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A while back I wrote an article on what pick and mix could teach us about pricing. It focused on the recent move towards fixed price cups and drew a comparison to our bookkeeping services. You can read the article here.

While on a family break at the weekend I discovered another lesson from pick and mix. When I was younger it wasn’t called pick and mix. It was simply loose sweets in large jars. The shopkeeper would weigh them out and put them into a paper bag.…

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is used to convert scanned or photographed images of paper documents and PDF files, into machine-encoded data. It may not garner headlines in the same way as some of the more fashionable tech trends, yet it’s helped to drive considerable social change and innovation in business over the years. So how has it developed and what significance does it hold for organisations today?

OCR through the ages  

OCR isn’t ‘new’ technology, having being leveraged …

Bookkeepers and accountants are two of only a small number of professions still stick with the broken model of charging by the hour. Before you take offence at my comment, let me explain why I think the model is broken, and how we can learn from other sectors.

If we go back 10 years, almost every bookkeeper and accountant was charging by the hour. It was always done that way and it was easy. Pretty much everyone also used Sage. Things have changed in our profession though, and problems have st…

The Bookkeepers Alliance is committed to promoting a strong sense of community with bookkeepers from across the UK.  When we work together amazing things can happen and that's one of the primary reasons we exist.

One way we do this is through our regular Coffee Clubs across the UK.

What are Coffee Clubs? Sometimes, being a bookkeeper is lonely. The Bookkeepers Alliance has an active facebook group, but there's just no substitute for having a face to face chat with others who are in a similar posit…

It can be hard to keep on top of everything when running a bookkeeping business. You are constantly juggling client work, marketing, invoicing, networking, responding to emails, client meetings…. the list is endless.

Running a business is even harder if you are juggling other responsibilities. You may be caring for children or elderly relatives, dealing with health issues or holding down a job until you can leave to focus solely on your business. As a business owner, your time really is precious …

Another chance to see one of our most popular sessions from last years conference.  If you still dont have a ticket for this year, we have just a few remaining.  You can grab one at www.bkconf.co.uk

Automation is a bit of a hot topic in the bookkeeping world at the moment, but what does it actually mean and what does it mean for your business?

What is automation?

At it’s core, it’s really just systemising how tasks are carried out, often using software to replace some of the human time and effort needed. Many bookkeepers, including me, use it as a way of reducing time spent on data entry so we can focus on client relationships and business growth. For me it’s about using my time wisely and …

We recently caught up with one of our award winning bookkeeping members, Emma James, and found out a bit about her business and her journey.

Tell us a bit about your practice

On the 1st of September I'll be 2 years old.  It's just me at the moment, but that could change. I mainly work with remote clients.  I have a few on site, but I'm only taking on new remote clients in the future.

I only work with Xero, and I’m focused on very, very small businesses.  I feel that the term SME is too wide so I…