Economics and Finance

Every so often one of Cumbria's quangos does something right. Cumbria Tourist Board are releasing their version of Jingle Bells today, the day before the Crazy Frog releases his. There is a ringtone as well but this is where it goes slightly downhill. Instead of being able to have it sent direct to your phone you have to download it to your computer and then transfer it to your mobile phone

I may be a little old fashioned but I can't help thinking that if you ask the Inland Revenue for advice then they will find it very difficult to be impartial. As a rule I tend to agree with the views of other qualified accountants but I have noticed that over the last few years more and more of my colleagues have been immunised by the new user-friendly attitude of the Revenue. I cannot believe

Since mentioning TypePad I've had three readers tell me it's a great product and two others offering their help to move my site. What better recommendation could there be than that? No matter how much companies spend (waste) on advertising it's the customer/client/user who decides if it's G-R-E-A-T or not. Long live word-of-mouth advertising.

The Daily Mail published a story recently about black Christmas trees. Well we have had one for years! My comment appears at the top of the list but if you can't find it I said: Fashion item! Bah! Humbug! We have had a black Christmas tree for eight years. We first saw it in a shop window ten years ago at �120. The next year it was reduced to �60 and the following year it was halved in price

Preparing accounts is pretty boring and still consists of reviewing receipts and payments and allocating them to the correct headings. To do this we sometimes have to look at cheque book counterfoils to find out what a cheque represents. I must have looked at thousands and thousands of cheque books but have never laughed until today. One of my clients wrote a cheque to the "Clerk to the Justices

I have been advised to move my blog to TypePad . I think the reasoning behind it is twofold. First it looks more professional and second "it's better". This is a warning. If everything is lost in the transfer you will always be able to access my blog from my website. By the way it will probably take me at least a fortnight to understand the "user friendly" instructions so don't panic yet.

Sage the accounts software company has recently published the results of a survey of more than 2300 businesses and this is what they said about their accountants: A third don't believe their accountant saves them money; and Three quarters don't think their accountant helps them grow their top line (sales) Their top frustrations are: Surprise fees

I have only ever watched three professional soccer games in my life, one of which was Manchester United v Crystal Palace in February 1970 and George Best was playing. What a footballer. These Best quotes are from an avid United fan on Redcafe.net . This is how I remember him. I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. I was in for 10 hours and had 40

Just in case you hadn't noticed the weather AXA Insurance have issued a timely reminder to us all to make sure we're not caught out at work.

The SERTeam is an independent, non-profit charitable association dedicated to: * conducting and publishing entrepreneurship and small business research * improving understanding of key enterprise issues * working with and supporting other small business organisations Once a quarter they research and produce the NatWest/SERTeam Survey of Small Business in