Finnish operator DNA partnered Finnish software company Zervant to offer its business customers an online accounting service that can be used anytime, anywhere on a computer or smart phone.

DNA provides Zervant’s expert service to all the interested companies and entrepreneurs. For example, the software lets businesses send an invoice in paper, e-mail or as an e-invoice. Besides taking care of billing, the service lets end-users keep track of travel expenses, costs and revenue. At the same time, a business’ accounting, tax reporting and tax return materials will be created automatically. The data of companies or entrepreneurs will be available in an online environment in the event that they decide to opt out. In this case, the billing service is no longer possible, but the stored data remains available and in a safe place.

Source: Telecompaper

See the full press release (in Finnish): www.dna.fi

We have collected some of the user feedback that we have received. It has been very encouraging to hear that our customers like Zervant and we are able to help business owners to manage their financials and paperwork easier.

We really thank our users for the great response! We would never have been able to develop Zervant without your help and suggestions for improvement. Hopefully you will continue to send us feedback! You can send us feedback by clicking on the Feedback-link in the service, through the contact form on our website, or by leaving a comment below or our Facebook page.

Reviews of Zervant time tracking and invoicing software.

19/06/12 “The service is fantastic, thank you!”
- Johan

18/06/12 “Top class!”
- Henric

09/06/12 “I must say I like Zervant a lot: simplicity, ease of use, good reports, etc.”
- Kristoffer

01/06/12 “Amazing support you have! Nice and prompt responses! In addition, you solve problems quickly – but that is secondary to the great service.”
- Lars

08/05/2012 “The service seems really neat. Especially because of the simple user interface and for being browser-based.”
- Kalle

23/04/12 “Your system feels extremely good so far!” 
- Perttu

18/04/2012 “Thanks for a well functioning program! It is fun to use it even if accounting is boring otherwise…”
- Pia

17/04/2012 “Everything works like a dream”
- Kari

08/04/2012 “This system appears to be a very good and easy to use, I have been searching for something like this system for a long time.”
- Andreas

27/02/2012 “Many thanks for your service, absolutely fantastic! Now, even I can follow up my business financials. Previously, I used another service and I can say it was complicated. “
-Markus

02/07/2012 “The system Zervant is fantastic and I really like the structure and functionality. I must say I’m impressed. “
- Pierre

19/10/2011 “Overall a very nice program. Very nice layout. Great for me that sells services “
- Fredrik

17/08/2011 “I really like the Zervant invoicing system – invoices looks really professional and contains everything needed such as interest rates, payment dates, and so on.”
- Petra

12/03/2011 “I’m very happy with the system.”
- Ulrika

23/02/2011 “Your service is fantastic!”
- Irina

Try Zervant free and tell us what you think about it!

Not using Zervant yet? Sign up for a free trial or learn more about our online accounting, time tracking and invoicing software.

Single-entry accounting

In the UK a balance sheet is an optional requirement for self employed businesses. This means that self employed businesses can do their accounting using single entry bookkeeping instead of more complex double-entry bookkeeping. This simplifies accounting as financial transactions are recorded only once rather than twice. The accounting is cash based (collected), i.e. always recorded on the day they occur and prime financial records include sales income, expenses, taxes, and cash or bank transactions.

Recording invoices for accounting

Bookkeeping is easy if you invoice your customers with Zervant. Financial transactions are recorded on the day they occur, meaning that your sales invoices are registered on the day you get paid, i.e. when you have received the money. Invoices are automatically recorded in your sales account when you mark them as paid from the list of outstanding invoices in the system.

Recording business expenses

You can easily record purchase expenses in the accounting software. As with invoices, expenditures are recorded on the day that you pay them. You can also record VAT and other tax payments in Zervant.

To record a new expense, click on the New expense on the Expenses tab.

