Whether you’re a brand-new Debitoor user or have been with us for years, you’ll probably have a few questions about invoicing, accounting, or using our software. And you won't be the first to ask!

This blog posts answers five of the most commonly asked questions about Debitoor invoicing software.

In 2016, 52% of British voters chose to leave the EU. Since then, there's been a lot of uncertainty about when the UK will leave the EU and how the UK’s relationship with the remaining 27 member states will look beyond Brexit.

This week, the UK’s so-called ‘Brexit bill’ became part of British law, while the EU formally signed off on the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The UK is now set to leave the EU on the 31st of January.

Understandably, this has left many people confused about what happens next, and many freelancers and small business owners are wondering how Brexit will affect them. This article explains the next steps for the UK and gives some advice about preparing for Brexit.

We’re often contacted by users who want to know why their invoices say ‘proforma’. While this might seem like an unnecessary extra word, a proforma invoice is actually a specific type of invoice that serves a different purpose than a finalised invoice.

This blog post explains how proforma invoices differ from finalised invoices, whether your invoices should say ‘proforma’, and how to send or finalise a proforma invoice with Debitoor invoicing software.

In the UK, businesses with a turnover of £150,000 or less have the option of using cash accounting. Whereas traditional accounting (which is also called accrual accounting) records income and expenses on the date that an invoice is issued, cash accounting recognises transactions on the date that money changes hands.

This blog post explains why it’s important to use invoicing software that allows you to choose your method of accounting, as well as how to activate and use cash accounting in Debitoor.

Traditionally, Christmas and New Year are all about spending time with friends and family. But for many businesses, the holidays are also an ideal time to celebrate with colleagues, employees, and clients – which can often lead to a number of additional costs.

Fortunately, some of these costs count as allowable expenses, and this blog post takes a look at which of your Christmas expenses can be deducted from your taxable profits.

When you’re managing your invoicing and accounting, it can be irritating if your workflow is interrupted – particularly if you get stuck with an error message that you can’t get rid of.

This article takes a look at some of the most common error messages that appear in Debitoor invoicing software and explains what you can do to fix them.

Running a catering business involves much more than skills in the kitchen. You also need to know how to attract new clients, how to organise your schedule, and how to manage your finances.

The easiest way to keep on top of your finances is to use accounting & invoicing software like Debitoor. But what should you look for when choosing invoicing software, and how can Debitoor help you manage your catering company’s finances?

As your business grows, it’s likely that your business details will change – you might re-brand and get a new name or logo, you might get a new email address, or you might even change the structure of your company.

If your business details change, it’s important that you update the information saved in your Debitoor account, and this blog post explains how to make changes to your business details in Debitoor invoicing software.

When you start a business partnership, you’ll make several different big decisions, such as choosing a name for your business and assigning a nominated or designated partner. One of the most important decisions you’ll make is picking the right invoicing software for managing your partnership’s finances.

This article explains what you should look for when choosing invoicing software for your partnership, as well as how Debitoor is ideal for small business partnerships.

We recently told you about some improvements we’ve made to the Suppliers tab, and now, we’ve also made a small but significant change to the way you manage your clients: multiple email addresses per customer.

This blog post explains why we’ve made this improvement, and takes a look at how you can save more than one email address for each customer in Debitoor invoicing software.

When you’re looking for the right invoicing solution for your business, you might feel as though you have to choose between online invoicing software and a mobile invoicing app. However, there are many options – including Debitoor – that combine web and mobile apps, giving you the best of both.

This blog post takes a look at the advantages of using invoicing software with a mobile app, as well as explaining how to get started with Debitoor from your computer, phone, or iPad.

Suppliers are key contacts for any small business or freelancer. They might provide you with the raw materials you use to manufacture finished goods, they might supply the products you sell to the end consumer, or they might simply sell the day-to-day items you need to keep your business running (coffee, paper, printer ink, etc.).

Managing and maintaining your relationships with your suppliers is therefore an important part of running a business. To make this even easier, we’ve updated and improved the Suppliers tab in Debitoor invoicing software, and this blog post takes a closer look at the changes we’ve made.

The UK is one of Ireland’s main trading partners, purchasing billions of euros of goods and services from Irish businesses every year. And if you’re one of the many Irish freelancers or business owners that sells to companies in the UK, it’s important that you know to send invoices that are professional, legal, and tax-compliant.

This blog post therefore takes a look at everything you need to know about invoicing a UK company from Ireland, including what to include on an invoice template, how to apply sales tax, and the easiest way to create an invoice for British businesses.

When choosing invoicing software for your business, there are many important factors to consider: price, range of features, ease of use, and – perhaps most importantly – whether it’s localised for your country.

There are a number of different reasons why it’s important to choose software that’s specifically set up for the country your business is based in, and this blog post explores each of these reasons in detail. We also explain what to do if you select the wrong country when you sign up for Debitoor.

Running a travel agency involves juggling a number of different tasks – from designing itineraries and researching destinations, to negotiating with suppliers and closing sales with customers. You’re also likely to be involved with the administrative and financial side of managing your business, which often means that you'll need to issue invoices.

But rather than creating and sending invoices manually, you can make invoicing easier by choosing the right invoicing software for your travel agency. In this blog post, we look at some essential features of invoicing software for travel agents.

Running a business not only requires a lot of hard work and dedication, it can also be a big financial commitment that often involves spending money from your own pocket.

As a business owner or freelancer that makes financial contributions to your business, it’s important that you know how to account for owner contributions, as well as how to record them in your invoicing software.

Once of the easiest ways to issue invoices is to use invoicing software with automatic invoice templates. But when should invoice templates include sales tax, and how is an invoice template with GST different from an invoice template with no GST?

In the UK, VAT registration isn’t compulsory for everyone; while some companies are required to register for VAT, it’s optional for many freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.

In this blog post, we take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of voluntary VAT registration, the duties and responsibilities that come with registering for VAT, and how you should handle HMRC’s Making Tax Digital initiative if you’ve registered for VAT voluntarily.

As a freelancer or entrepreneur, you’ll regularly spend money on your business, and if you manage your business’s bookkeeping and accounting, it’s important to know how to account for the purchases you make – which involves distinguishing between assets and expenses.

In this blog post, we explain how an asset differs from an expense, how to account for assets and expenses, and how to record both in your accounting and invoicing software.

From utility bills to marketing costs, travel expenses to employees’ wages, businesses incur a number of different expenses, and it’s important that you sort these costs into different business expense categories.

In this blog post, we look at why it’s important to categorise your business expenses, and how Debitoor can help you keep your expenses organised.

More and more businesses are choosing to use their commercial skills to benefit others. The British Government estimates that, as of 2017, there were 471,000 social enterprises in the UK – and this number is likely to have risen significantly in the last few years.

Although their missions and purposes might be quite different, social enterprises are just like regular businesses in many other ways. Not only do they aim to make a profit, but trade is their main source of income. This means that just like other types of businesses, social enterprises will regularly need to send invoices.

Whatever type of organisation you work for, the easiest way to send invoices is to use online invoicing software like Debitoor. Here’s what social enterprises should look for when choosing software to help with their invoicing.

In the 2018-2019 budget, the Australian Government announced an economy-wide cap on payments made with cash, meaning that business cannot make or accept cash payments of more than $10,000.

So how might this new legislation affect small business owners, and what steps should you take to make sure that you don’t break the rules?

When you first create an account with Debitoor, you choose a password and sign up with an email address, but at a later date, you might want to change the email registered in your profile.

There are many reasons for changing your email address. Perhaps you signed up with a personal address and only check your company emails, or maybe you moved to a new email provider and no longer use the address you signed up with.

Updating the email address in your invoicing software isn’t at the top of everyone’s to-do list, and it’s an easy thing to overlook. But not having a current email address registered in your Debitoor profile can cause of a number of different problems. Here are 4 important reasons why it’s important to keep your email address up to date.

A major date in the MTD calendar is fast approaching: August 7th is the first compulsory deadline for submitting quarterly VAT Returns since the roll-out of HMRC's Making Tax Digital initiative.

Although Making Tax Digital came into effect on April 1st, until now, you might not have noticed any changes in the way you report your taxes, and you might not have made any steps towards preparing your business for online VAT Returns. But with the first major MTD deadline fast approaching, all of this is about to change.

In this blog post, we look at what August 7th means for businesses using HMRC’s Making Tax Digital scheme and what you should do to make sure you don’t miss this deadline.

Many small businesses and freelancers start issuing invoices with Word or Excel. Initially, this makes quite a lot of sense – you already know how to use them and they’re already installed on your computer. But as your business grows, you’ll soon realise that Word and Excel aren’t the best options for invoicing, simply because that isn’t what they’re designed for.

