Commercial Property North London: Always A Strong Investment

Shops to let in North London have, like all commercial property in North London, suffered in recent months. The credit crunch and resulting recession hit properties hard in capitals across the world. In many of these, prices have still not come back. In London, however, the picture is unexpectedly different. Commercial property took a real hammering as the economy nosedived, and the best office space in particular was badly hit. That meant a couple of things. Firstly, yields rose quite strongly as sale prices fell but rental prices dropped less sharply. Secondly, there were significant opportunities for foreign investors who recognised a bargain when they saw one – which is what happened not long afterwards. The relative strength of the Euro against the pound meant that investors on the continent (as well as further afield) made the most of the competitive prices. Whether it was a high-rise development in the Square Mile or a shop for sale in London, it could be seem as a potentially lucrative asset.

This dynamic led to a quick bounce back in property prices in the capital. This was supported by a relative dearth of additional development. As the long-awaited recovery appears on the horizon – subject to further setbacks from the Eurozone – the bottleneck this will cause is expected to nudge prices even higher once again. Things in London aren’t exactly ‘business as usual’ but the picture there is a lot better than in other areas of the country, which helps as well. The GDP figures that the government awaits from quarter to quarter are not a reliable local indication, since they are not uniform; London and the southeast, in particular, are in a much stronger position economically than elsewhere.

Shops to rent in North London can thus be seen as an investment opportunity. Property has fallen from grace as an investment in recent times, being blamed as a critical strand of the global economic traumas that are still working themselves out. Commercial property in North London doesn’t play by quite the same rules as property elsewhere – office space, industrial, retail or otherwise. This means that, assuming you’re able to remain in it for the medium-term, you can expect to make a profit on your purchase. A shop for sale in London might not have the prestige of a skyscraper on Canary Wharf, but with a little background information you could find it yielding the same kind of return on investment.

Please visit https://www.claridges-commercial.co.uk

Presentation Design Agency is key to a great bid

Powerpoint presentations are a mainstay of corporate bids, and just about any meeting that looks to influence your audience. Sales presentations are given in their thousands, day in, day out. So what distinguishes the outstanding ones, the five or ten percent that really wow people, from the majority that are forgotten almost before they are done? The answer is Powerpoint design. It’s something that is apparently so simple that many businesses don’t give any real thought to it. The software is accessible enough for anyone to use. The problem is that it’s challenging to use well, and all too often that shows  both in the presentations themselves and your audiences reactions.

As a general rule, Powerpoint slideshows are provided as a bolt-on extra to spoken presentations. In other words, the speech is written first, using all of the sales material and research you would expect for an accomplished pitch. This is where the real work goes in. But then the slideshow that goes with it is put together afterwards, typically without a lot of work. It’s treated as something thats there because it’s expected (can you imagine a sales presentation without a Powerpoint slideshow…?).

This is a big mistake. Often the accompanying Powerpoint presentation adds nothing: it just restates what is being said. The outcome is worse than if there was no visual presentation. It distracts the audience from what you are saying, offering no benefit in return.

The real challenge is to use Powerpoint design to communicate in a way that complements your sales presentations, providing facts and insights that cannot be communicated in the spoken word. There’s a maxim that a picture is worth a thousand words. Powerpoint is great for projecting graphs and pie charts, the bottom line that is complex or tedious when written down but possible to take in at a glance in this format. Powerpoint presentations appeal to a different level of communication. People generally take in information best in one form. That might be on a descriptive, intellectual level (your detailed spoken presentation). It might be on an emotional level (which you can tap into with stories, film and illustrations). Or it could be on an instinctive level, where everything is pre-digested and presented in easy-to-read format for immediate consumption and assessment. Powerpoint is best used as a supporting tool in a presentation that has been carefully crafted to meet all of these learning types.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

Invoice processing for beginners

Document processing is a fairly uninspiring term, but it refers to a mixture of technologies that have the capacity to revolutionise how offices work. Put simply, it means taking physical, paper documents and making them into electronic copies. At its most basic, this means scanning them and turning them into straightforward images. But at its most sophisticated, it involves things as advanced as handwriting recognition software, which can be taught to ‘read’ different styles with a very high degree of accuracy. The resulting editable documents can be saved on a document management system, which can be thought of as an electronic filing cabinet – though with some major advantages over the traditional metal monstrosities that sit in the corner of the office. Lastly, invoice processing gives the same advantages for the accounts department, so all the invoices an organisation receives can be dealt with in the same way.