• Expense number: A unique number identifying the expense. Zervant automatically suggests a number for you based on the last number used.
• Date: The date you paid the purchase.
• Category: Expense category. Choose form the pre-defined categories or define a new if needed. This category is used in your financial and accounting reports. Selecting the right category for your expenses will make it easier to fill in your tax return form. The expense categories are similar to accounts used in double-entry accounting.
• Paid: Total amount paid including value added tax (VAT).
• VAT %: The VAT percentage for the expense.
• Paid VAT: The total VAT amount is automatically calculated but can be altered if needed.
• VAT deductible: Uncheck this box if the VAT of the expense is not deductible (not very common).
• Supplier: The seller of the product or service.
• Description: Your own description of the expense.
• Receipt: You can upload an electronic copy (image file or pdf) of the receipt to be stored and archived in the service.

Recording income

If you want to record other income than sales invoices you can add them on the Income tab by clicking on the Add other income button. These are typically cash or card payments, insurance claims and other revenue.

• Product: If you get cash or card payments for e.g. products or services sold online you can record the income easier by selecting the product from the list. The details will them be filled in for you. You can define your own products in Zervant accounting software.
• Type: Set the type of income or defined a new income category if needed.
• Payment received: Enter the date that you received the payment.
• Payment method: Select the payment method.
• Total: Total amount paid (received) including value added tax (VAT).
• VAT %: Select the applied VAT.
• Received VAT: The received VAT is calculated automatically but can be changed.
• Payer: Enter the name of the person or company that made the payment.
• Description: Your own description of the payment.
• Attachment: You can upload an electronic copy (image file or pdf) of a receipt or other proof of income to be stored and archived with the transaction.

Single entry accounting and other reports

When you record your company’s income and expenditure the service generates the single-entry accounting on your behalf. In addition, you will see several other reports that explains the financial development of your business.

Accounting report: Single entry accounting

Single entry accounting is created based on your daily financial transaction and is always up to date. You do not have to separately do any bookkeeping. You can print your accounting report or save it on the hard drive of your computer.

Accounting report: Financial transactions by income and expense category

This report makes it easy to fill in your tax return form for self employed as it shows a summary of your income and expense categories over the tax year (financial year).

Financial report: Income and expenses

The easy to understand income and expense report shows your company’s income, expenditure and profit on a monthly basis.

Financial report: Sales by customer

As self employed or a sole trader it is very important to understand the value of your customers. This report shows your sales by customers in an interactive graph.

What about debits, credits and double entry accounting?

Fortunately, Zervant creates the single entry accounting report for you that you can send to your accountant for double entry accounting. Unless you want to, there is no need to get involved with complex accounting when running your own business.

Sign up for a free account now or read more about Zervant free accounting software with time tracking and invoicing.

Related articles

• Create and send an invoice in Zervant (with video)
• Tracking time and invoicing projects
• Product invoicing
• Introduction to VAT for sole traders
• Create a free homepage in 15 minutes with Zervant
• Free invoice template in Excel

Here you can download a free invoice template for the UK in Excel format. The article also describes how to fill out the invoice template.

A professional looking invoice template is great when you send your first invoices. Once business pick up we recommend that you start using a billing software to keep track of your work, sold products, sent invoices, and follow up payments. Zervant offers an online invoicing software that will save you valuable time and you can try absolutely free.

Invoice template in Excel – Instructions

This invoice template that you can download for free below was created in Excel and automatically calculates total amounts and value added tax (VAT). The template also contains some additional tools that can help you while invoicing your clients. If you want to learn more about invoice requirement you can read our article about required information in invoices.