On the other hand, while it might seem like an unnecessary expense to pay for an additional program just for invoicing, investing in invoicing software is the smarter option in the long run, not least because specialist software has many options and functions that simply aren’t available in Word or Excel – including these 7 important features.

When you run a small business or work as a sole trader, you become responsible for managing your company taxes, which involves charging sales tax, lodging tax returns, and claiming tax credits. It’s therefore important to understand which taxes you might be accountable for if you run your own business in Australia.

In this blog post, we take a look at some of the main business taxes in Australia and explain how they might affect sole traders and small business owners.

The UK’s economy is becoming increasingly digital, with cash being used for fewer payments than ever before. In order to keep up, it’s important that small businesses adapt to the changes that lie ahead. Here’s the steps you should take to make sure that your business doesn’t get left behind in the cashless economy.

Many freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners use accounting software as a way to save money and get more control over their finances; however, it’s a big mistake to think that your accounting software can replace your accountant altogether.

In this blog post, we look at why you need both an accountant and accounting software, how you can combine the two, and how you can use Debitoor accounting & invoicing software to collaborate with your accountant.

Each April welcomes the start of a new tax year in the UK. As always, the new tax year means new tax rates and thresholds, many of which were announced in the 2018 Autumn budget.

Many of these changes have a big impact on business owners, freelancers, and the self-employed. So to help you understand how your business might be affected by the new tax year, we take a look at what's new for 2019-2020.

Many people dream of becoming their own boss, turning a hobby into a career, or pursuing a business idea. But if you’ve never started a company, it can be difficult to know where to begin – or where to find sound advice.

We’ve asked some of the freelancers, entrepreneurs, and sole traders who use Debitoor invoicing software to share their advice for starting a business. After all, who better to ask than those who have already done it?

For anyone running a small business, it’s important to have the right tools for creating invoices, sending quotes, and keeping track of your company finances. When looking for software to help you do this, you’ll come across many different options for invoicing and accounting, but, rather than having one program for your invoices and one program for your accounts, why not choose software that combines the two?

Depsite the name, Debitoor invoicing software isn't only designed for creating and sending invoices; with a range of features for bookkeeping and accounting, Debitoor can help small business owners take control of their finances. So here’s 5 ways you can use your invoicing software to manage your company’s accounts.

Invoicing a customer abroad is much like invoicing in Australia, but there’s a couple of additional things you’ll need to consider. Here’s what you need to know about creating invoices for exports.

Everyone has habits. Some of us bite our nails, others drink too much coffee. But not all habits are bad, and getting into a routine of good accounting practices can make it easier to manage your company finances. Here’s four good accounting habits that can benefit every freelancer and small business owner.

When you run your own business, you’ll often come across customers asking for a discount. But it’s becoming increasingly common for freelancers and entrepreneurs to be asked to take on jobs for free.

Unpaid freelance work is a pretty divisive issue; while some entrepreneurs are happy to give out the occasional freebie under the right circumstances, others find it quite annoying (and possibly offensive) to be asked to do work that they won’t get paid for.

There’s plenty of reasons freelancers choose to take on work for free: to gain experience, to forge relationships, to build a portfolio, or to get ‘exposure’. But there’s also just as many reasons why other freelancers won’t. So if you’re considering taking on unpaid freelance work, here’s some questions you can ask yourself to weigh up whether working for free is worth it.

Proforma invoicing is an essential feature of any good invoicing software. But did you know that you can create proforma invoices from your phone as quickly and easily as from your computer or laptop?

As well as looking at the advantages of sending proforma invoices from a mobile device, we explain how to create a proforma invoice anytime, anywhere with our free, intuative invoicing apps for iOS and Android.

When you make purchases for your business, its normal to shop around, make comparisons, and see which options cover the basics. The same goes for choosing invoicing software – you probably look at which software makes it easy to send invoices, keep track of payments, and record company expenses.

Of course Debitoor offers the essentials, but it’s the little things that make good invoicing software great. With a few added touches, the right invoicing software can save you time, help you provide better customer service, and even save you money – so here’s five tips on getting more from your invoicing software.

We often get asked about the differences between the mobile and online versions of Debitoor. In this blog post, we take a look at the ways our different platforms complement each other, as well as how you can get the most out of your invoicing software from any device.

