Changes to the Performer Lists

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The Performers List service is used for

  • approving Performers who are leaving and joining practices
  • changing details of Performers linked to your practice
  • adding new Performers to the Performers List for England.

A new online service for the administration of Performer Lists launched on 2nd December, removing the need to download and send paper forms for submitting, approving and tracking performer list applications and change notifications. You can now also change your details whenever you like and track changes as they are made.

PCSE Online users within GP Practices will need to be registered on PCSE Online in order to access the new Performer List service. PCSE sent out letters containing a unique access code to the CQC Registered Manager earlier in the year. If your CQC registered manager hasn’t received a letter, they should inform PCSE by emailing pcse.user-registration@nhs.net.

The GPs registered with your practice will be registered automatically but will need to verify their account. To verify the GP’s account, PCSE have been contacting the email address that the GP has registered with the GMC with their GMC Online account. Once they have received this email, verifying their account is as simple as clicking on the link sent to them by PCSE within 72 hours of receiving it. If the link has expired, they can use the ‘Forgotten your login details?’ button on the PCSE Online home page.

Before PCSE have registered your practice and performers to use the new online services you can continue to submit NPL2 and NPL3 forms using the old process and PCSE will process them as usual.

If you need any assistance or information, please contact one of your Healthcare Services team members at MHA Moore and Smalley

Useful links and contacts:

Useful guides for Performer List administration – https://pcse.england.nhs.uk/services/performers-lists/available-support/

PCSE Customer Support Centre – 0333 014 2884

Changes to submission of pension certificates

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For the most recent financial year, 2018/2019, NHS Pensions have now released the Type 1 Annual Certificate of Pensionable Profits and the Type 2 Self-Assessment of Tiered contributions form. PCSE will process certificates submitted by the deadline on 28 February 2020.

For the 2018/19 certificates, submissions will still be made via the current processing of the form on the ‘Contact Us’ page on the PCSE website.

PCSE have announced that an automated, efficient and easy to use online payments and pensions service for GP practices will be introduced from May 2020.

Regarding the process of submitting superannuation certificates, this new online system should help GP practices to access pension information, manage their submissions and check their progress.

Electronic processes and online validation will improve the quality of information provided and accuracy of payments.

If you need any assistance or information, please contact one of your Healthcare Services team members at MHA Moore and Smalley

Useful links and contacts:

Superannuation certificates – Type 1 https://pcse.england.nhs.uk/help/gp-pensions/annual-certificates-of-pensionable-profits-type-1/

Superannuation certificates – Type 2 – https://pcse.england.nhs.uk/help/gp-pensions/type-2-medical-practitioner-self-assessment-of-tiered-contributions/

PCSE Customer Support Centre – 0333 014 2884

ICO Fines Companies for not paying Data Protection Fee

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Advice for our clients

The ICO has issued the first fines for not paying the data protection fee to organisations across a range of sectors including business services, construction, finance, health and childcare.

All organisations, companies and sole traders that process personal data must pay an annual fee to the ICO unless they are exempt. Fines for not paying can be up to a maximum of £4,350.


This follows regulations which came into force alongside the new Data Protection Act on 25 May 2018.

These first organisations have been fined for not renewing their fees following their expiry and more fines are set to follow. More than 900 notices of intent to fine have been issued by the ICO since September and more than 100 penalty notices are being issued in this first round.

If you receive a query from your client regarding this, please urge them to visit the ICO website for further information on how to pay the fee to avoid a fine. The page also includes a self-assessment toolkit to enable the client to establish if they need to pay and how much. 


ICO

For very small organisations, the fee won’t be any higher than the £35 they paid before May 2018 (if they take advantage of a £5 reduction for paying by direct debit).

Larger organisations will be required to pay £2,900. The fee is higher because these organisations are likely to hold and process the largest volumes of data and therefore represent a greater level of risk.

Failure to pay the data protection fee is now a civil offence under the GDPR, previously this was a criminal offence under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Eight effective daily habits to help you achieve your goals

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Anything you do regularly becomes the driving force in your efforts to achieve business success. This can be either negative or positive.