• Company contact information: Enter your company contact information on the invoice template.
• Client contact information: Enter the contact information of the buyer in the invoice template.
• Invoice Date: Enter the date you issued or printed the invoice (default is current date)
• Invoice Number: A unique number that identifies the invoice, usually a sequential serial number. During the same fiscal year you should never create two invoices with the same invoice number.
• Client Number: Enter a unique number that identifies the customer. 
• Payment Terms: Enter payment terms for the invoice, default is 30 days.
• Due date: The date on which the invoice should be paid on in calculated based on the payment terms.
• Late payment interest: Enter the used interest rate charged if the invoice is not paid according to the agreed terms.
• Your Reference: Enter the reference person for the invoice, i.e. buyer contact person.
• Additional information: Enter a brief description what the invoice includes and any additional terms that you have agreed with your customer.
• Payment details (bottom of invoice template): Enter the Bank Name, Sort Code and Account number to be used for the payment.
• Invoice items: Fill out the services or products you sold, including quantity, unit, and select the VAT percent. Total amounts are calculated automatically.

Once you’ve filled out the information in the invoice template, you can save it as your own template and use that as a starting point next time you want to create an invoice. It is good practice to always to save new invoices with a unique name.

Download free invoice template

Click here to download the free invoice template for Excel and start billing your clients. Please feel free to leave us a comment if you have questions or ideas how we could improve the article and invoice template.

If you are looking for an easier way to manage your invoices you can try Zervant online invoicing software that offers both time tracking and single entry accounting in a very simple package.

Related articles

• Free single entry bookkeeping online (tutorial using Zervant)
• Create an invoice in one minute (with video)
• Introduction to VAT
• Tracking time and billing projects

Not using Zervant? Read more about how you can easily track time and invoice clients online.

1. Create a new invoice

Start with create a new invoice by clicking on the Create invoice link on the Zervant Dashboard or the button in the Customers or Track time view.

2. Add a product to the product database

To add a new product to your product register, select Add new product… from the drop-down menu in the Invoice Items section.

You will now see a dialog where you can enter more information about your new product:

• Product: Give the product a name that will be visible on the invoice.
• Description: You can add a short description of the product for your own reference. The description will not be visible on the invoice.
• Price (VAT 0%): Give the price of the product excluding value added tax (VAT). In case you are invoicing a consumer you can define the price including VAT in the Price field in this dialog. Zervant automatically calculates the price without tax for you.
• Unit: If needed, define a unit for the product.
• VAT: Set the VAT % for the product. In general, the VAT for services in the UK is 20% (2012).
• Price: Give the total price for the product including VAT. This value is calculated automatically in case you defined a price excluding VAT earlier.

Click Save to save the product to your product database and return to the invoice editor. Your product is now listed in the drop-down menu shown when adding new invoice items or creating a new invoice.

3. Invoice your customer

When you are done with your invoice you click the Approve invoice button to preview the final invoice. When you are satisfied, just select the delivery method and send it to your client.

4. Managing your product register

You can also easily add, edit and remove products from your product database in your company profile. Access your product database by selecting My Account (in the top right corner) and Products and services.

Related articles

More articles related to this topic:

• Create an invoice in a minute
• Track time and invoice projects

Not using Zervant? Read more about how you can easily track time and invoice clients online.

1. Create a new project

To create a new customer project for tracking time and invoicing you start with clicking on the Create project button on the Track time or Customers tab.

Enter the project details:

• Customer: Select the customer from your contact database.
• Project name: Give the project a name. The name will be visible on the invoice when you create an invoice for your client.
• Status: Select Active if you want to track time for the project.
• Add project tasks: Define the tasks related to the project. The tasks are used when tracking working time in the time tracker and later brought to your invoice as separate invoice rows. You can set the hourly fee and budget separately for each task.

Click Save and then Close when you are satisfied with the project description to get back to the Track time view.

2. Track time for the project

You can now select the project from the list of active projects and track client work that is related to the project:

• Date: Enter the date when the task was done.
• Task: Select task from the list of tasks that you previously defined in the project description.
• Quantity: Enter the amount of hours you spent on the task.
• Description: Give a more detailed description of your work if needed.

The time tracker automatically calculates the actual total cost of the project based on the hours and tasks that you log.

