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Employers should offer lifetime savings accounts to their workers rather than pension schemes, an industry expert has suggested. According to Dr Ros Altmann, director general of over 50s group Saga, the pensions which are on offer to employees at present can be past their sell-by date . Despite the introduction of auto-enrolment pension reforms later this year, Dr Altmann said people might still shy away from locking their money away until they retire. In order to remedy this problem, she called for lifetime savings accounts to be looked at. These solutions would let people gain access to their money before their retirement. Other reforms outlined by the expert would give younger workers the chance to pay off some of their student loans with employer contributions. Earlier this week, the Government confirmed that smaller firms will be given more time to prepare for the introduction of the auto-enrolment reforms. Copyright Press Association 2012

Private businesses have welcomed confirmation of the delaying of the Government's auto-enrolment pension scheme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The pension contributions level is to be brought in gradually so bosses and workers have chance to adjust to it, and full contributions do now not have to be made until October 1, 2018. The delay means companies with 30-49 staff will no longer have to enrol staff until August 1 2015 at the earliest - firms with under 30 workers can comply on January 1, 2016 at the earliest, and April 2017 at the latest. Government clarification on the auto-enrolment dates was welcomed by the Forum of Private Business, whose chief executive, Phil Orford, said the delay means small firms can focus on business until the economy is back in firmer territory . Mr Orford added that the decision means small companies will have more time to plan for and implement the scheme successfully. Copyright Press Association 2012

Facebook is to give away u00a34.2 million-worth of advertising to thousands of small businesses in an effort to promote growth and expand Facebook's business pages. The social media giant is working in conjunction with the British Chamber of Commerce to boost small businesses struggling in the tough economic climate. The advertising giveaway follows the launch of a series of Facebook roadshows highlighting the benefits businesses can gain from joining the social media site. Facebook has recently been credited for supporting 35,200 jobs across Europe and contributing u00a32.2 billion to the British economy, according to a new report by Deloitte. The social media company has experienced rapid growth since its founding in 2004, with a reported 800 million active users as of September 2011. In response to Deloitte's report, Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, said Facebook could be a positive driver for growth and jobs. She said: Social media is proving particularly valuable for small and medium-sized businesses, which form the backbone of the European economy. Sheryl Sandberg went on to say that through investment in education, training and technology, social media could continue to drive innovation and economic growth looking forward through 2012. Copyright Press Association 2012

The Prime Minister has unveiled a new campaign which will help inspire people to start their own business, allowing them to use previously unused Government building space to work from. The Business in You campaign will offer vacant Government offices to budding entrepreneurs at low rates for up to 12 months in a bid to boost the country's financial state. Around 300 locations that are unused or have space available will help new enterprises to establish themselves, David Cameron said during a trip to Yorkshire to talk with aspiring business leaders. The new scheme will also offer start-up companies further workshops and information sessions from current businesses on issues and problems that can occur in the workplace. Copyright Press Association 2012

A shortage of raw materials, the current financial crisis and getting finance were all cited as challenges facing manufacturers this year by a new report. Of the 200 companies surveyed by manufacturing organisation EEF, few reported that workplace disputes or pressures on pay would impede their growth in 2012. Just 5% reported they were significantly worried about pay while almost none said disputes would pose a problem. Meanwhile, in another survey involving 76 pay settlements, an average rise of 2.4% was recorded in the last quarter of 2011, with approximately 16% of settlements involving a wage freeze. Although the cost of living is increasing, pay settlements are staying around average levels with a sense of economic realism prevailing, said Lee Hopley, chief economist at EEF. He also said attention will now be placed on this month's bargaining round which will be held against a difficult backdrop for the manufacturing sector. Copyright Press Association 2012

You know your business inside out, but do you know your customers inside out?

Acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than keeping the ones you already have, so customer turnover could be the largest financial burden for your business. By getting to know your customers and learning how to make them feel special, you build up a detailed picture of them and take steps towards retaining their business.

So, what CRM software can you use to help you know your customers better? How can you increase customer satisfaction? And what can you do to make customers feel special?

We’ve recently produced a guide to improving customer loyalty and here our some of our ideas for making your customers feel special.

What is customer satisfaction?

In short customer satisfaction is a measure of how your business meets or surpasses customers’ expectations.  It means retained customers generate long-term business for you, delivering positive feedback and great testimonials. Without it, customer churn increases and reputation risks damage through negative word of mouth marketing. In fact, in our recent customer experience survey we found that one in three consumers would ditch a company for good after just one below-par experience.

How do I increase customer satisfaction?

Understanding what your existing customers want and delivering it to them effectively is the best way to satisfy; meaning you can secure repeat orders, keep and retain your customers and benefit from positive word of mouth. Ways of doing this might include;

Customer loyalty schemes

You can immediately make a customer feel special and valued with a reward or loyalty scheme that offers them perks throughout the year…and they might even tell their colleagues and friends about it too! For example, we gave our lucky SageCover customers their very own VIP area at our recent SageWorld event.  Nice armchairs, trendy bags and tasty cakes all round!

