antrobuscp

I received a newsletter this morning which suggested that very few traders had received any communication from HMRC. One response suggested that HMRC had decided not to do a mailing as it would be "widely publicised" in the media. Colin

If you are using Excel, I would have thought that one or two of the "linking products" may enable you to keep your current system. I mentioned one up the thread, but I understand there are others. Sage may well be "overkill" and, depending upon your past knowledge, require quite an initial learning curve. I would look firstly at the linking products before jumping into a package solution. Colin

Barry, Communication by HMRC has always been patchy, and often late in relation to the issue at hand. Changes to accounting systems can take a long time to implement. When MTD was first suggested and included simple quarterly accounts, I had one or two clients who would struggle to comply if given 5 years to achieve the change - in one case due to the sheer complexity of the business. There were software packages which could do the job but their existing systems were part manual and part spreadsheet based and the operation would have to have undergone substantial re-thinking to achieve a totally software based solution. The Brexit communications are, no doubt, the result of instruction from a "higher authority". Your VAT visit does not seem to have been particularly "heavy", and a 2 hr meeting not unusual if the officer is trying to gain an understanding of your business and what might be included therein. The accountant could often be drawn in and we often suggested that the meeting be at our office, but that meant making sure all the records necessary were physically present. You have my sympathy regarding your accounting system, but software and connected solutions are deemed to be the way forward. Errors do occasionally happen in the best of circumstances, and I would decide what to do or charge depending upon the cause - the least I would do would be to find out what had happened and explain it to my client. I/we used to use spreadsheets to support VAT return submissions and these included self checks which often highlighted simple errors of entry because expected ratios were "out". As to the name, no, no connection but the name appears to come from a Cheshire village called Antrobus - which goes back to Norman times. Apparently a corruption of a French phrase "Entre Bois" which was meant to describe the then location between woods. Colin

Having retired, I don't know precisely how HMRC have communicated the changes. I do know that I have received numerous emails from HMRC, and my professional body(ICAEW), on the subject - I have still kept up all the email subs to newsletters, etc., that I used to get. I should say that I generally dealt with small businesses. Accountants in current practice should, in my opinion, for some time have been in touch with their clients. I know I would have been. The eradication of error argument is, to me, false, as forcing people to use systems which they may not fully understand may well generate more errors. Errors are not necessarily self-correcting as it depends on the nature of the error and when it is spotted - but figures translating across automatically does not necessarily assist in spotting an error - quite the opposite in many cases, as the assumption often is that "the computer is right". I remember being on a course when a comment attributed, I believe, to Tony Blair, suggested that business records would be more reliable if a particular software program was used. The room was full of accountants who burst out laughing at the thought. Many people in business do not have the time to learn, understand, and operate software systems, leave aside the cost. Time has moved on since that course, software has improved, and more people are computer literate but someone wanting to keep their records on a software package needs to a) understand the software and how to use it and b) have at least some knowledge of bookkeeping/accountancy principles, or they have to employ someone who has. Either way there are time or financial constraints. Colin

Making Tax Digital (MTD) has been on HMRC's agenda for some time - well before I retired about 3 years ago. Initially, the plan seemed to be that all businesses including property rentals were to be included apart from some with a very small turnover - something in the order of £10/15k pa. The returns that were to be required were not just VAT but what amounted to quarterly accounts, with an annual adjustment at the end (31st January following, I believe). HMRC tried to "sell" this as a simplification when, in fact, it looked like filing 4/5 tax returns per year and one has to suspect that it would help with the roll-out of Universal Credit for the self-employed. HMRC has seemed to back off this after much criticism, not least of a much too tight timescale which would have seen the new regime coming into effect this or next year. I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a postponement, not a change of direction. Be aware and speak to your accountants once this first stage is in effect and bedded in. I fear more will follow. Colin

I retired as an accountant in public practice about 3 years ago, so my knowledge is not as complete as if I were still in practice. I was under the impression from what I have read, that the use of spreadsheet accounting was still possible provided the data can be filed directly with HMRC systems. I used to use a similar method to file iXBRL company accounts. using VT accounting software which was an Excel add-in. I have just visited their website and it seems they intend to provide a "bridging product" to enable the filing of returns via an Excel add-in. It may be worthwhile for those interested if they visit the MTD page on their website and/or have a word with the software house. My only connection was as a satisfied customer. www.vtsoftware.co.uk/mtd/index.htm Hope this helps. Colin

I wouldn't disagree with this, but the main problem is the writing - I think Jodie Whitaker is capable of becoming a really good Doctor. The writing is poor, as it has been in the recent past. I had hoped that the change of writers would improve matters, it hasn't.