3. Invoice the project from your client

Click on Create invoice when you are ready to invoice your project work from your client. If you have several projects for the same client you can select which project you want to invoice before you are presented with the the draft invoice.

Zervant automatically collects all uninvoiced work related to the project to your invoice template. If you want to create a partial invoice you can choose a specific invoicing period from the date fields. Click Approve invoice when you are done, then select the invoice delivery method and send it to your client.

Related articles

More articles related to this topic:

• Create an invoice in less than a minute

Create an invoice and add invoice items

You can create a new invoice from the Create invoice link on the home page, from the customer database or directly from a client time sheet.

Start with selecting the invoice template, the invoicing software remembers the invoice template from time to time. You can easily change the invoice date, invoice number, reference number, payment terms, or other information related to the invoice. The software automatically assigns an invoice number to every new invoice you create. You can also create invoices in other languages, for the moment Zervant supports English, Swedish and Finnish.

The next step is to add the items that you want to invoice. If you have used a time sheet for tracking your work, the hours are automatically brought to your invoice template. Add any additional information and state the fee you want to charge, either with or without VAT. The invoicing software automatically calculates the other sum for you.

If you sell standardized products or services you can save them in the product register for even quicker invoicing.

Approve and send the invoice

When your invoice is ready, press the Approve invoice button to create and preview the finalized invoice. You can now send the invoice via e-mail or alternatively download a PDF version to your own computer to print or send manually.

Also, we recommend that you collect customer feedback when sending out invoices. When you collect feedback you get valuable insight into what clients think about your services. That helps you to improve and build a reputation for your business.  You can even publish your customer satisfaction score online on your web page.

Mark the invoice as paid

When your client has paid the invoice you can easily change the status of the invoice to paid. Click on the Change status link to and remember to set the date it was paid to keep your bookkeeping up to date. Your bookkeeping and VAT reports are automatically updated when you mark the invoice as paid.

Related articles

• Track time and invoice clients and projects
• Introduction to VAT
• Free invoice template in Excel
• Tracking time and billing projects
• Invoicing products

Comments?

Please leave a comment below if you did not find the answer your were looking for.

Create your own invoice template – required information

It is quite easy to prepare an invoice but it usually requires that you have a good invoice template or use an invoicing software. If you use your own invoice template, you need to make sure that it includes the required information described in this guide.

Invoice dates

The date when the invoice was raised. The invoice date can be the day you prepared, printed or sent out the invoice to your client.

Also specify a due date for the payment. Normally this is 30 days after the invoice date but you can agree on any other payment terms with your client.

Client details

The name and address of the of the client that you will send the invoice to. If you provide services through an agency you usually enter the agency as the client on the invoice.

Company details

You need to include your company details on each invoice you prepare:

• Company name
• Address
• Telephone number and email address
• Company number
• VAT registration number is needed to be able to identify the seller (read more about VAT registration for sole traders)

Invoice number

Each of your invoices should have a unique invoice number that is used to identify the invoice and is also required for bookkeeping purposes. It is highly recommended to use sequential numbers (i.e. each new invoice number is increased by 1). Lately, sequential numbers has also become a legal requirement in most EU countries.

In any case, you should never create 2 invoices with the same invoice number. To avoid problems you should not skip numbers in the sequence as inconsistent invoice numbers can be interpreted by your accountant as missing invoices.

Very often companies start the number sequence at a higher number than 1. For example 1250 could be a better starting number to avoid that your clients can figure out how many invoices your company has sent out overall.

Payment details

Specify when and how you would like to receive the money. Most agencies and clients do not pay via cheque and choose money transfer as cheques can be inconvenient. If you wish to only be paid by money transfer then specify your bank account details (IBAN account number and SWIFT/BIC code).

To ensure you can track the payment in your bank account it is highly recommended that you use a reference number on your invoice as well. If you want, you can use the invoice number as the reference number.

