Graduated in Natural Philosophy (what they used to call Physics) from the University of Glasgow. Recently retired from working in the aerospace industry.
I now act as Company Secretary for the letting agency Clan Gordon Limited in Edinburgh (www.clangordon.co.uk). The company is owned and run by two of my sons.
I also work on IT issues and develop Excel spreadsheets.
We have found that Outlook works very well on iPhone, and presumably iPad. This has accelerated our intention to move over to Office 365/Exchange Online.
As a bit of an Applephobe, I then downloaded what is called a Preview version for Android.
Despite being called Preview, it works extremely well.
I can't even get a decent speed (> 2 Mbps!) from BT in Edinburgh. The roll-out of fast broadband via FTTC in our area has just been slipped from end Sept 2013 to end of March 2014.
Have they been focussing too much on rural broadband (ha ha!)?
Access to Office Applications on Smartphones & Tablets
Apps that claim to provide Office Applications on smartphones and tablets seem to be rather limited. This is especially true for Excel.
I've tried most Apps, especially those with the best reviews, plus Google Drive's Sheet and Excel on Skydrive. The functionality is very limited.
For example, I was trying to find a neat way to make a pricing spreadsheet available to resellers - nothing to do with accountancy, I know!
This was developed in Excel, and can be used in Skydrive and converted to Google Drive with little problem - provided I'm doing it on a Windows PC!
Things like drop-down lists work fine on my PC but fail miserably when I open the spreadsheet on an Android phone or a Nexus tablet, i.e. they have disappeared!
Other Android Office Apps fail in the same way.
There seems to be generally poor functionality on Android. I could find no admission of this from Google about its Drive applications. When you read about its capabilities, there is no warning that its very different on PC and Android. Surely they should tell you up front that what works on a PC is likely to fail on Android - and ditto for Microsoft.
I've thought about trying to embed a live spreadsheet on a web-page, but it would be a big learning task and I'm not sure it would work.
If anyone knows better, or can point me at a solution, please let me know.
I wonder if it's any better on an iThing, or a Windows phone or tablet?
At last, a very comprehensive explanation of CIS scope.
Do your conclusions about landlords apply equally to letting agents, who may organise maintenance and/or renovation works on behalf of landlords?
I have found it difficult to interpret the HMRC guidance on CIS when it comes to letting agents. I did find "CISR15170 - The Scheme: payments: managing agents", which may apply to letting agents and says -
"Where the contract between the principal and the managing agent includes the maintenance of the property and the agent enters into a contract on their own behalf, even though this is done under the terms of the service contract between the agent and the principal, the agent will be acting as a contractor within the Scheme."
e.g. Scotland has a completely different setup for tenancy deposit schemes, which does not get a mention on GOV.UK. Mind you, the same is true of Directgov!
I expected that our PI insurers would dictate T's & C's, or as a minimum provide advice on this, but I can find nothing. Has anyone seen advice from insurers on the question of how liability should be dealt with in engagement letter or contract T's & C's?
VAT Cash Accounting is good when you are small, and might be concerned about the cash not arriving!! It's no trouble when you use software (like Xero) that makes it easy to do.
I suspect DMGbus might be correct about complex rules when it comes to cash accounting for company tax.
My answers
Outlook for mobile
We have found that Outlook works very well on iPhone, and presumably iPad. This has accelerated our intention to move over to Office 365/Exchange Online.
As a bit of an Applephobe, I then downloaded what is called a Preview version for Android.
Despite being called Preview, it works extremely well.
Update!
Drop-down lists now work with Excel on Onedrive (new name for Skydrive) - since November 2013 I think.
A great improvement!
Urban broadband
I can't even get a decent speed (> 2 Mbps!) from BT in Edinburgh. The roll-out of fast broadband via FTTC in our area has just been slipped from end Sept 2013 to end of March 2014.
Have they been focussing too much on rural broadband (ha ha!)?
Access to Office Applications on Smartphones & Tablets
Apps that claim to provide Office Applications on smartphones and tablets seem to be rather limited. This is especially true for Excel.
I've tried most Apps, especially those with the best reviews, plus Google Drive's Sheet and Excel on Skydrive. The functionality is very limited.
For example, I was trying to find a neat way to make a pricing spreadsheet available to resellers - nothing to do with accountancy, I know!
This was developed in Excel, and can be used in Skydrive and converted to Google Drive with little problem - provided I'm doing it on a Windows PC!
Things like drop-down lists work fine on my PC but fail miserably when I open the spreadsheet on an Android phone or a Nexus tablet, i.e. they have disappeared!
Other Android Office Apps fail in the same way.
There seems to be generally poor functionality on Android. I could find no admission of this from Google about its Drive applications. When you read about its capabilities, there is no warning that its very different on PC and Android. Surely they should tell you up front that what works on a PC is likely to fail on Android - and ditto for Microsoft.
I've thought about trying to embed a live spreadsheet on a web-page, but it would be a big learning task and I'm not sure it would work.
If anyone knows better, or can point me at a solution, please let me know.
I wonder if it's any better on an iThing, or a Windows phone or tablet?
How about letting agents?
At last, a very comprehensive explanation of CIS scope.
Do your conclusions about landlords apply equally to letting agents, who may organise maintenance and/or renovation works on behalf of landlords?
I have found it difficult to interpret the HMRC guidance on CIS when it comes to letting agents. I did find "CISR15170 - The Scheme: payments: managing agents", which may apply to letting agents and says -
"Where the contract between the principal and the managing agent includes the maintenance of the property and the agent enters into a contract on their own behalf, even though this is done under the terms of the service contract between the agent and the principal, the agent will be acting as a contractor within the Scheme."
Scotland should implement tax simplification from the word go!
What the government of an independent Scotland should do is respond to the comments in "NAO exposes HMRC tax avoidance failure" - www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/nao-exposes-hmrc-tax-avoidance-failure/534132.
In other words, have their own tax system and go for massive tax simplification, which the UK authorities will never do.
GOV.UK seems a bit lacking on Scottish issues!
e.g. Scotland has a completely different setup for tenancy deposit schemes, which does not get a mention on GOV.UK. Mind you, the same is true of Directgov!
Professional indemnity insurance
I expected that our PI insurers would dictate T's & C's, or as a minimum provide advice on this, but I can find nothing. Has anyone seen advice from insurers on the question of how liability should be dealt with in engagement letter or contract T's & C's?
Why no control test?
Perhaps there should be a test something like -
"Do you control the work of employees of the company you are contracted to? If yes, minus 100 points."
Not likely since it would upset HMRC's employers!
VAT Cash Accounting for SME's
VAT Cash Accounting is good when you are small, and might be concerned about the cash not arriving!! It's no trouble when you use software (like Xero) that makes it easy to do.
I suspect DMGbus might be correct about complex rules when it comes to cash accounting for company tax.