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Laurel Finance - Dorset

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30/10/2026

The last step on my 10 step process when incorporating my company - created a rough cashflow forecast

Cash is king, and it is very easy to be making a profit whilst simultaneously running out of cash.

A forecast helps to mitigate this. It doesn't have to be anything overly technical or pretty - it just needs to give you an idea of what your cash position is going to be.

Be realistic with what you enter in - things that are actually going to happen and when. Being overly optimistic destroys the point. If you can see pinch points, then you can think of ways to mitigate them - if you cover them under a shroud of glitter, you won't know they are coming and won't be able to do anything about them.......

Use Excel, a forecasting tool or AI, whatever works for you, but just make sure it all adds up, is simple to follow and reflects your best guess at what is going to happen.

Good practice tends to be a 13 week cashflow, but you can do what is most useful to you.

Do you have a cashflow forecast? Or do things like this make you want to hide under the duvet...?!

28/10/2026

I can see why I was a bit slow to post step number 9 after incorporating into a company....................

Updating insurance cover does not set my heart on fire (no offence to all the insurance nerds in my network!)

BUT this is so important to make sure you have the right cover, and everything is in place should the worst happen.

This is where it pays to have a lovely insurance nerd in your corner, who make it easy to understand the cover you need and how much it is.

So, number 9, not very excititng but very important!

What little things have you sorted out recently that have been on the to do list and you have FINALLY ticked off?

29/09/2026

Step number 8 when setting up my own company is HUGE and one that a few people have touched on in the comments previously:

I set up a monthly savings account and a regular transfer into it to cover VAT and corporation tax

So this one might not be as exciting as shiny new software but it can really prevent you from finding yourself in the sh_t!

By stashing away a bit each month, I know I have a good reserve to cover the inevitable tax payments that will come the company's way.

Another way of thinking about it - it is not your money, you are collecting it on behalf of HMRC (and I am sure they are very grateful 🤔 ) and they will not be very pleased if you spend it all and then can't pay what you owe.

A simple habit to start, and automatic transfers mean I don't even have to remember to do it - a very welcome safety net.

Do you implement this system in your business? Or a similar one?

25/09/2026

Step Number 7 in the list of helpful things I did while setting up my company is an exciting one!

I took out a subscription for my own Company 💼

I highly recommend checking out Briefcase - it is a really clever piece of software with a lovely team behind it who are disrupting the accounting and bookkeeping world.

Briefcase uses AI technology to learn YOUR business and how YOU treat YOUR transactions - it is so nifty!

An example - send your monthly bookkeeping invoice (via email, drag and drop or WhatsApp) and it analyses it, checks if it has seen it before and if it is happy, posts it for you - correct VAT treatment, correct coding, it even does the Departments I talked about before.

(FAO accountants - it also has cool journal, working papers and reconciliation features! 🤯 )

As with all new software, I keep a close eye on what it is doing, but am bowled over by how clever and easy to use it is - and the guys keep on improving it.

If you are that way inclined - check it out, if you want help implementing/understanding it - let me know.

22/09/2026

What's next in my 10 steps I followed when incorporating the company?

Number 6 - Set up Departments in Xero

This functionality is so cool, but also a bit dangerous. (Not like life and death dangerous, but like, 'that was a waste of time' dangerous).

Departments allows you to slice up you income and expenses in any way that is useful for you. In my Xero, I have a tracking category per client so I can see the income and expenses associated with each - customer profitability analysis without the spreadsheets!

Another of my clients uses these because they have different areas of the business and like to see how each is performing in its own merit - the cafe and the shop for example.

As usual, I have GOT to caveat this - reporting in this way is really useful, but only if you set it up and administer it properly - or else it is pretty useless.

Do you think this kind of reporting would provide any light bulb moments for you? 💡

16/09/2026

Moving on to step 5 after incorporating into a company:

💳️ Set up a new credit card

Again, this keeps things really clean - all company expenses are on the company credit card. Set up a bank feed integration in Xero and it is really really easy to keep on top of expenditure and reconciliations.

Equally, it is a really good prompt to have a good hard look at my subscriptions and cull any I was not using - admittedly I am pretty hot on this, but a couple can slip through the net.

I went for - let me know if I made the right choice or not, this is not my area of expertise!

25/08/2026

Step Four after registering my company was to open a new bank account in the company name.

This is so important and so easily missed. It really is so helpful to have a bank account that is purely for business transactions.

I had a separate account from my personal stuff when I was a sole trader and now I have a new one in the company name purely for company 'stuff'.

There are tonnes of banks to choose from including high street and online, each has their pros and cons, but we really are spoilt for choice!

It keeps everything clean and easy to understand - a no brainer!

Posting a snap from our weekend campervan trip 😁

Do you have any other tips to keep things clean and tidy when it comes to running a business?

13/08/2026

As part of registering as a company, I took the opportunity to sort out my processes and make sure my finances are clean and useful.

Step three was to open a brand new account.

I don't want to get into which software is the best - there are tonnes out there and loads of pros and cons of each. I am a Xero girly so am keeping it that way (for now at least....)

A spangly brand new Xero is really important to me so that I don't end up with a confusing mix of sole trader transactions and company transactions all mashed into the same reports.

I am sure there will be times where I have forgotten to update a subscription or something and it goes out of the sole trader credit card, but I will be able to deal with this as it happens and it will be super clear to see what we did when I look back.

This means that I have a really clear picture of how the company is doing when I run my reports, without having to spend ages filtering out information that isn't relevant or should be somewhere else. Clean and useful!

What is one thing you have done to make your numbers cleaner and more useful to you?

11/08/2026

After incorporating my company recently, I thought it would be interesting to share a few things that I have done to set out on the right path, keeping things simple going forward.

The second thing I did was to register for PAYE. This was some sound advice I received from Oxley at Aurora Services Ltd when we were having a catch up.

When you are a director and a shareholder of a company, there are a few ways of extracting money out of the business. Again, there is lots to this and I would wholly recommend talking to someone who knows their stuff before you take ANY money out of the company for yourself.

One way is to pay yourself as an employee. To do this you need to run payroll and pay PAYE. This is fine and dandy if you are registered, but if you aren't it is a real mess to try to sort out monies that have been paid to you. So, in the spirit of keeping it simple, I have registered. I am not even sure how much or when I will pay myself, but I have one less thing to worry about.

Payroll is not my specialist area, so I will definitely be asking for Katy's help to make sure I get this right.

What's one piece of advice you have received in business that has saved you a lot of time or hassle?

31/07/2026

I have recently incorporated Laurel Finance into a company - which is super exciting! I thought it would be useful to share 10 steps I have taken at the outset to make my life easier when it comes to the finances. (I fully believe that if there is a simpler way of doing something, then it should be done that way - why make life hard?!)

1. Registered for VAT
2. Registered for PAYE
3. Set up a brand new account
4. Set up a new bank account
5. Set up a new credit card
6. Created tracking categories in Xero
7. Took out a new subscription
8. Set up a monthly savings account transfer for VAT and Tax payments
9. Updated my insurance cover
10. Created a rough cashflow forecast

The beauty of these is that they are not just options at the very start of business - you can implement any of these right now whether you have been in business 10 minutes or 10 years.

I will do a post about each in more detail.

What else would you add to the list? What have you implemented in your business that has made life easier or prevented headaches further down the line?

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Buckhorn Weston
SP85HP

Opening Hours

Monday	7:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	7:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	7:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday	7:30am - 5:30pm
Friday	7:30am - 5:30pm

Website

https://www.laurelfinance.co.uk/

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