Sold goods and services

The invoice should specify all sold products or provided services. In addition, the invoice need to include information about the scope of services and the amount of products sold. Also, is highly recommended to state the date when the product or services were provided .

Provided services can be specified as amount of hours or a productised service. If you use product codes when invoicing we still recommend you specify the actual name of the products as well.

Fees and Value Added Tax (VAT)

You need to specify the price of the goods sold. Each invoice item need to specify the price before value added tax (VAT 0%) and the applied VAT. In practice, each invoice row should include the following information:

• Description of the service or product sold
• The scope of the service or product (hours, amount, or other unit)
• Unit price without VAT
• Applied VAT (in the UK 20%, 5% or 0% for 2011)
• The gross amount due including VAT

Additionally, the invoice need to specify the total amount of VAT and naturally total amount to be paid by the client.

Example invoice

Below is an example of an invoice with the required information (screenshot from Zervant invoicing software).

Benefits of using an invoicing software vs. an invoice template

A proper invoicing software let you do more than just create and send invoices. It will help you to track time, follow up your invoices, manage your customer contacts and products, and provides easy to understand reports. Some invoicing solutions even offers you a way to manage VAT and your business financials in a complete way and reduces the amount of work you have to dedicate to administrative tasks. An invoicing solution offering these elements saves you valuable time as you do not have to separately handle your bookkeeping. Instead, all business transactions are automatically recorded on your behalf.

Additionally, your invoices play an important role when building a good reputation for your company.  A clear, structured invoice increases your company credibility and helps you when working with your clients. As an entrepreneur you should not waste time on clarifying questions related to incomplete invoices.

Related articles

• Download a free invoice template in Excel
• Create and send an invoice in less than a minute (with video)
• Track time and invoice clients and projects
• Introduction to VAT
• Tracking time and billing projects
• Invoicing products

Comments?

Please leave a comment below if you did not find the answer your were looking for.

Any company must register for VAT if its turnover exceeds £73,000 (in 2011) in any 12 month period. You are obliged to register for VAT with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) within 30 days of reaching this level of turnover.

Voluntary VAT registration

If your business turnover is below the registration limit you can still register voluntarily for VAT. There are a few reasons why you may want to register for VAT even if you do not have to:

• You are able to reclaim VAT paid on company purchases (your input tax)
• Added credibility, some businesses prefer to deal only with suppliers who are VAT registered
• Your customers can reclaim the VAT you charge them (if they are VAT registered)

One disadvantage of voluntary VAT registration is the additional administrative work from keeping a record of input and output taxes and filing regular VAT returns. Another key point to remember is that If you are selling to consumers your prices may become uncompetitive as they are not able reclaim the VAT.

In the end, the cost of VAT to your business is neutral because if you receive more VAT from sales than you pay VAT on purchases, you pay the difference to HMRC. Likewise, HMRC will refund the difference to you if you have paid more VAT on purchases than you have received from sales.

Special VAT accounting schemes

In the UK there are some VAT accounting schemes designed especially for small businesses. Business Link provides a simple questionnaire for identifying which VAT schemes you can use.

Flat Rate Scheme for VAT

If your turnover is less than £150,000, you can simplify your VAT accounting by calculating your VAT payments as a fixed percentage of your total turnover. This scheme reduces the time that you need to spend on calculating your VAT. Note that you cannot reclaim VAT on purchases, it is already taken into account in the fixed lower VAT percentage. Your flat VAT percentage depends on the nature of your business.

You still need to show a VAT amount on each sales invoice and record how much you sell, but you don’t need to record how much VAT you charge on every sale in your accounts. Nor do you need to record the VAT you pay on every purchase. Additionally, if you are newly VAT registered you can reduce your flat rate by 1%. This means you can take 1% off the fixed rate for the first 12 months you are VAT registered.

