Here we share some of our favourite industry blogs, and explain why.

• Taking Stock

Taking Stock is a well-read blog from the people over at Accountancy Age. Expect plenty of “Gags and Gossip” from this popular site.

• CIMA

This blog from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and includes comment and analysis on key industry issues. Last month, CIMA also offered members the opportunity to blog on CIMAsphere,

• AccMan

Here, Dennis Howlett, industry veteran and prolific blogger, gives his views on the major issues of the day, providing comment on everything from SAP to Sage. The latest addition to the blog is AccMan TV, live streaming from the man himself – what more could we ask for?

• Telegraph.co.uk

Tracy Corrigan is a columnist and assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph, focussing mainly on business and finance. Her regularly-updated blog takes a thought-provoking stance on interesting stories hitting the headlines in the UK and across the world.

• AccountingWeb

The A-Team Blog is from the team behind AccountingWEB.co.uk, providing topical news and insights on a range of issues relevant to accountants and accounting professionals. Definitely worth a read!

A list of our favourite HR and payroll blogs will follow soon….

Top of the blogs…. is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

HMRC have now confirmed that the backlog of forms has been cleared and new codes should be forthcoming. Remember that changes of car cannot be reported on P46(car) for this tax year, the taxpayer must make contact directly with HMRC to report a change of car and initiate any code review. Changes of car will not be reported by employers until P11Ds are submitted in July 2011. The validation will be changed back for the 2011/12 tax year so that employers can once again report new, removed and changed cars.

Kate Upcraft
Payroll writer and lecturer
ISIS Support Services Ltd  
kateupcraft@btconnect.com

HMRC lets employees down on car tax codes is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

It had been expected that HMRC would take this approach but I know from my days as a payroll manger that those extra seven days were very welcome if it all went pear-shaped,  and are often vital for payroll bureaux who struggle to get some clients to provide the payroll data that they need. Will it change your year-end timetable?

P.S. Of course the additional penalties for those who can’t get ready for 19^th will help the Treasury coffers, won’t they ?!

Kate Upcraft

Payroll writer and lecturer

ISIS Support Services Ltd

kateupcraft@btconnect.com

End of year late filing concession scrapped is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

How do you handle jury service payment as there is a right and, a very definitely wrong, way? If you reduce the juror’s allowance from gross pay then the employee will receive more pay than normal (and the employer will pay more employer NICs) which means that the certificate of loss of earnings that you provided to the court has been completed incorrectly – essentially this is fraud. What should happen is that the net pay is adjusted so that when the juror’s allowance is taken into account the employee’s net pay is the same as usual.

In order to correctly calculate the amount to be deducted, the employer needs to carry out a net to gross calculation. For example an employee pays tax at 20% and NICs at 11%, and his normal earnings for a day are £100. For each day the employee is on jury service the employer will pay £100 but reduce it by £94.13 which is the grossed up equivalent of £64.95 (the 2010/11 full day rate for the first ten days of jury service). The calculation is £94.13 (100 – (20 +11) ÷ 100) = £64.95.

Anyone going on jury service? is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

The fuel benefit charge multiplier for 2010/11 is £18,000. The actual charge is determined by multiplying this figure by the CO2 emissions’ percentage applicable to the car.

As HMRC no longer gives a month’s notice of AFR changes the old rates can be used for up to a month without HMRC deeming, for example, that private fuel has been provided as full reimbursement has not taken place. It is however vital that employers ensure that expenses systems are updated by 30th June so that these new rates are in place for private mileage reimbursement at the very latest from 1st July.

These latest rates are based on prices per litre of 119.9p (petrol), 121.9p (diesel) and 65.4p (LPG). For the purpose of these rates, HMRC treats petrol-hybrid cars as petrol cars.

New company car fuel rates effective today is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Attend any conference and the message is the same: everything technology-related is moving to the cloud. Gartner suggests cloud computing will take such a stranglehold on the market that one fifth of businesses will own absolutely no IT assets by 2012.

The problem is that ‘next big things’ can quickly become over-hyped, with little substance behind the claims of transformation. Keynote experts regularly talk at conferences and claim that the cloud is already affecting the present day delivery of technology, never mind the future.

So, it’s time to deflate the puff and understand the real deal with cloud. In short, where will on-demand computing affect your business?

In your company’s case, the simple answer is probably not very much – and only in specific areas. The cloud will eventually have a tremendous impact on the provision of technology but many companies will be slow to invest.

The quality of available on-demand technology can lag well behind the sense of hype. Businesses are necessarily concerned about relying on new areas of development for their IT provision and data storage.

What happens if the cloud solution falls down and the provider isn’t able to offer the right level of support? Worse, how do you know where your information is really being held?

Make sure such critical questions are not unanswerable. Take time to consider your options. Speak to experts that can show demonstrable returns on investment, providing on-demand technology that really can deliver measurable and valuable benefits.

Dabbling in the cloud needn’t be a risky venture. Select elements of your business that can be managed by a specialist in on-demand provision without security risk to your business. For instance spend analysis is proving to work effectively in the cloud as demonstrated by Rosslyn Analytics’ SaaS spend analysis technology.

While delivery levels in cloud might not yet match the hype, early successes in specific business areas will help you to define a route to future success.

Is the cloud simply the pie-in-the-sky? is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

XBRL, (Extensible Business Reporting Language), a ‘language for the electronic communication of business and financial data’, is being developed by the non-profit organisation XBRL International, to improve the standard of financial reporting for investors, analysts and journalists).

In May 2008, the SEC stated that the largest US organisations should be filing their main reports via XBRL and that other listed US organisations should be filing via XBRL within 3 years. This was followed up by the statement in September 2008 that the SEC is potentially looking to move to IFRS by 2014.

These are two of the clearest signs yet that there may soon be one single global taxonomy (IFRS) and that all US listed organisations will be required to file their reports via XBRL, potentially by IFRS

This will increase the global drive for the adoption of XBRL, following up local initiatives in Australia, Belgium, Japan, France, Norway and here in the UK. We have already been able to submit accounts to Companies House and Corporation Tax comps to HMRC – but this has yet to go mainstream in the UK.

These recent moves from the SEC may rekindle interest in the benefits that XBRL has for the reporting and consumption of financial and business data.  We continue to watch with interest

XBRL – a way to go? is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment