UK: FreeAgent celebrates two years in a row in Deloitte’s Fast 50 list / FreeAgent: online accounting system specifically-designed to meet the needs of micro businesses, freelancers and their accountants.

Online accounting pioneer named as one of the UK’s fastest growing companies for the second year running. Innovative online accounting company FreeAgent is celebrating after being named one of the UK’s fastest growing technology firms for the second year running. 

FreeAgent - which provides the UK’s market-leading online accounting system specifically-designed for micro businesses and freelancers - featured in 18th place on this year’s prestigious 2014 Deloitte Fast 50 list in recognition of its impressive growth over the past five years. 

The company reported a 1274% rise in turnover in the period 2008-2013 to earn its place on the 2014 Fast 50 - the annual list that Deloitte publishes of the 50 fastest growing technology companies across the whole of the UK. The accolade also represents the second year running that FreeAgent has been featured on the prestigious list. 

Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, said: “Being recognised in the Deloitte Fast 50 list is a great accolade in itself, but being listed for two years in a row is a tremendous achievement. It’s a real testament to the hard work of our team, our continued growth as a company and the rising number of passionate and loyal customers who are using FreeAgent to manage their small business finances. 

“Since starting FreeAgent in 2007, we’ve been able to build our business successfully to the point where we now have over 35,000 customers in more than 80 countries. We’re also steadily growing an outstanding team in Edinburgh who have all been instrumental in enabling us to cement our position as the UK’s market-leading online accounting system for micro businesses and freelancers. 

“We’re thrilled to once again be named among the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK and we hope to build on this success in the coming years by growing further and continuing to provide the best service for all of our customers.” 

In addition to being placed 18th on the 2014 Deloitte Fast 50 list, FreeAgent was also revealed as the second fastest-growing company in Scotland - as well as the 9th fastest-growing company outside of London. 

The full Fast 50 run down can be viewed here: http://www.deloitte.co.uk/fast50/winners/2014-winners/index.... 

About FreeAgent:

FreeAgent provides the UK’s market-leading online accounting system specifically-designed to meet the needs of micro businesses, freelancers and their accountants. More than 35,000 customers currently use the award-winning system to manage and maintain their business accounts, track time, log their expenses, create and send invoices and forecast their tax bills.

For the past two years, the company has been ranked in the top 20 of the Deloitte Fast 50 - the annual list compiled by Deloitte that highlights the fastest-growing technology companies in the UK. FreeAgent was also listed in the 2014 FinTech50 rundown of Europe’s most innovative financial technology companies.

FreeAgent won the Small Business Accounts and Expense Management awards at the 2013 AccountingWEB Software Satisfaction Awards and is a previous winner at the British Accountancy Awards. FreeAgent is also an official 2014 ICAS partner.

http://www.freeagent.com/accountants

Top Tax Tips Every Startup Needs to Know

Chris Fitzpatrick for VentureFizz writes: Tax Compliance can be a pain. It’s not convenient for startup founders to think about taxes. Valuable time taken away from beating at your craft can be costly. Many tech startups even put their tax strategy on the back burner because the hope is they will get acquired before there are significant tax complications in their operations. Successful exits like this are very rare, but I can't knock the hustle.

• Keep track of those expenses, especially startup expenses. Stay organized. There are a growing number of intuitive cloud accounting software programs out there now which will help alleviate the stress of keeping your books. An excel spreadsheet can only go so far for you bootstrappers out there. It is about time you automate your accounting as much as possible which will also likely help to reduce your tax advisor/CPA fees. Quickbooks has come a long way, and I have had success with a newer cloud accounting program called Xero as well. Another thing, stay as lean as possible for as long as possible. Sounds all buzzwordy and cliché I know, but I see so many Startups and new companies incurring costs which can derail their growth and shorten their runway. Whether you are funded or bootstrapped, pay attention and eliminate those non essential expenses as much as possible.  If you are deciding between hiring more developers or moving into a better office space then I have lost you already.
  
• Know your potential tax exposure. Many Startups might not be aware of their potential tax exposure and filing requirements in other states. I see instances where the company has an entity setup in one state, but also has offices or sales to clients in multiple states. States vary, you could potentially have a filing requirement in a state, and not even know it. Know your potential tax exposure risk sooner than later.
  
• Don't just set it and forget it. Your tax planning should continue throughout the year, and not just at tax time. I see companies make a pivot, and they assume they should continue with the same tax strategy they had before which can cause so many problems.
  
• And this isn't tax related per se, but if you and your team are not using Asana as a project collaboration tool then you should be. I have personally used the tool since they beta launched, and impressed is an understatement.
  
• Have a CPA on call. Meet with a tax advisor/CPA before it is too late even if its not in the budget.. So many Startups wait until the very last minute to consult an advisor or try to go it alone because they are busy building their team, finding investors, developing awesome products, or acquiring customers. Please don't do this. A master of everything is a master of nothing. You will only be kicking the can down the road, and essentially creating more of a potential headache and/or tax liability for yourself, and your team. 

Square, PayPal Lapses in QuickBooks Tough for Small Businesses

JJ Hornblass for BankInnovation.net writes: To say Square and PayPal are important to American small business might be an understatement.

So when those two ventures’ integration into the accounting platform of choice for America’s small business — QuickBooks Online — falls short, the shortcoming deserves notice.

QBO, as QuickBooks Online is called, had about 624,000 subscribers, as of last May.

Both Square and PayPal are working to integrate with QBO. Square released an integration with QBO around a year ago, while PayPal has a beta running for its integration. PayPal’s beta testing group was quickly filled — the beta only began on October 22.

The thing is, both efforts appear to be hitting some bumps. Square’s integration app has gotten roundly booed by users. Several users say the application “just doesn’t work.” One reviewer wrote as such as recently as last month:

It always says to import my transactions. They show up clearly, but the import ALWAYS fails and says to contact support. I contacted support, but got no resolution. Would love it if it worked, but I’m so used to just putting in my receipts by hand from Square to QB Online that it is no big loss. I’d like it if it didn’t appear like everything was there waiting for me… mocking me…

An employee of Intuit, which owns QuickBooks Online, wrote in response that the company “is currently working on bringing in fees and deposits … We are also investigating batching and support for multiple accounts.” However, we could not find evidence that this work has been finalized.

Meanwhile, PayPal might have an integration beta running — but the company is no longer accepting new customers into its beta, “due to overwhelming inbound interest.” The app is designed to “sync PayPal sales, fees, tax, tips and discounts into QuickBooks Online … [and] automatically match products and services.” Without the app, small business owners must key every transaction into QBO by hand.

Both less-than-ideal situations amount to a pain in the you-know-where for the hundreds of thousands of small businesses that use QBO.