Analysing customer data

Use the data you are gain everyday to find out a little more about your customers – like their propensity to buy at certain times of year or previous products they have bought – anything that might indicate their purchase preferences and behaviours. Then tailor your marketing to fit with the profile you have built up of them – something personalised or highly topical to them is much more likely to get through. Getting the right CRM software, or Customer Relationship Management software, can help with this.

Encouraging customer feedback

Giving your customers a chance to engage in two-way dialogue with you is vital. This could be through feedback surveys, social media, review meetings etc. It shows that you are more than just a business; it shows you have empathy and that you want to develop a relationship with customers – no bad thing! Here at Sage we try to do as much as possible.  We’d love you to hear from you through our Sage UK Twitter feed, our Facebook page or even by commenting on this blog.

Effective complaints management

Customer complaints can be telling, so it’s essential to deal with them efficiently, fairly and ensure the customer receives a satisfactory response and follow up. If a complaint is handled effectively, it can give you important root cause information that may help you to predict future issues or trends.

Improved customer service

Customer service needs to be sincere for it to be effective, so it’s vital to ensure that your staff are trained to fulfil this. If your staff can consistently treat all customers with respect and show efficiency, you will gain customer satisfaction and are sure to retain their business in the long-term.

Iain Ramsay, Small Business Team

Although our head office is in the UK, Sage ERP X3 (as a global product) is part of an international community that collaborates on product development, with an international team to aid global product deployment and after sales support through shared knowledge, skills and resources.

Our global conference

This month the Sage France team played host the Sage ERP X3 Global Sales conference, inviting over 500 Sage ERP X3 staff and business partners from 17 countries around the world over to Paris, making it the largest Sage ERP X3 event held to date. This event is billed as a conference, but the underlying raison d’être (picking up the lingo already!) is networking.

A networking natural?

Now, some people thrive in a ‘networking environment’ – effortlessly floating between colleagues old and new, picking up business cards and drinks like this event is their single purpose in life. Managing to juggle nibbles, a glass of champagne and picking their next victim in one easy swoop.

Other people find networking awkward and unnatural, struggling with the notion of polite ‘chit-chat’ and are just not comfortable working a room. Networking takes a lot of effort and a certain degree of practice, and we have all been guilty of standing in the corner with our colleagues rather than meeting new people.

But does networking, really work?

Business networking is an effective low-cost marketing method for developing sales opportunities and contacts, based on referrals and introductions – either face-to-face at meetings and gatherings, or by other contact methods such as phone, email, and increasingly social and business networking websites.

Social media has, in part, taken away the personal aspect of day-to-day networking, and enables us to meet contacts at a distance, but surely online networking can’t replace the value that face to face contact brings? And one would assume that the quality of relationships would be diminished through the lack of the human contact and rapport building.

Social networking can bring us closer to people and communities that we would never have the opportunity to meet in the ‘real world’ but in actuality it  doesn’t replace a face-to-face conversation, but more acts as a soft introduction.

Working for a larger business, with a wider social ecosystem the need to network face to face becomes more necessary. The key here is identifying the reason, or a goal for being at the networking event and stick to it – do you want to meet your counterpart from a similar organisation? Track down the supplier that messed up your order? Or perhaps find new job opportunities?

Networking can bring us better deals, higher value service, invites to more social events and new Linkedin contacts, but in my opinion the most important thing it brings us is trust. Trust that our colleagues, suppliers, partners are on the same path as us and are looking to achieve a common goal.

Julia Commons, Sage ERP X3 team

Payroll Real Time Information

I’ve been sitting back with great interest both absorbing and reflecting certain people’s viewpoints on whether HMRC’s introduction of Real Time Information for Payroll is a good idea or not.

What is Real Time Information?

Real Time Information (RTI) is a HMRC initiative to improve the accuracy of PAYE, reducing the need to send out corrections for overpayment or underpaying and the possibility of fraud.

Under RTI employers will be required to submit information electronically to HMRC on or before they pay their employees instead of just once a year.

Goodbye Payroll Year End stress

Having run a payroll for a small business prior to working for Sage my initial thought was “well that means a lot more work submitting more than 52 times a year if I process weekly and monthly paid employees”. But after some reflection I realised the medium and long term benefits actually go way beyond just the payroll world.

In the payroll world we all know how stressful payroll year end can get with reconciling reports, finding errors, trying to remember what I did, trying to correct errors and so on.

Without being biased, as I work for Sage, submitting more often under RTI will ensure what you are submitting is more accurate as well as removing the stress and complication of payroll year end.

Beyond payroll, imagine a world where you get the benefits you deserve and are entitled to, imagine calling the HMRC or any other government body being able to resolve your queries quicker as they have up-to-date information. RTI will help deliver this.

RTI may seem disruptive in the short term, but I believe that RTI is absolutely the right thing to do for all involved to move us all dragging screaming and kicking into the 21^st century.

How would you like to be RTI Ready?

