Mobile accounting app or voice?

I read with interest Dennis Howlett's piece this morning discussing the adoption of cloud accounting in the UK. What caught my eye in particular was his assertion that:

"the user experience of the future is going to be dominated by what can be delivered on smartphones and tablet devices"

Now, I can agree that "consumer" software vendors need to have a strong strategy for mobile devices. I am less convinced regarding accounting software - at least when we are considering anything other than the smallest micro-entities (e.g. one man band limited companies).

Of course, cloud accounting software vendors need to have mobile capability, because in certain situations, such as expenses management, there are clear advantages in being able to process transactions "on the go". However, I believe that only a small subset of the functionality of an accounting application needs to be available to mobile users.

The reason I made my distinction between very small businesses and larger ones above, is that, once we get past the one man band stage, the business will have other members of staff - typically helping with admin.

In my experience the owner of a small business will be much more likely to telephone the office and ask if a customer they are just about to visit has paid their last invoice, rather than fiddle around looking that information up on their mobile phone. Likewise, if they are just about to go into a meeting with the bank manager, they would call in and ask their bookkeeper what the current, reconciled bank balance is first.

In any but the very smallest businesses, there are other members of a team "back at the ranch" available to be called upon to answer accounting queries quickly and easily. The small business owners I have worked with over the past 20 years are skilled at getting the information they need from their people in this way.

So, yes, I think that some accounting functionality makes sense delivered via a smarthphone but I think the scope of such functionality should be quite limited.

Smartphones have a ubiquitous, really neat app called Voice - and we should recognise that in many cases it's the right tool for the job.

The tax gestapo

The UK is skint. We have a huge national debt and a government trying to get the annual increases to our borrowing (the budget deficit) under control. Since the deficit is the difference between what the government spends and what it receives by way of taxation, and since we are (supposedly) "all in it together", tax is now a political football.

The tax regime in the UK is complicated. Too complicated. It has got this way because, historically, politicians have either not been interested in it or have been unable to understand it. So when we get a situation as now, when every politician wants to use tax as a platform for their own agenda, we have the recipe for confusion, dis-information and the scapegoating of individuals and companies.

The phrases "tax avoidance" and "tax evasion" are being thrown around by people who don't really know what they are talking about: or are being abused by those who should know better but have their own political dogma to serve.

The Government are thinking about introducing a "General Anti-Abuse Rule" or "GAAR", which could in essence mean that it would become illegal to plan one's affairs so as to reduce the burden of tax - even though one would still be following all of the tax rules.

If a GAAR was implemented, we would have the prospect of a board of directors sitting down to budget and plan for a coming financial year and asking themselves the question: "Right, is there anything we can change in the way we do things so that we can make sure we are paying as much tax of all kinds as possible?"

Yes, it is nonsense.

I'm with Lord Clyde on this. He said:

"No man in the country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel in his stores. The Inland Revenue is not slow, and quite rightly, to take every advantage which is open to it under the Taxing Statutes for the purposes of depleting the taxpayer's pocket. And the taxpayer is in like manner entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Inland Revenue"

Ayrshire Pullman Motor Services v Inland Revenue [1929] 14 Tax Case 754

Those vociferous and accusatory voices of the growing UK "Tax Gestapo" should read the above words. Twice. Then shut up.

We are getting a new car, we don't want to own a car

Is this really a good use of valuable resources?

Our existing car must be replaced. We don't want to own another car but, unfortunately, it's one of life's necessities. So we have to bite the bullet, again.

Cars are expensive to buy, expensive to insure and expensive to maintain. And then there's the fuel costs. I well remember telling my teenage sons, after they passed their driving test, that owning a car feels like burning £20 notes all day long.

I fully appreciate that many people could not earn a living without use of a car. For the vast majority of us though that's not the case. This is a typical day's agenda for our vehicle:

08:30 - 09:00 Commute to work
09:00 - 17:00 Languish in work car park
17:00 - 17:45 Commute home (includes shopping on way)
17:00 - 08:30 Languish on driveway overnight

Of course, the car is more employed over the weekend, and some week nights we do actually leave the house, but I would say the above timetable is the most common overall.

What a waste. A waste of money and valuable resources. So much investment in a technological marvel that only gets used maybe 2 hours in each 24. Not really "sweating the assets" are we?

Services are springing up to address the need for occasional car use but, whilst these are the first signs of a new approach, they are only really practical for those of us living in the city. And they don't solve the commute need problem.

When someone cracks the way to match the millions of cars sitting idle most of the day and all night with people who need to use them we will have a much more sensible car use/ownership model. One that saves everyone money and helps save the planet.