The thing we are asked for the most is how to get and keep funding from the banks. In response to this we are writing a reseach report into the changing attitudes of the banks, what it takes to get and keep funding, and the new and flexible funding solutions that are in the market now.

This report is being published on the 8th February 2012.

To request a copy of this report email Serena@people-share.com

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You can now connect to your Sage data from your iPhone, iPad or Blackberry. We have just tried this new feature & simply can't believe how useful it would be for our clients and their key staff.

This feature is new to Sage 50 Accounts 2012. You can use Sage 50 Mobile to access high level dashboard information as well as account detail.

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We have now moved office  - not very far, just 3 doors down the corridor to unit 8, but we now have windows, so we are very excited!

We look forward to welcoming our clients to our new office over the coming months.

The questions we are asked the most is how other clients are finding things and what sort of returns businesses are making.  We realise that we are a unique position -  as we get to see audit accurate results for a wide range of clients every single month and we talk to most of our clients throughout the month and this gives us a great perspective on how the economy is performing.

We have been developing The Peopleshare Barometer and will be publishing it every month - we hope that this will provide a useful benchmark on how key indicators such as sales, gross margins, net returns and debtors are performing, and help us to see trends developing that will help us to all stay one step ahead.

Although they are still available, it is getting very difficult to get Time to Pay arrangements.  HMRC now want to know what action you have taken, have you spoken to the bank, have you put money in yourself, have you stopped paying yourself.  They are extremely unlikely to be helpful if you are still taking dividends.  Having said that, it is still the luck of the draw depending on who you happen to speak to and how helpful they are feeling on the day, it IS random.

The lastest growth forecast released by the Bank of England has been lowered from 2% to just 1.7% this year, with inflation set to hit 5% as fuel and commodity prices continue to increase.  Some say this makes a rate rise less likely as this will put more pressure on households already struggling with lower wages and higher daily costs, some say it is more likely to attempt to curb inflation.

As inflation is mostly imported we can only hope that rates stay low until the recovery is more sustainable.

As expected, interest rates have today remained unchanged again at 0.5%.

 Although rates were expected to start increasing by May 2011 or August, data out in recent weeks is now pointing to a rise now being less likely this year.

We think any rise this year is going to be damaging to the fragile recovery as most businesses do not have yet have enough profit to be absorbing an increase in the cost of borrowing.

Next rate announcement is due on 7th June 2011.

It's good news on the timing of the new compulsary pension contributions that were due to come into effect next year.

For companies with less than 50 employees, the dates range from August 2014 to February 2016 and depend on your PAYE reference.  For companies with 50 to 249 employers, then the dates are from April 2014 to July 2014.

We were very concerned about the impact on companies having to find the additional pension contributions whilst still recovering from the recession so this is very positive news.  Also the amount of contributions until 2016 is only currently set to be 1%, rising to 3% from 2017, so there's plenty of time to budget for the extra cost.