We’ve all heard of High Definition televisions and the term HD Ready right?  I’m a typical male who always leaves things to the last minute, but if my business could get a change to be RTI Ready before April 2013 even I would jump at the chance.

Well, you have that chance!

You have the fantastic opportunity to not only be RTI Ready but also help shape how HMRC and Sage provide on-going help and support by getting involved in our pilot. If you are interested simply click RTI Pilot Registration and we will be in contact soon.

In my next blog I will be talking more about Sage’s plans to make the transition into RTI as simple, seamless and pain free as possible, but in the meantime you can find more information about RTI and we are doing on our website at www.sage.co.uk/rti

Neilson Watts, Sage Payroll Expert

When was the last time you said ‘thank you’? Sometimes it’s a thing we take for granted, yet the impact of saying it can be huge.

Here at Sage, saying thank you is a big part of our culture and we have great policies and incentives in place that encourage a happy workplace. We have a great employee recognition scheme in place whereby you can nominate a colleague for a ‘Guiding Principle’ award, acknowledging them for a job well done. There are many ways to say thank you though and sometimes it can be as simple as saying those two words. So why say it?

Motivation

Saying thank you to the people you work with motivates them to do a better job. If you’re motivated, your levels of productivity naturally increase and you’re more likely to repeat the behaviour.

Happy customers

If your staff are happy, your customers are happy. Think about a time that when you had a great customer experience and what impact that had on your future dealings with the company. Did it make you more or less likely to use that company again?

Repeat business and word of mouth

When an experience leaves you feeling great you’ll want that experience again, leading to repeat business. You’re also more likely to tell others about it generating business through word of mouth.

Here in the Sage One team in UK and Ireland we recently launched a great new payroll service to the market along with our brand new website. This involved a lot of hard work and extra hours from the team so when our first birthday came around last week it gave us a great opportunity to say thank you to the team. We headed out for a few drinks and nibbles after work and, although our heads were slightly foggy the next day, we all returned to the office feeling motivated and ready to work hard and spread the feel good factor!

So once again I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to my colleagues across Sage for a great team effort in delivering a great service to our Sage One customers.  And channelling my inner Kate Winslet I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my family for making me who I am today, my friends for their support over the years, the family dog for being such an inspiration in my life, the postman for delivering my mail, GHD’s for giving me straight hair, the city of Newcastle for giving me The Forth (best drinking hole ever!), Friday’s for giving me the weekend……..

Abby Goode, Sage One

Tips for an easy self assessment

Like it or not, tax season is just around the corner. And as a small or medium UK business owner, this means that if you haven’t got your accounts in order, now is most definitely the time. We’ve created a guide to having a successful tax return season but I’ve covered some of our top tips here to help you.

Company accounts for the year 5 April 2011 must be prepared and filed online by midnight on 31 January. The first installment of your tax liability must also be paid by the same deadline.

This means it can be a tricky time for any small or medium UK business; tracking back over old invoices, getting paper work in order and paying tax liabilities.

Now, this may seem obvious coming from us but using an accounts software package throughout the year can often take away that last minute strain for you or your accountant.  However, whether you use an accounts software package or not, there are some key considerations and tax changes that you must be aware of to ensure a successful tax return season.

Effective tax planning strategies

We may be too far into this year’s tax season to put this into place now, but something to remember for the next financial year is how important it is to know your profits and therefore your tax liability. It will give you the opportunity to view what you might owe and allow you to put money aside throughout the year to ensure cash-flow doesn’t become an issue. An effective tax planning strategy might just be the difference in keeping your business afloat or actually allowing your business to grow!

Types on income and financial information needed

Regardless of whether you run your business as a sole trader or a shareholder/director of a limited company, to complete your self assessment tax return generally you will need details of the following types of income:

• Interest income from banks and building societies
• Dividend income received during the year from UK and/or foreign equities, or from shares in your own company
• Details of any capital gains made in the year through the sale of assets, such as shares or investment property;
• Property income, such as rental income
• Income received from gilts or bonds (excluding premium bonds)
• Income from a pension
• Income from a trust, settlement or from a deceased person’s estate
• Income from any employment , self-employment or a partnership

Payroll software to help with your income details

Your business’ payroll software should also come in handy for filing your tax return. The payroll should give you details such as employment income – salary, benefits, bonuses, income tax and national insurance already paid and, so on. Shareholder directors should also make sure they have up-to-date information in their systems of any dividends paid from the company to themselves.

Changes to the tax return penalty system: don’t be late!

Making it more important than ever to get your tax return in on time, the new penalty system means that an automatic fine of £100 applies if your tax return is filed after the end of January. And the longer you leave your tax return, the more severe the penalty becomes – meaning a very unhealthy start to the year ahead if your tax return isn’t filed on time!

The top tip for successful self assessment tax return is to really treat it with respect. After all, it is a legal document on which you are declaring your income for the year to HMRC. Proper record keeping and effective accounts management should see you successfully complete correctly and on time!

If you’d like to know more about filing your tax return online then download our white paper for having a successful tax return season

Nicole Matues,  Small Business Team