All posts by standhaven89

Employing Staff For The First Time

There are 6 things you need to do when employing staff for the first time:

  1. Register as an employer with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) – you can do this up to 4 weeks before paying your staff.
  2. Get employers’ liability insurance as soon as your become an employer.
  3. Check if someone has the legal right to work in the UK.  You may need to carry out other employment checks as well.
  4. Apply for a DBS check (Disclosure Barring Services Check) if you work in a field that requires one, eg with children, vulnerable people, etc.
  5. Decide how much to pay someone – you must pay your employee at least the National Minimum Wage, dependent on the age of the employee.
  6. Send the job description, including terms and conditions, in writing to your employee.  You also need to send a written contract of employment to your employee too.

Guidance and support for the above can be found on HM Revenue & Customs website:

https://www.gov.uk/browse/employing-people

 

 

What is double entry bookkeeping?

Double entry bookkeeping is a system of accounting where every financial transaction is recorded with a corresponding negative and positive entry, know as ‘debits’ and ‘credits’.

A debit in one account will be offset by a credit in another account, and therefore the balance of all debits should be exactly the same as the balance of all the credits.

Example:

If a business received earnings of £75, the double entry would be;

Debit entry of £75 to the Bank/Cash account and a credit entry of £75 to the Income account.

The double entry system of bookkeeping makes it easier to prepare financial statements and detects any errors made.