Broadly, then, document and invoice processing encourage you away from using physical documents and more into the realm of the electronic. Paperless offices are desirable for all sorts of reasons, both financial and environmental. Not only that, but sheets of paper get lost. When memos and letters go astray, critical pieces of information are lost. When invoices are mislaid, suppliers don’t get paid on time. That can easily lead to bad feelings and a breakdown in relationship. Of course, emails, Word documents and other electronic communications can and do go astray too. But automated back-up functions mean that it is far harder to lose something for good, and when accounts are put through the computer then forgetting to deal with something is far less of a problem.

Document processing bridges the gulf between old and new: the traditional, paper-filled office and the business which doesn’t use any physical documents at all. As more and more of what we do is being moved onto computers and online, it becomes more important not to overlook that portion of our business which still happens in the ‘real’ world. This is one reason that invoice processing is necessary: organisations will typically be used to paying invoices in one or other format, and may not settle as quickly the ones they are less familiar with. Document management systems allow all employees with the right clearance to view files, making for greater transparency and ease of sharing information.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Accounts payable audit is smart financial sense

How much oversight do you really have over your accounts? You might have a good idea of what is coming in and going out every week, but what do you know of the detail? The fact is that it would be impossibly time-consuming to have every payment you make or receive compared against invoices, statements and other paperwork. That’s why duplicate payments, fraud and other errors can cost businesses so much. The more transactions you make, the more money you are likely to be wasting due to payments that are unnecessary. An accounts payable audit helps you to pinpoint where the leaks are in your system, throwing up warning signals when it seems like you have paid customers or suppliers when you shouldn’t have done. Recovery audit software allows you to claw back what you have lost over time.

Often the problem will be innocent enough. The average invoice might have something like twelve fields of data in it. Fill out or copy one of these incorrectly and the result could be an inaccurate payment – perhaps too much, perhaps too little, perhaps something that has been paid before. The mistake could have happened at your end or when the invoice was created. However, in some cases it’s more sinister than this. Unscrupulous suppliers might double-send an invoice, knowing that you don’t have the systems in place to catch such events. The amount might be familiar, and so it goes through the accounts without a second thought.

Duplicate payments and other forms of overpayment can total a significant fraction of a company’s turnover. If you engage in large volumes of small transactions, then even a small proportion of these will start to make a hole in your profit margin – and could mean the difference between sinking and staying afloat. Carrying out an accounts payable audit will often pay for itself the first time you do it. However, you should use recovery audit software as soon as possible, because the longer you leave it the lower the chances of reclaiming your money. Companies go out of business, and individuals die or move away. If this has happened then realistically there is little chance of being compensated. Perhaps more importantly, you need to know what is going wrong at the moment – it won’t just be past mistakes. There may be instances of ongoing fraud you need to protect yourself against, or cases where repeated problems occur month after month, and cost you more and more as you go on.

Please visit http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/ for further information about this topic.

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Bacs payments simplify your accounts

It wasn’t so long ago that book-keeping was carried out manually – it actually was book keeping – and payments were made by cash or cheque. This was complicated and laborious, and vulnerable to errors that could cost you and your organisation a significant amount of money. Not only that, but working with cash or cheques could be insecure and slow. Fortunately, with the advent and popularity of bacs, this is no longer the case. Bacs payments are fast and secure, and bacs software can be integrated with other accounting software – meaning that all of your book-keeping practices can be neatly brought together so that there is no ambiguity and no surprises.

Bacs, or bankers automated clearing system, has been around for decades now but has only relatively recently been adopted on a large scale. Until a few years ago it was common for employers – particularly smaller ones – to pay workers in cash or by cheque. In the 21st century there is no need for this, or for the problems it brings. Bacs payments mean that you do not have to keep large quantities of cash on the premises. Neither do you have to wait to have cheques countersigned, or have to wait for them to clear. Bacs is not instant, but it is reliable. (In fact, in many cases bacs payments will go through in just minutes, rather than the three-day standard. In any case, if you need expedited payments then the SWIFT system is available for an additional fee.)