We mostly use cards, but cash still for small items. My wife has tended to use cash much more than I do and used to hold some cash, withdrawn from her account, against the next credit card bill. I tried to dissuade her from doing this as we could easily move funds electronically from her account to the one used to pay the card bill. Anyway, on one occasion not too long ago, she went to our local post office to pay in £200 cash to an account. The clerk behind the counter was distracted by a colleague whilst the transaction was taking place, it was completed, and my wife accepted the transaction receipt and left. Much later, when checking the receipt, it stated that £200 had been withdrawn, not deposited - an online check with the bank account confirmed this. My wife was upset/annoyed/horrified, partly because she hadn't properly checked the receipt in the post office. She went to the post office and confronted the staff although the specific clerk was not there. My wife questioned their balancing of the tills as they should have been "over". After some argument and without any checks other than speaking on the phone to the clerk involved, the clerk then present credited back £400 to my wife's account, but the whole episode including the explanations from the staff as to how the error could well not be noticed has made us very wary of banking cash through a post office and we will in future absolutely thoroughly check any relevant post office receipt. I am also aware of alleged problems with post office systems which led to litigation some years ago when some sub-postmasters were accused of irregularities which they denied and stated were due to issues with post office systems. If banking cash to a bank account through a post office, do make sure you read and check the transaction receipt before you leave the counter. My wife was a bit careless, but the apparent lack of checks has made us very cautious in banking cash at a post office, particularly our local one, which seems to generate a lot of complaints.

I have to say that I run my machines with an admin level account, but all other users are just normal users. I think this stems from years ago when user/admin accounts became part of Windows and when lack of understanding on my part led to problems when trying to do apparently simple tasks and Windows objected because the access level was insufficient. If I were starting from scratch, I would now set up my system in the "best practice" manner. Going back to DOS days each program thought it WAS the computer but even then I rapidly realised the need to have a "system" for keeping files from various programs and for various clients in an organised fashion. This became easier to visualise with the Dosshell in DOS4. I linked 3 DOS programs to work in a way that in some ways the MS Office suite did a few years later. Data was separated from programs, mainly for organisational reasons rather than backing up, but the latter became more important with time and as other programs were added and/or updated. The structure remained basically unchanged for over 20 years until our main business was sold in 2010. I then operated for a further 5 years on my own, I restructured the data to work more easily for backing up and to be consistent across all software. The DOS programs were still used on XP, and were tested in XP virtual machines under Win 7(and later Win 10). Only one of the DOS programs would run directly under Win 7 and because data was transferred between programs it was easier to do it in a VM. Had I had to continue working after 2015, I would almost certainly have ditched XP in favour of XP VMs under Win 7 or Win 10. However, I understand why people may not follow best practice, as I believe we should control the computer, not the other way around. Separating data and programs is, to me, more logical but I can also understand situations where it may be possible with DOS programs not requiring an "install", to be simply copied from one pc to another data, programs, and all. Horses for courses SO LONG as you understand the risks and problems of particular structures. AND, always backup, backup, and backup again. Colin

Just a minor irritant, but it demonstrates why many people including myself, might like Win10, but not the way it updates. Yesterday, the laptop picked up a few October updates. I had to go out at short notice and decided to turn the machine off. Shut down menu gave the options to a)shut down, b) update and shut down, and c) update and restart. I chose to simply shut down - Win 10 then decides to update and shut down. The fact that it provides the option and then ignores the choice is just annoying. I don't like doing updates when I'm not keeping an eye on the machine for messages since Win10 came along. Had no such concerns with Win7 and earlier. Colin

