We use Xero as our accounting system. Last year Xero invited us to enter a submission for a project to their annual award programme. We did, but we did not win. All who submitted were invited to a celebration on March 5th at the House of Commons in London.

Carla Ottersen attended on our behalf. Carla being her usual self, she went straight into networking mode, connecting with many business founders and leaders. She also met and briefly spoke to two of the MPs highlighting the event: Emily Darlington, MP for Milton Keynes, and her colleague James Murray, MP for Ealing North and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (in photo).

Since James Murray’s role covers being chair of HMRC, Carla inevitably made the point that delays in paying out R&D have impacted many firms over the last few years: timelines for approvals have increased and HMRC investigations have become more frequent. She was assured, as were all attending, that the Government is totally focused on making sure the fiscal environment for SMEs is radically improved and made less frustrating.

Carla also spoke to Xero about the value of introducing a 90 day forward looking cashflow planning feature. This is something she is very knowledgeable on; we have an approximate version built into our business planning model, and Carla used to sell CFP when she worked in enterprise software many years ago. It seems Xero might be on the point of rolling out this feature and they promised to send us news on that quickly.

Here’s hoping for an easier fiscal ecosphere, and thank goodness we use Xero, who listen to their users.