You may be able to get by, just about, on your own without bacs. However, issues typically arise when you try to mix old with new – when you are paid by cash or cheque but your accounts are automated with bacs software, or when you don’t use bacs payments but clients and suppliers do. In these cases it is easy for payments to be overlooked, perhaps because one or other of you isn’t used to dealing with cash or paying in cheques, or else isn’t set up to check accounts online and keep track of their cash-flow electronically. Since bacs has become the standard and most businesses and other organisations now use it, it makes sense to move across to this system. The savings of time and money it brings should quickly pay for any one-off costs to your accounts department and will future-proof your organisation.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Next Generation Access available in rural areas

ICT infrastructure is a big part of the government’s commitment over the coming years, for the simple reason that internet access is no longer considered a luxury. Although it may not be a necessity for 21st century life in the same way that electricity is, it is not far off. In this sense, broadband is more like a utility than a luxury service. It is vital to the success of many businesses, as well as the day-to-day activities of the majority of the UK population. Those who do not live in city areas and do not have the high-speed internet access that these places enjoy are subject to a significant disadvantage in a variety of ways. Some may be stuck with old technology and speeds that are literally dial-up in nature – or might as well be. Fortunately, help is at hand due to next generation access initiatives. These community broadband projects allow groups to club together and gain the benefits of web connectivity that other people enjoy routinely – benefits that spread from the home to work, increasing opportunities and standards of life as they go.

These Next Generation Access projects can be created by groups of households, who just want to get online for their own personal use, or by clusters of companies who recognise that their businesses will benefit greatly from the new opportunities they will have. They may want to do something as simple as make a website to attract new customers, or it may be something that uses the internet as an integral part of what they do – essentially, enabling a business that could not have existed without internet access.

Connectivity is still uneven around the country, with the best internet access available in city centres. Although much of the UK is connected to the web, the quality and speed of this differs significantly. In many cases the ICT infrastructure uses old technology – the phone companies’ copper cables, which were put in decades ago and for very different reasons. Although the web began life making the most of these cables, it has long since outgrown them and they are totally unsuited to the demands of today’s web traffic. Community broadband changes all this. next generation access is a way for everyone to enjoy what the rest of the country takes for granted and rarely questions (until it goes wrong): fast, cheap and reliable internet access.

Please visit http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Recovery audit software protecting company assets

Mistakes are rarely, or maybe never possible to eradicate entirely. There are always things that with hindsight we would have done in a different way, a turn of events that we would rather reverse. And luckily, mistakes that happen in genuine error where it seems fate has conspired against someone are usually quickly forgiven. There are instances, however, where errors are less easily glossed over. Take any instances involving our finances – a sudden loss of money, a mislaid or unpaid sum will provoke bad feeling, above all in these times of austerity where many people feel an extra urgent need to safeguard their assets. For those in business, accounts payable audit systems can help errors be avoided. When the books don’t add up, recovery audit software can rescue an unwelcome situation from getting out of check, while also identifying any duplicate payments effected. The last of these mistakes boils down to throwing money down the drain! A neglectful act at any time, especially in the current economic climate.

Even medium-sized businesses should avoid trusting a single person with the enormous responsibility of managing their accounts using excel spreadsheets, notepaper or a calculator. The margin for human error in this scenario is simply far too significant. Instead, companies – whether of global acclaim or local nature – should align themselves in embracing the best software that takes care of their accounting in the most streamlined of ways. Supplier fraud and compliance issues are two aberrant potentials in business that can be kept at bay once accounts teams start using accounts payable audit software. To put it simply, processes can be simplified by embracing this technology: control is increased and errors can almost always be prevented from happening.

An accounts payable audit can easily be approved. recovery audit software allows businesses to affirm themselves. Normally, a company will pay external auditors to help them identify any expensive over-payments made. But this is an expense that can be saved by the companies that decide, very sensibly, to internalise the process. Duplicate payments can be found within the company when the relevant software is used that draws the attention of accounting teams to any mistakes. Unfortunately many payees will not own up to receiving a payment twice over so it falls to the paying party to rectify such a costly mistake.

Please visit http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/ for further information about this topic.

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Powerpoint presentations that sparkle

powerpoint presentations have long been a double-edged sword. Good sales presentations using decent Powerpoint design can be a great asset to a company. A poor presentation, put together by someone who doesn’t know what they are doing, can be a liability.

One of the issues with Powerpoint, as well as its advantage, is that it is so easy to use. Without any training, someone with basic computer literacy can put together a slideshow without too much trouble. It’s extremely powerful, allowing you to embed all kinds of different graphics, movies, audio and other effects. So much is built in that a speaker hoping to make a good impression can really go to town, incorporating as many as possible of its toys.

This, however, is often a serious mistake. Powerpoint design is a fairly fine art. Like any audio-visual medium, doing it well is difficult. Just because you can put together a brochure with desktop publishing software, or a home movie with a video camera, doesn’t mean that the outcome will convince the audience.

