Member Article

Butterworth Barlow Urges Businesses To Make Tax Digital Ahead Of Government Initiative

Butterworth Barlow is offering businesses a digital solution ahead of the government’s ‘Making Tax Digital’ initiative.

The Prescot based chartered accountants is already planning for the new scheme, which is set to come into place by April 2019, with the aim to transform the tax system in to the most digitally advanced in the world.

Director Gavin Butterworth said: “Making Tax Digital is an initiative that will completely change the way that businesses operate in terms of their record keeping and tax filings and as a result, we are planning ahead in order to make the transition for our clients as simple and seamless as possible.

“In this new digital era, it is no surprise that things are starting to make a shift towards online and we are already one step ahead implementing systems and software into our work. Software such as Xero, Kashflow and Sage enable us to give our clients a real time view of their financial position and Receipt Bank offers the opportunity to take a photo of each receipt and discard the paper copy.”

Research suggests that around 16% of SMEs use a shoebox to store business receipts whilst 23% use manual bookkeeping with only a third using accounting software.

Gavin added: “Despite general statistics, around 60% of our clients are already using a digitised accounts system despite the initiative not coming in to place until next year. From an accountant’s point of view, using a digitised method of recording expenditure offers a much more effective, hassle-free way of keeping on top of your finances and ensures that everything is recorded correctly. We are huge advocates of using digital systems and our tech-savvy approach guarantees accuracy that can save our clients both time and money in the long-term.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Craig Guy .