When you regularly take steps that advance your business and yourself, you are more likely to quickly reach your entrepreneurial goals. Negative habits drag you backward. Focus on the positive by doing these simple but effective things as often as possible:

1. Take risks

Nothing worthwhile will be handed to you on a plate and you won’t know the outcome of most actions until you actually do them. Be comfortable with the idea of taking a risk and know that you will be able to bounce back from any setbacks should your venture not pan out as planned. Various famous entrepreneurs bounced back from early failures in their career to go on and achieve greatness.

2. Challenge yourself

Never get complacent. Each day, challenge yourself to do or learn something new in order to expand your vision and keep your mind sharp and active. You should always be learning and building your skills.

3. Believe in yourself

Every entrepreneur needs supreme strength in their beliefs and their abilities. Believing you can succeed pushes you down the path to success. Every day take time to reaffirm your commitment to your goals and your belief in yourself.

4. Surround yourself with the best

Pick your close friends and confidantes very carefully. The people with whom you surround yourself make a big difference to the success of your venture.

Spend time with successful people who are doing what you want to do. Limit your contact with negative people who do not believe in your dreams.

5. Keep your vision clear

Consciously visualise what is going to happen as a result of your actions. Picture the outcome of your hard work and always keep a clear vision of why you are doing it.

6. Take action

Make sure you are taking some action each and every day that will help to advance your business. Thinking and planning is important, but without action, your business will never succeed. It’s great to have an idea, but even better to make it a reality.

7. Manage your energy not your time

Everyone has the same number of hours in the day at their disposal, but energy levels differ significantly from person to person.

Your energy levels will dictate what you are able to achieve in a day, so make sure you plan your time accordingly, leaving the easier tasks for the point in the day when you are experiencing an energy dip for example.

8. Learn from mistakes

You are going to make plenty of mistakes. You will hear this point repeated often, but only because it is so important – learning from your mistakes is essential. Failure becomes a success when you know how to benefit from it in the long run.

SRA Accounts Rules – clarification of the new rules on payments of residual balances

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Ahead of the 25 November 2019 introduction of the new rules, the SRA have released in October 2019 additional documents on their website clarifying aspects of the new rules.

Payments of residual balances to charity

The SRA have issued further guidance regarding prescribed circumstances for the SRA authorising a withdrawal from the client account under new Rule 5.1(c). One such instance is the payment of client funds to charity, in the situation where the individual client matter balance is less than £500, and the firm has made a sufficient effort in order to trace the rightful recipient of these funds. This brings in line with the current Rule 20.2.

In their guidance note, the SRA have provided information regarding the steps it expects a firm to follow before paying these funds to a charity. These are:

  1. that the balance is paid to a charity of your choice;
  2. you have taken reasonable steps to return the money to the rightful owner. The reasonableness of such steps will depend on:
    • the age of the residual balance;
    • the amount of the residual balance;
    • if you have access to the client’s most up to date contact details;
    • if not, the costs associated with tracing your client;
  3. you record the steps taken to return the money to the rightful owner and retain those records, together with all relevant documentation for at least six years;
  4. you keep appropriate accounting records, including:
    • a central register which records the name of the rightful owner on whose behalf the money was held, the amount, name of the recipient charity (and their charity number) and the date of the payment; and
    • all receipts from the charity and confirmation of any indemnity provided against any legitimate claim subsequently made for the sum they have received; and
  5. you do not deduct from the residual balance any costs incurred in attempting to trace or communicate with the rightful owner.

As is currently the case, authority must be obtained from the SRA prior to the payment of an individual client matter balance in excess of £500 being paid to a charity.

In the above scenario, the guidance from the SRA follows the path the Rules have headed with less emphasis being placed on the detailed Rules themselves, and more on the internal controls the firm has in place to ensure compliance with the Rules. These controls will therefore increasingly be checked by your reporting accountant as part of your annual SRA Accounts Rules compliance review.

