I use spreadsheets extensively for all manner of bespoke reporting. I am an insolvency practitioner and user a spreadsheet based questionnaire when interview directors of insolvent companies which uses the infoi automate all sorts of processes. I have a spreadsheet based checklist which monitors progress in cases and automates repetitive tasks like producing at one click all the documents needed to convene a creditors meeting.
In another life, I am a director of a Scottish professional football club and use a spreadsheet based matchday system to record incomes from turnstiles, catering outlets, programme sales and the myriad other things that go on at a football match on a Saturday. Its end product is a journal for upload to our cloud based accounting systems.
These are all bespoke tasks where there is either no commercially available software or, if there is, it is exhorbitantly expensive such as is the case with Insolvency software.
We use Kashflow for basic bookkeeping but whilst it is a decent and intuitive accounting package, it has no sensible report generator so the solution is a spreadsheet monthly reporting package into which a trila balance is imported - as are budget figures for my carefully preserved copy of the late lamented Winforecast.
Spreadsheets are an incredibly useful tool in the right hands and I suspect I will be long gone before they die out. When Xero or any other cloud based package can do what I describe above without a lengthy learning curve, I might consider it.
Part of the public perception is that tax avoidance schemes are often only available to multi national companies and the ultra wealthy because they involve exporting profits/income to low tax regimes abroad. Not many Joe Public punters have the option to shift their income to the Caymen Isles!
To say there is no public mood against tax avoidance would be an understatement but it is equally crass to put tax advisors in the position of being expected to deliver moral judgements in addition to advice on tax legislation.
The reality is that tax avoidance is a multi national game in which governments are only local players. Unless and until a substantial proportion of the major trading countries develop a unified stance against profit/income export, public and government opinion is whistling in the wind.
My answers
I use spreadsheets extensively for all manner of bespoke reporting. I am an insolvency practitioner and user a spreadsheet based questionnaire when interview directors of insolvent companies which uses the infoi automate all sorts of processes. I have a spreadsheet based checklist which monitors progress in cases and automates repetitive tasks like producing at one click all the documents needed to convene a creditors meeting.
In another life, I am a director of a Scottish professional football club and use a spreadsheet based matchday system to record incomes from turnstiles, catering outlets, programme sales and the myriad other things that go on at a football match on a Saturday. Its end product is a journal for upload to our cloud based accounting systems.
These are all bespoke tasks where there is either no commercially available software or, if there is, it is exhorbitantly expensive such as is the case with Insolvency software.
We use Kashflow for basic bookkeeping but whilst it is a decent and intuitive accounting package, it has no sensible report generator so the solution is a spreadsheet monthly reporting package into which a trila balance is imported - as are budget figures for my carefully preserved copy of the late lamented Winforecast.
Spreadsheets are an incredibly useful tool in the right hands and I suspect I will be long gone before they die out. When Xero or any other cloud based package can do what I describe above without a lengthy learning curve, I might consider it.
Part of the public perception is that tax avoidance schemes are often only available to multi national companies and the ultra wealthy because they involve exporting profits/income to low tax regimes abroad. Not many Joe Public punters have the option to shift their income to the Caymen Isles!
To say there is no public mood against tax avoidance would be an understatement but it is equally crass to put tax advisors in the position of being expected to deliver moral judgements in addition to advice on tax legislation.
The reality is that tax avoidance is a multi national game in which governments are only local players. Unless and until a substantial proportion of the major trading countries develop a unified stance against profit/income export, public and government opinion is whistling in the wind.