Cash Accounting Scheme for VAT

The Cash Accounting Scheme allows you to account for VAT on the basis of payments you receive and make, rather than on invoices you issue and receive. This scheme may be a good option if you use cash based accounting for your business.

The main benefit of the cash accounting scheme is that it can help yourcash flow, particularly if your customers pay you late. However, when using the scheme you can’t reclaim VAT on purchases until you pay your suppliers.

Annual Accounting Scheme for VAT

The Annual VAT Accounting Scheme allows you to make your VAT return once a year instead of quarterly, and to make interim payments before paying the full balance once your annual return has been submitted. You need to make either nine interim payments at monthly intervals, or three quarterly interim payments, throughout the year. At the end of the year, you submit your annual return and any VAT balance due.

One key benefit of the annual scheme is spreading your payments throughout the year for easier budgeting, because you know when and how much VAT to pay.

Other VAT schemes

There are a few more specific purpose VAT accounting schemes not fully covered in this article. You can read more about all VAT accounting schemes by HM Revenue & Customs.

When do I pay VAT to HMRC?

In general, you pay VAT every 3 months (quarterly), but you can also pay annually or monthly.

Annual accounting can reduce your paperwork when you only need to complete one annual VAT return instead of four quarterly or 12 monthly VAT returns. However, it does not remove the requirement to keep all required VAT records and accounts.

• If you pay quarterly – payments will be due by the end of months four, seven and ten of your annual accounting year
• If you pay monthly – payments will be due by the end of months four to 12 of your annual accounting year

Based upon the VAT Return that you need complete at the end of the year, your VAT payable is due two months after the end of your annual accounting year. All of your VAT payments must be made electronically starting April 2012.

Comments?

Please leave a comment below if you have anything to add to this article.

A common denominator for successful businesses, independent of size, is that they are able to quickly adapt to the market demand. The easiest way to stay on top of the needs of your (potential) customers is to talk to them regularly and ask for feedback on your offering.

Every customer meeting is an opportunity to learn

You should think about every customer meeting as a great opportunity to get market feedback and improve your offering. It is much easier to sell something that fits the needs of the customers. Always listen carefully when you talk to potential and existing customers. Often, they are not pro-actively telling you what they want unless you ask them specifically. Once you ask, you’ll be surprised how much you can learn from them about your own business.

Always ask for feedback…

It is crucial for a small business to actively collect customer feedback whenever possible. When asking for feedback, be very specific and try to separate their overall impression, the quality of your work, the perceived service level, etc. Another key point is to keep it short. Very few people want to spend more than a minute on giving feedback (unless they are very unhappy with your services).

In general, you should focus on what went well and your possible improvement areas. That will directly reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your business. You can collect feedback in several ways depending on the nature of your business:

• Ask the customer directly and write it down for later reference
• Ask for feedback by e-mail when you send your invoices (this is the best time to request feedback)
• Give them a feedback form with a few short questions
• Use your business Facebook page for collecting comments (if you have one and want to be fully transparent)
• Use an online survey tool such as Survey Monkey or similar (suitable if you have many customers)

Regardless of the way you receive feedback, make sure you always get back to the customers and thank them and let them know how you are going to use the feedback and improve your offering. This is also a great opportunity to ask for customer testimonials.

…then improve your business

When you know your strengths and weaknesses of your business it is much easier to improve. Your strengths from your customer’s viewpoint give you great arguments in sales negotiations and will help to target your marketing even better.

Spend enough time on fixing your improvements areas, especially if you have long term customer relationships. Showing customers that you listen and make changes based on their feedback will significantly strengthen your relationship and ensures that they stay as your customer longer. This also opens up new opportunities for additional sales to your customers.

Know your customers to exceed their expectations

Staying focused on improving your business over time will help you stick out of the competition. Knowing what your customers think also helps you to exceed your customers expectations and to avoid over-promising. Satisfied customers are much more likely to recommend your business to others.

Remember to always listen carefully to your customers, they will really help you to succeed better!