Should you have any questions regarding the above, or any aspects of the new SRA Accounts Rules, please do not hesitate to contact Sam Evans or any member of the Professional Practice team on 01772 821021.

Link:

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/withdraw-client-money/

The importance of organisation in the workplace

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For any business to grow and run smoothly organisation is a key skill. Here are a few tips on how to stay organised in the workplace;

Manage your working area

An organised work space helps avoid misplacing documents and items getting mixed up or lost, it also avoids the scramble and stress of having to root through papers to find a specific document if a client or customer calls unexpectedly. As well as looking tidier for unexpected visits it creates a calmer atmosphere which can help with productivity. To help with this consider going paperless which avoids having physical documents to deal with altogether.

Keep your computer organised

If you decide to go paperless, you then must compete with the filing of digital documents. A system will need to be implemented for naming files and saving them to specific locations that everyone in the business is aware of. While this can initially be a timely process, once set up and running smoothly you will reap the benefits of not having paper documents lying around everywhere. Going paperless also helps to comply with GDPR and as the documents can be accessed remotely, flexible working is also a possibility.

Expenses

Keeping your expenses organised and recorded in a timely manner helps so you can focus on your business itself. It is easy to leave it till your businesses year end and then have to find all those receipts, often in various pockets and glove compartments to get your expenses claim in. Consider using an app that links to your accounting software so expenses can be posted immediately, receipt scanned and then it can be lost with no worry.

Keep track of your debtors and creditors

Paying suppliers, invoicing customers and chasing payments is a key part in every business. Disorganisation can lead to late payments, missed debts or even missed opportunities for raising bills. Keeping your accounting software up to date can help flag up important dates for when payments are due or if a payment needs chasing. Many software’s, such as quickbooks, have built in reminders and flag up these areas every time you login. If chasing debts is taking up a lot of your time and you don’t have someone employed to do this job consider an automated service such as Chaser (www.chaserhq.com/), which links to your accounting software and deals with the chasing of debts automatically.

Archive and delete emails

It can be frustrating to login to your inbox and see hundreds of emails. Reducing and clearing out your inbox regularly can help flag up the emails that still require attention and avoid important emails getting missed.

Keep track of deadlines

Be aware of deadlines such as the following to stay on track and avoid any unnecessary penalties;

  • Companies House, accounts are due nine months after year end
  • Corporation tax return, due for filing twelve months after year end
  • Corporation tax payment, due nine months and one day after year end
  • VAT returns, due for filing and payment one month and seven days after the period end

BREXIT – Changes for UK employers sending workers to the EU, the EEA or Switzerland

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Currently, if you send your employees to work in the EEA, your employee might be able to carry on paying national insurance in the UK for up to 2 years.  This will protect the employee’s UK national insurance record, which affects rights to benefits and the state pension.  This will also provide proof for the authorities in the country where the work is performed that social security contributions are not required.  To do this, you or your employee will usually be required to apply for a Portable Document A1.

In the event the UK leaves the EU without an agreement, there may be changes for UK employers who have people working in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland.

The EU Social Security Coordination Regulations ensure employers and their workers only need to pay social security contributions (such as National Insurance contributions in the UK) in one country at a time. However, if we leave without an agreement, the coordination between the UK and the EU will end.

This will mean that your employees working in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland may need to make social security contributions in both the UK and the country in which they are working at the same time.

Businesses will need to do the following to prepare:
  • If your employee is currently working in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland and has a UK-issued A1/E101 form, they will continue to pay UK National Insurance contributions for the duration of the time shown on the form.
  • However, if the end date on the form goes beyond Brexit day, you will need to contact the relevant EU / EEA or Swiss authority to confirm whether or not your employee needs to start paying social security contributions in that country from that date. The European Commission’s website will help you find the relevant country’s authority.
  • If your employee is a UK or Irish national working in Ireland, their position will not change after Brexit, they are covered under the international agreement signed by the UK and Ireland in February 2019. You, as their employer, won’t need to take any action.
  • A replacement for the A1/E101 form will be issued for new applications after Brexit. This ensures your employee continues to make UK National Insurance contributions to maintain their social security record. You can still use the same form on GOV.UK to make an application after the UK has left the EU.

