Latest General Practice

Business Grants: For East Anglian SME’s. Growing Business Fund– grants of up to £500,000 for companies that are expanding and creating jobs. BEE Anglia (Business Energy Efficiency) – provides grants of up to £20,000 at an average of 28% intervention rate to implement next-phase technology to reduce carbon emissions or save costs. The Employer Training Incentive…

Abbreviated Accounts RIP: So what next ? For accounting periods commencing on or after 1-Jan-16 SME companies will no longer be able to file abbreviated accounts on the public record at Companies House. Instead, they will have to choose from: Full accounts, Filleted accounts (full accounts minus the Directors Report and Profit & Loss Account…

Business Acquisition: Whitings help client buy-out a competitor. Whiting & Partners, the CFN’s representative in Suffolk, has successfully advised a pest control business on its acquisition of a key competitor. The owners of the acquisitive pest control business approached us. The company was contacted by a competitor, who wanted to retire and wondered if they…

Updated: 9th July 2025   Business Credit Rating: Poor rating hurting your business?   If there is one positive that has come out of the UK’s double-dip recession, then it is reminding businesses of how important their credit rating is. In many sectors, both suppliers and customers have now re-engineered their processes to routinely look at…

Sage Launch Cloud Product: 4th time lucky? Despite dominating the SME on-premises accounting software market for over 25 years, Sage have struggled to find traction in the brave new world of cloud hosting. Initial attempts at licensing its best selling Sage50 software through the specialist hoster, Online<>50, gained little traction. The subsequent launch of the same product…

Companies House Filing Deadline Looming: ‘Workaround’ to extend by 3m. Annual statutory accounts are normally due for filing at Companies House 9m after your year end. You can change your company’s year end (also known as its ‘accounting reference date’) to make your company’s financial year run for more or less than 12 months. Shortening your…

Invitation: Business Growth Service. In partnership with Tom Yeung of Success Management Limited, Whitings are offering our more entrepreneurial clients a new mentoring service, with the sole aim of focussing on delivering business growth. Full details and invitation.

2015: How was it for your business? As another calendar year passes, many SME’s will have also passed another financial year end. They will now therefore be assessing how growth was for them last year, and what budget they should set for 2016.  Overall, local SME’s averaged growth of just 0.7% during 2015. They were…

Exporting is GREAT Campaign: Bid for real export contracts. As 2015 draws to a close the Government have launched a new 5 year campaign with the objective of creating 100,000 new exporters. https://www.exportingisgreat.gov.uk This new website platform lists real export contract opportunities that are currently out to tender, inviting SME’s to register an interest. Blog entry by:…

Slow Broadband: £3k grants available. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport have grants available for up to £3,000 to cover the broadband installation costs of upgrading to a faster and more reliable connection for your business. They say you could get a fibre optic, cable or wireless broadband connection,n amongst other options.  Most businesses…