Excel automation

March 23, 2017 By Bob Lewis-Basson

Not more spreadsheets to analyse and chart…

Always a regular cry in the office. Reports produced on a regular basis need to be embellished, with charts that involve some fairly complicated calculations – cross-reference look-ups, previous month comparisons, and all that sort of thing.

Probably, now this is done largely by hand. The data sits in several spreadsheets and/or databases, and is extracted, filtered, pivoted and everything else that was necessary to get it ready, before feeding into a chart. When the chart was ready, it is pasted into the report.

Wouldn’t it be great with the data is all in one place, and with a single front-end, the necessary criteria set from drop-downs. Once these selections have been made (locations, benchmarks, which dataset to use, and so on) you click a button and go and make coffee. Actually, you haven’t really got time to make coffee as the process takes just a couple of minutes – if that.

In this instance, any number of queries can be run; sometimes one query, sometimes several to generate the data. Each one automatically loading a into an Excel workbook, in to the right columns, in the right order to aid presentation. Then, your screen explodes into a fresh multi-coloured set of charts based on the information just collated! And is that the pivot table I slave over every month appearing before my very eyes!

In the past that has meant spending anything between a couple of hours to a couple of days for more complex reporting every period. Multiply that by twelve, and it becomes a not insignificant amount of time in a year m to get these twelve reports, graphs and charts prepared.

Say it was half a day of someone’s time, at the average salary of £26,000 – that’s a cost of around £60+ to the business for each report, or chart. Each and every time.

If reporting is weekly, that’s going to be more than £3,000 every year – more likely a lot more than that. If it now takes 30 minutes to do the whole job, that’s a total of just over 4 days for the whole year’s worth (at one report a week). The four days will cost under £500. So you get to keep £2,500 to do something else with.

What would you like to do with it?

Excel automation by Bob Lewis-Basson – 07802 441 728

Data Protection

March 22, 2017 By Bob Lewis-Basson

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) you must:

use personal information fairly and lawfully;
collect only the information necessary for a specific purpose(s);
ensure it is relevant, accurate and up to date;
only hold as much as you need, and only for as long as you need it;
allow the subject of the information to see it on request; and
keep it secure.

Good information handling makes good business sense, and it provides a range of benefits. You’ll enhance your business’ reputation, increase customer and employee confidence, and by ensuring that personal information is accurate, relevant and safe, save both time and money.

Your business has established an appropriate Data Protection Policy?

A policy will help you to address data protection in a consistent manner. This can be a standalone policy statement or part of a general staff policy. The policy should clearly set out your business’s approach to data protection together with responsibilities for implementing the policy and monitoring compliance. The policy should be approved by management, published and communicated to all staff. The policy should also be reviewed and updated at planned intervals or when required to ensure it remains relevant.

Your business has nominated a data protection lead?

It is good practice to identify a person or department in your business with day-to-day responsibility for developing, implementing and monitoring the data protection policy. Allocating these responsibilities to a data protection lead will help you effectively manage and co-ordinate data protection, and make your business more accountable. The lead should be appropriately skilled and have the necessary authority and resources to fulfil their duties.

Your business provides data protection awareness training for all staff?

Any data security breaches are accidental and result from insider actions. You should brief all staff handling personal data on their data protection responsibilities. It is good practice to provide awareness training on or shortly after appointment with updates at regular intervals or when required. Specialist training for staff with specific duties, such as marketing, information security and database management, should also be considered. The regular communication of key messages is equally important to help reinforce training and maintain awareness (for example, intranet articles, circulars, team briefings and posters).

If you are not sure where you stand in respect to DPA (Data Protection Act) or the forthcoming GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) call me now …

Bob Lewis-Basson 07802441728, or email bob.lewis-basson@tvba.co.uk

Power up your business with a Virtual Non-Executive Director

March 6, 2017 By Gordon Carmichael

The benefits of Non-Executive Directors are well understood by many successful business owners. They bring an independent view and additional experience that enable better decisions to be made by the management board. Our Home Counties and London Group Business Advisors have developed a Virtual Non-Executive Director (VNED) service that offers Managing Directors and business owners the same independent view and advice without the complexity of shareholdings, appointing legal directors and director’s service agreements.

Every company is different and yet there are many similar and transferable aspects from other industries and markets. Our experts are able to utilise their broad business experience and extensive network of contacts to support companies to achieve their strategic objectives. An independent view that challenges existing or new strategies can substantially enhance the robustness of a company’s direction. Sometimes difficult decisions are required to deal with business problems and the VNED can act as a sounding board to provide guidance and help the decision making process.

Our approach recognises that established and start up businesses have different needs at different times in their life cycle. New businesses often have a need to demonstrate credibility externally to customers and investors. Appointing a Virtual Non-Executive Director can enhance this.

How does it work?

The optimal Virtual Non-Executive Director approach varies with the needs of a business, the existing in-house skills and the “personality” of its MD and management team. Our experts are adept at engaging with companies to strike a balanced approach between coaching, practical advice, strategic input and holding the management to account where appropriate. Prior to engagement, we offer a confidential, no obligation, no holds barred discussion to establish what is actually needed and to establish priorities. A flexible approach is adopted to accommodate the practical time constraints of running a business, the need to react to short term opportunities or threats, planning for growth, the changing needs of the business and potentially planning for exit.

Businesses need to get things done but don’t always have access to the in house skills or expertise required for projects or specialist activity. If appropriate, our business experts can introduce trusted resources from their network that can jump start new requirements.

What does it cost?

The VNED service is charged on a monthly retainer basis with no long-term commitment and no surprises. The service is designed to deliver on-going value to the MD and the company. The monthly cost depends on the level of engagement agreed and will be tailored to your needs.

Contact Gordon Carmichael on 01276 818125 or gordon.carmichael@hcbusinessadvisors.co.uk to discuss how our Virtual Non-Executive Director service can benefit your business.

Are you worried about Pension Auto-Enrolment?

February 4, 2017 By Mushroom Internet

The law on workplace pensions has changed. Every employer with at least one member of staff has new duties – enrolling those who are eligible into a workplace pension and to contribute towards it. This is called Auto Enrolment.

Auto Enrolment has been introduced by the government so people save for a pension that will eventually top up the state pension.

In the past many employees missed out on a valuable pension because their employer didn’t offer them a pension, or they didn’t apply to join the company pension scheme. Auto Enrolment changes this. It makes it compulsory for employers to automatically enrol their eligible employees into a pension scheme. The employer must also contribute. This also means that employees will be offered a benefit that will hopefully translate to increased employee commitment/motivation and lower staff turnover.

Hefty fines apply to those who fail to comply with auto enrolment. Employers with more than 50 employees should already be up and running and for those businesses with less than 50 the staging dates are as follows:

40-49 employees 01/08/2015
30-39 employees 01/10/2015
Less than 30 employees 01/04/2017

If you are concerned about Pension Auto Enrolment and the implications it has for your business, Advisors at SGBA can help you so, talk to your local business advisor on 0774 044 9090 or call 0333 444 8522 (local call number) to be connected to a specialist. Or email me, peter.smale@sgba.co.uk. Act NOW before your staging date.

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