The UK Government has announced it is working to protect UK nationals by seeking reciprocal arrangements with the EU or Member States to maintain existing social security coordination for a transitional period until 31 December 2020. Individuals in scope of these arrangements will only pay social security contributions in one country at a time.

If you would like to discuss the blog in more detail please contact David Bennett or Alex Gardner or call 01772 821021.

Times are changing for my accounting records

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June 1986, 9am a fresh-faced young man starts his first day in the accountancy profession.  After settling in he is handed a large carrier bag contacting crumpled up invoices, receipts and bank statements, “could you get all these summarised by the end of the day”. What to do?  Luckily, he is given a calculator, pens and a pad.  Crisis averted.

Over the course of the next twelve months this young trainee would spend the majority of his time adding up 80-page, 32 column Guildhall cashbooks all by hand with the help of his trusted add lister.

The next 30 years would see some considerable changes in the accountancy and bookkeeping world.  Computers would start to appear in offices and businesses.  People would move away from traditional manual bookkeeping and use software designed to replace the old cashbook and ledgers.  Not only could you analyse the transactions far easier and quicker, but you could also reconcile the bank and check your trading statements at any point, not just at the year end.

The original software was desktop based, tying you to the office in order to keep information up to date or to get any information out.  With the advent of cloud technology, storing your data offsite, this gave you the best of both worlds.  Most of the work can be done in the office, but with cloud technology this same information can be accessed to provide quick information whilst out on the road.

Accountancy software, in particular cloud based, isn’t just confined to the general accounts it can also help with automating the day to day tasks such as;

  • Scanning purchase invoices, reducing the need to manually enter each one
  • Emailing sales invoices letting you track when they were sent and when they have been viewed
  • Taking a photograph of receipts from mobile telephone or tablet and uploading directly into the software
  • Attaching copies of invoices and receipts to transactions, reducing the amount of paperwork needed to be filed
  • Cleared bank transactions being directly fed into the software, allowing them to be automatically matched or added

This new technology has changed how a business owner can use the basic financial information at their disposal.  With more up to date and accurate information they can try and spot trends or weaknesses in the business.

No two businesses are the same, even ones in the same industry, meaning people may want different information;

  • How much am I making?
  • Who is my top customer?
  • Did I make a profit on that job?

These sorts of questions can now be answered in an instant.

Technology can help speed up the process of putting together your accounting records, allowing you to concentrate on the main reason you started in business in the first place – we are yet to find anyone who thinks great I get to do my bookkeeping at the end of the week.

For more information on this subject please contact Nick Wetherall

Related Party Transaction Reporting in Charity Accounts

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Trustees must always act in the interests of their charity and not for their own personal benefit, but it is not uncommon for conflicts of interest to arise. It is important the charity is open and transparent in such situations, and it is good governance to handle these conflicts appropriately.

In charity accounts, the reporting of related party transactions is integral to complying with the SORP and providing details about their transactions with persons and entities closely connected to the charity or its trustees.

The Charity Commission has recently undertaken a review of a sample of Charity accounts and although reporting was found to be significantly better in larger charity accounts, less than two thirds of the charities in lower income samples fully complied with the SORP’s transparency requirement.

Charities preparing accruals (SORP) accounts must disclose:

  • trustees’ remuneration and benefits
  • trustees’ expenses
  • transactions with those persons and entities that are closely connected to the charity or its trustees, referred to as related parties

Trustees may delegate accounts preparation to charity staff or their accountant but remain responsible for approving the trustees’ annual report and accounts. The independent examiner or the auditor cannot be expected to know all of the related parties involved with the charity and so trustees need to co-operate with them to ensure that the disclosures provided in their accounts are complete.

If you have any questions on charity reporting, please do not hesitate to contact one of the charity specialist team at MHA Moore and Smalley.