It has to be said that Revenue and Customs are not bad at making tax matters easier and less worrying. It’s go to be a struggle just getting people’s tax returns in, so trying to make themselves more cuddly and approachable has go to be hard work. They keep giving it a go though.

Now they have released some videos to help small business people get to grips with stuff like tax, accounting, and record keeping. Here is the video on bookkeeping]

I have to say it’s pretty good. Have a look. It underlines the point that every small business needs good bookkeeping.

The rest of the videos offer valuable help too. As is always the case though with HMRC (and this will never change because of the very nature of the beast) they only go so far.

Yes, it’s important to get your taxes done, to make sure your business records are kept well, and that you understand how VAT reporting affects you. Yes, you get the right answers if you ask. But, only if you know the right questions. How can you know what questions to ask?

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Arithmo has been accepted by BASDA - Business Application Software Developers Association - a member-driven not-for-profit organisation that represents almost 200 of the world’s leading business application software suppliers and partners.

We are proud to have been accepted as members of the association, and to work with them towards a goal of creating excellent software for business.

I had a really good, long chat with Jairo Rojas, Director General at BASDA. We were absolutely on the same wavelength as to how important it is to get the concept of web based software across to the business community.

BASDA has many functions, and acts as a central point for many software developers. It can only help our software to be at the forefront of the technology, working with the likes of BASDA to bring this to the public.

It’s been a great week here. The team has been off around the country presenting Arithmo to potential partners.

On Tuesday we showed the system to a leading high street bank, and they are now looking at it in terms of including it with their small business accounts package.

Wednesday saw two meetings.

First with one of the UK’s top providers of back end support to FSAs. They are looking at a branded version of Arithmo to roll out to their members.

Also we saw a a government-funded mentor to new business, who saw the merits of an easy to use web based system, and will be examining the system closely.  

Without blowing our own trumpet, so to speak, all three were impressed with what they saw. Watch this space!

I was just reading about the numbers of people who filed their tax returns over the internet. Lots apparently. In fact nearly six million of us.  

The actual amount was 5,759,006, which is 51% up from last year, and getting on for 2/3 of the total number of returns. Moira Stewart, you done good.

Not surprisingly, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms, was delighted. Amongst other things he said “…more and more people are recognising the benefits of filing their tax return online” and that online filing is easier and quicker.

Can’t argue with that. But I think he may be missing the point. And when I say ”missing” I mean ”blatantly ignoring”. 

It is a fact that this increase coincides with new tax return filing rules that can fine you £100 if you don’t file online. If you didn’t use the internet and filed after 31 October, you were penalised.

It’s not for us to say, but surely at the very least it’s a possibility that people went for the  web based system because otherwise it would cost them £100. Perhaps that had some influence on people’s decision to file online? We will probably never know.

Welcome to the new Arithmo Blog.

After a lot of hard work we have launched the new version of our site. We think it has a lot more information about Arithmo, and all its features.

Mostly, we hope our improved site tells you how it can help you, whether you are an accountant, a sole trader or run a small business, or a company who wants to resell Arithmo.

Please look around the site anduse this blog to tell us what you think. We would be happy to hear from you.