can’t get enough of networking events, don’t lose sight of the power of networking or the reason you decided to visit or even join a group.

At first glance, when visiting a group, you may think that there are many people you cannot connect with. Remember the old saying ’don’t judge a book by its cover’, you never know who you may be able to connect you to. Therefore, when you network it is about making those connections with people, so if they can’t use your services, they can refer their contacts to you.

Be a connector and get connected!

August saw the inaugural meeting for Avanti Networking Yare in Norwich, if you are interested in attending and growing your professional networks contact Sharon.baker@avantigroup.uk.com for details.

August also saw the Avanti Team starting to prepare for the launch of Avanti Networking in Tonbridge in September.

Avanti offer a pic ‘n’ mix of services, so whether you’re looking for an accountant who does it all, or just someone to handle your payroll, we can assist you.

For modern accountancy with traditional values, give us a call (08000) 388 799