Worse, Powerpoint is so common in the business world that there is often the expectation that it will be used – both on the part of the audience and the speaker. That means that presentations can be thrown together simply to fulfil that expectation. Whilst well-designed powerpoint presentations can add a whole extra dimension to a speech, giving complementary information and appealing to listeners for whom the spoken word isn’t a natural medium, a poor presentation will turn people off. Put another way, not having a Powerpoint presentation is better than having a bad one. This can hamstring otherwise competent speakers, because they find that the slideshow actually detracts from what they are saying. This is never more the case when it simply repeats the material verbatim – a mistake that is all too common.

The purpose of sales presentations is to close a deal. Good Powerpoint design can help you with this; bad Powerpoint design can end up losing you the bid. If you are in any doubt, compare a few successful presentations – yours or other companies’ – with others that haven’t gone so well. What has been the difference? Where Powerpoint adds to clear and effective communication, it is an asset. Where is makes things more complicated and distracting, it’s best left out. The trick is finding out how to do it well, every time.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Bacs: fast, easy, secure

bacs software has been around for decades now, but it still has not been universally adopted by businesses. This is odd when you consider the many advantages of making bacs payments, rather than older and less reliable or secure methods. There is still some suspicion about trusting computers to do your work for you, and people tend to be warier than ever where their money is concerned. The maxim holds that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but that weak link is generally down to human error. In practice, bacs is a fast and reliable way of making payments to suppliers and receiving them from customers. It can save you time and money, and reduce the errors and risk associated with handling cash and paying third parties by other means.

Bacs stands for bankers automated clearing software. Essentially it is an electronic payment of funds from your account to another party’s account. This can take up to three days, but can equally be almost instant. (There is another version, SWIFT, which is guaranteed same-day.) Even in the worst case scenario, then, bacs is as fast as paying in a cheque or cash. It has several advantages over and above that.

One of these is security. Making online payments means you do not have to hold cash on the premises. It also reduces the scope for fraud, since you will no longer be writing out cheques. Reliability is another. The money leaves your account straight away, so you know how much is left, and you are not likely to be caused cash-flow problems by people delaying paying in cheques and then the money leaving your account unexpectedly. Plus, once you have correctly entered a payee’s details once, they can be reused after that. Paying the wrong person and having to regain the money shouldn’t be an issue.

Bacs software can be used to time payments, and in conjunction with accounting software can be used to take care of payroll commitments – automating pay day and saving a huge amount of time and effort, as well as reducing the error inevitable in doing the job manually. Bacs payments and receipts can also be combined with auditing software to further reduce error and duplicate payments, resulting in surprising savings for most businesses. In conclusion, there are several reasons to use bacs and few to ignore it.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Invoice processing for stress-free transactions

With so much being free in today’s online community, many net users forget to appreciate trustworthy payment systems when they do end up purchasing goods or services using their computers. These customers will quite rightly be very upset as soon as they experience glitches where transactions made over the internet are concerned though, and this is why all enterprises operating online in a fee-paying capacity will need to be particularly vigilant when thinking about the systems they are going to put in place to ease relations between themselves and their clients. Evidently, it is not only cash that will be changing hands in these types of relationships; a smooth exchange of content will be just as important to administrate. This is why corporations, financial institutions and banks around the world look to specialist companies to help them meet their document management and document processing demands: ultimately, ensuring good practice in document use will be as crucial to the success of a company as efficient invoice processing.

Those in a position to decide on the way in which their company will deal with their data and payment obligations will be faced with several alternatives where technology providers are concerned. The decision of which provider to use will carry with it a significant charge of responsibility, and should not therefore be taken too quickly. The kinds of things these decision-makers should bear in mind will consist of gauging the cost, reputation, and ethics of the company whose services such as document management will to an extent determine their own institution’s profile.

The decision-maker charged should ask him or herself a range of questions then, such as: is the technology provider I’m considering used by other well-established and respected corporations? Does the technology provider aid my company in the calculation of its environmental savings? Am I able to read encouraging reviews of the technology provider I have in mind from reputable sources? If the answer is yes to these kinds of questions, the chances are that data and financial transactions will be safe in the hands of a given technology provider.

Follow in the footsteps of other UK businesses and multinationals such as TDG and Avnet then, by using document processing along with document management systems to seamlessly combine online and paper orders. Those in search of leading payments and invoice processing solutions will not regret choosing an award-winning payments technologies provider allowing them to keep their customers satisfied.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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