EDIT: I will leave this posting here in case it is of assistance to any others. I appear to have resolved the immediate problem of re-gaining normal access to the pc. One of the advance recovery options was to launch safe mode with command prompt. This I did, and reset verifier - "verifier /reset". The machine now seems to be booting normally. I will see how it behaves over the next day or two before I do any further updating. END OF EDIT. EDIT 2: Whilst the above got me back onto the pc, I still received, at 10/15 min intervals, a BSOD with a Driver_Overran_Stack_Buffer error - no file mentioned. Minidump files were produced. I downloaded BlueScreenView, a free utility to read the DMS files Windows produced. The offending file seems to have been NUServer64.sys used by USB network servers. I had updated the driver whilst trying to sort out a hard disk recognition issue late May/early June. Uninstalling the device seemed to resolve the issue, but, as I use it frequently on other machines and want it to be available on this one, I tried re-installing the earlier driver. This appears to have done the trick although a longer test is required to be sure. END OF EDIT 2. I have a Win10 problem. The notebook is a Dell 6530 running Win10 Pro, upgraded from Win7 during the "free offer" period. I ran Win Update today and the version now is 1709, build 16299.492. I deferred the 1803 update as I read a few posts online suggesting it was causing problems and it might be better to wait a little. I had planned to do the upgrade once this update had been done and all appeared to be ok. The machine started after the update, and was left on to charge the battery. After half an hour or so, there was a blue screen event, the error message being Driver_Overran_Stack_Buffer. I checked online and the suggested culprit was a graphics driver. There are two listed including Nvidia 5200M driver. I visited the Dell website and downloaded both drivers and updated them. As part of getting to this point I had run "verifier" which appears to have produced a dump, but I can't read it to see which driver(s) it might have identified as a problem. Since running verifier I am now in a blue screen loop with the message "Driver_Verifier_Detected_Violation". System restore failed to revert to an earlier state(I tried this before updating the drivers). I can, through the error recovery screens, get the system to run in safe mode. Verifier runs but makes no changes and appears not to produce any dumps.I presume, given all the above, that the problem is an issue with a driver. The problem being one of identification. Can anyone suggest how to proceed from this point as I'm getting near the edge of my knowledge. I know I could probably do a fresh install of Win 10, which I would much prefer to avoid as I've not done that before except using an OEM provided cd/dvd with all drivers/software provided. Even a clean install, I suppose though, may not necessarily solve the problem. I am not worried about data loss, as all such is on separate hard drives and fully encrypted. Many thanks, Colin

A stormy St Ives on 17th March 2018

Not that I've tested other options, but I've always interpreted the "make this my main display" instruction as one to set the screen that carries the primary desktop - which can be extended to either side or replicated on both screens. I only have 2 screens, by the way, but I have always got the setup I was trying for where the laptop carries the "main display" and the second screen is placed to whichever side is convenient. The laptop screen in this scenario always starts first. I don't think, really, that this is the question you are asking, though. Colin

I tried to visit the site using Win 7 and Firefox 59.0.2. Message box says that Flash Player needs to be installed. Colin

I can't check at the moment, but I think I have at least one new/unused motor should a replacement be necessary. I have a few unstarted kits to go at, and I did buy MRRC/MW005/Sagami and other motors for them. Whether I'll be given the time to get to build the kits, I don't know - having many of them produced RTR has removed the incentive in some cases - and I've coaches to do as well. GWR Dreadnoughts and Concertinas will be the first I think once I've finished the ones that have been in suspended animation for several years. Colin

My 47xx was from a Cotswold kit. It has a solid brass milled chassis, and is fitted with an MRRC1001 motor. It will "pull a house over" despite it now being 38 years since it was completed. I will look at the Heljan model when it arrives, but I'll not part with the kit built model. Colin

For us, credit cards are a convenient way of paying a number of bills with one single payment and having a record of the items - the cashback days have largely gone. You also have, in certain circumstances, more protection in the case of problems with the goods and services. Probably 40 years ago, we cleared the modest balances from savings - I'd previously kept cash balances for immediate problems but found I could clear the cards and still have a cushion to cover problems. Since then, the cards have been used for almost all shopping, but have been cleared every month. You have to exercise personal discipline over your spending, but you're financially better off. No downside that I've come across re credit rating - unless you miss a payment, which you could do anyway. Colin

For some routine purposes, there's no doubt that the GOV.UK site works well. Personally, I don't particularly like the style - at times I feel I'm reading a large text Noddy book, but I do understand the reasons for the large text. What I find poor, and my wife had me looking for something specific about pensions earlier this evening, is the search facility. Too many links to irrelevant(to the search) pages, and circular references, and not good if you're looking for something technical as I used to have to do with tax. Personally, I preferred the old HMRC site. Fortunately, I can now mostly keep away from it. Colin

I also get the close down error in Firefox, and have done on all versions since some time last year. As to printing, if I have a problem printing directly - which normally I don't - I print to a .pdf file using Primo PDF, and print that file to my normal printer(s). Colin

