Concierge Camping at Ratham Estate in Chichester West Sussex opened for business in April 2015. From its very first year and continuously from then onwards, the campsite has received many prestigious awards for it luxurious camping grounds and recently their beautiful safari lodges. With an obsessive attention to detail, Concierge Camping is ran by Guy and Tracey who both warmly welcome every guest that comes to stay with them.
Upon meeting Guy and Tracey it was clear to see every aspect of the running of the business was analysed on a continuous basis so that it ran as efficiently as possible. The only side that had not been scrutinised was the businesses finances. When speaking to Guy and Tracey, they were unsure how much money they were spending on things on a month by month basis e.g advertising and more importantly what their VAT bill was likely to be at the end of each quarter. This was especially daunting in their busiest period – summer!
We sat down and discussed potential cloud accounting packages that could help them to keep track of where their money was going and ways in which to keep tabs on their VAT liability. QuickBooks was decided upon partnered with Receipt Bank which would stop Tracey having to print off and scan every receipt and bill that the business received, She could submit into the system simply by taking a photo on her phone or emailing in to a dedicated email address and then dispose of the document. QuickBooks would also keep a record of the accumulated sales and expenses to give a live running total of what the VAT was likely to be at the end of the quarter.
Busy Bee Business Solutions started by getting QuickBooks Online set up ensuring that all related transactions and documentation from the start of their financial year was inputted into the system so they had a complete record for the whole year. This meant that their accountant could easily pick the system up at their year-end to finalise their accounts and send them to HMRC.
Since implementing QuickBooks, Concierge Camping has been able to transfer many financial elements of their business to in house rather than with their accountant. This gave them complete control of their finances and also meant that they had someone who immersed themselves in their business meaning they knew the day-to-day environment of Concierge Camping and not just their businesses numbers on a screen. Obtaining the whole picture of the business is important in understanding the financials and allowing QuickBooks to create reports that were useful to Guy and Tracey.
Guy and Tracey can now log in to QuickBooks and take a look at their profit and loss tailoring the date range to as they require whenever they wish. They can click into the VAT screen and see how much VAT is currently due. It has aided their business decision making process and has eliminated the inefficiencies they had within looking after their businesses finances. Not only was Busy Bee Business Solutions able to speed up the bookkeeping process and make it more efficient and valuable in the day to day running, we also took on filing the VAT returns and running the payroll – elements in which sometimes accountants can charge premiums for.
Now Busy Bee Business Solutions has implemented and is successfully completing the bookkeeping on a regular basis, it is endeavouring to help Concierge Camping on other areas of its business – starting with increasing their social media posts on Instagram. Busy Bee Business Solutions is so much more than just a bookkeeper so please feel free to get in touch to see if we can help you today.
07473 209992 or emily@busybeebusinesssolutions.co.uk.
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