British politics can be confusing; from budgets to Brexit, there’s a lot to keep track of. To make things even more complicated, political decisions are made in a number of different places and can affect different parts of the UK.

While legislation has traditionally been passed in Westminster on behalf of the entire country, things are changing. Over the past few years, the British Government has transferred power away from the Houses of Parliament and towards national governments through a process known as devolution. The aim of devolution is to give Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland more control over their own affairs - including taxes.

As 2018 draws to an end, many of us are starting reflect on what we’ve achieved over the last year. For Debitoor, 2018 brought many new features, plenty of updates, and a lot of growth. Here, we take a look at what the past 12 months meant for us, as well as what 2019 has in store for your invoicing software.

It’s easy to get confused about what makes an invoice a tax invoice. After all, they look alike, they include similar information, and they’re both considered legal documents.

To make things a bit clearer, this blog post answers some of the most common questions about invoicing and tax invoices - from how you can identify an Australian tax invoice, to how they can be sent.

When you start a business, you take on a whole host of new responsibilities, including managing your company taxes. It's safe to say that this isn't the most exciting part of running a business, but it is important to take the time to understand the tax process.

The UK has many different taxes that could affect small businesses - some of which you’ll have definitely heard of and some that are more obscure. To make the tax process easier to understand, we explain some of the main taxes you’ll need to take into account as a freelancer or entrepreneur, and how they can be managed with invoicing software.

Outstanding bills and overdue invoices frustrate freelancers and small business owners around the world, but one country has become infamous for late invoice payments: Australia.

Fortunately, initiatives and regulations to speed up payments have led to a drastic improvement - late payments have reached a record low, and research has found that outstanding bills are now settled 11.7 days late, down from 15.3 days in 2017.

While the overall situation is improving, overdue invoices can still cause issues for small businesses and freelancers. For those of you who struggle to get paid on time, we’ve put together a few tips and tricks to help you get your money sooner.

When most people talk about bookkeeping and accounting, they often treat them as one and the same. While they’re closely related, there are some important differences.

Understanding what's involved in bookkeeping and accounting is particularly important for small businesses - it helps you break down which tasks can be handled within the company and which require help from a professional, plus it makes it easier to identify what you should be doing on a regular basis.

Craft beer has never been so popular and, thanks to the so-called ‘craft beer revolution’, the UK has seen a huge rise in microbreweries.

Whether you’re just thinking of setting up an independent brewery or have already started selling your own beer, there’s a lot to consider when running a microbrewery - from product development and production, to bookkeeping and invoicing. Fortunately, there’s plenty of online tools and programs that can help.

Here’s how invoicing software like Debitoor can help you keep on top of your finances, and turn your passion for craft beer into a profitable business venture.

Invoicing is one of the first things you need to master when starting a small business, becoming self-employed, or working as a freelancer. It might not be the most exciting part of running a business, but invoicing is the key to getting paid.

In this blog post, we offer some advice to Australian freelancers and small business owners who are looking to send their first invoice.

What to include in an Australian invoice?

As a freelancer or small business owner, one of your main responsibilities will be planning (and sticking to!) a budget. But how do you budget for an upcoming expense if you aren’t entirely sure when it will occur, or how much it will cost? The answer: you would create a provision.

A provision in accounting is a liability without a fixed timing or amount. When you create a provision, you are setting aside a certain amount to cover anticipated future expenses, before knowing exactly how much it will cost, or exactly when it would occur.

According to the matching principle, revenue generated in a specific accounting period must be matched against the expenses occurred within the same period. By creating a provision, you are ensuring that the cost will be expensed and recognised in the correct accounting period.

We interview Mario, an Italian tour guide and the founder of The Grand Tour Europe. With his expert knowledge, passion for culture, and willingness to go the extra-mile, Mario runs guided tours throughout Italy and Europe.

Debitoor-user Guy shares his experience of being a freelancer graphic designer. In this interview, he tells us how becoming his own boss helped him to juggle his young family and his growing graphic design agency, GCD (Guy Clubb Designs).

We speak to Dave, the founder of Tunbridge Wells Music School. In this interview, Dave tells us how he's combined his love for drumming and his passion for teaching through his successful music school.

Four years a go, Katrina Matthews found her calling in photography. In this interview, she shares her experience of running her own business, Katrina Matthews Photography and tells us what it takes to be a successful freelance photographer.