I've not yet seen a Bunnings re-branded store, but the old Homebase stores have, to me, looked a mess since the takeover. We used to buy from Homebase occasionally, but not recently. Personally, I think their rebranding/upgrading from Homebase, or simply tidying up the old stores, has been taking too long. Other stores do it better. Colin

On thing I noticed over many years was that the pcs in my office lasted longer than those in our other office. I always put that down to starting the machines in the morning and turning them off at the end of the day. The other office had them on and off during the day as and when needs arose. I put the difference in reliability down to the lesser heat cycling in my office. Colin

I don't know why this behaviour varies so much between computers but perhaps it reflects the degree to which individual equipment manufacturers deviate from general standards or tailor standard kit. The things that I suspect baffle a lot of users, and generate a large part of the criticism of MS are why is happening when it didn't appear to happen to the same extent with earlier Windows editions, and why are MS not able to deal with the issue as well as they must have done in the past. These points are compounded by the change to the update procedures which may or may not be part of/at the root of the problem. Colin

I am almost paranoid over backing up, not quite as bad now but, when working, the loss of client data would have been catastrophic. I probably have about 14 copies rotated with a few copies off-site. I keep a folder containing copies of all device/software disks, and another containing downloaded software, utilities, etc. These folders are included within the backups. I use FreeFileSync to keep the backups "in line". My machines are not high spec, but perfectly adequate Dell laptops, which so far have outlasted their required lifespan. I've changed the odd hard drive and in recent years have usually managed to do so before the drive has actually gone down. Learnt to monitor behaviour a few years ago after 2 hard drives went down on 2 separate machines at almost the same time. I must confess that I personally do use an Administrator level account - all other accounts are not. I think this stemmed from an earlier lack of understanding of how it all worked and I have intended to change this aspect for some time now. UAC is set to ask for confirmation of changes programs try to make. Colin

I have found I have a problem with the card reader on one(at least) of the two machines I've upgraded from Win 7. Because I hadn't used the card reader much, if at all, before the 1709 upgrade, I don't know at what stage the issue has crept in. From reading up on the problem, it does seem to be both not uncommon and a driver issue. The precise remedy does seem a little uncertain since checking the Dell website(and others) the drivers are stated to be up to date/the best available, but the reader still doesn't work. I'll have a proper go at fixing the issue when I have more time since the issue is not urgent and I have a USB card reader which works. After the above posts, I'll have to check the DVD drive, which I don't think I've used since setting up the machine. As a matter of practice, I also keep a hard drive archived copy of all installation/device disks which I can usually use to install devices or software over the network - I started to do this when I had trouble with one or two disks proving hard to read.. Colin

I must admit that I have generally found it possible to configure either Windows or a program to work together. I've said a few times that I retired 2 years ago and, apart from one issue which could be transferred to Excel or OpenOffice, I don't think I need to run old software any more. That said, if necessary, I can still use some DOS programs that were the foundation for my practice. Many times, their incompatibility was threatened, but up to an including XP there were no serious problems although I chose to run them in windows rather than full-screen - which my partners preferred to do. Win 7 posed the first real threat even though 2 of the 3 programs still ran natively. The third didn't, but it was, when required on a Win 7 machine, run in an XP virtual machine. For the most part, though, I still used XP machines for the main functions and withdrew them for any serious web work. My planned retirement date didn't require me to think any further but, just in case, I trialled the DOS programs in VMs under Win 8 and 10(on a 64 bit machine). The programs may still work natively in a 32-bit Win 10 configuration, but I don't know. The point of this is that, in many cases, it is possible to make changes to the setup of a program in order for it to work on an updated OS. In honesty, I think MS has done reasonably well on this and I certainly didn't think, in 1988, that I would be using the same software in 2015 - and even now if it were necessary. I will still complain if programs cease to be compatible but I don't really think I'd have much of a case with much of the software I still could use. Again, it is repeating what I've previously said, I just don't feel MS has a proper grip on the revised updating processes. I can see, however, that the way I have managed that process myself, might not be helping. Time will tell over the next few updates which I will monitor much more closely. This thread has been useful in that process. One final thing. I have discovered since my last post is that the 1709 upgrade seems to have disturbed the ESET antivirus suite I use. The software recorded the virus signature updates to be up to date, but the date on the file did not change. It had worked perfectly up to the time of the upgrade. I had made sure, by the way, that the software was up to date and compatible before doing the upgrade. Anyway, it took an uninstall and reinstall for the program to work correctly - which it now does. I must remember to check and correct this, if necessary, when my off-site machine is brought back for updating in early 2018. Colin