News Archives | Alexander Knight & Co | Accountants for entrepreneurs based in Hale
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WANTED: Apprentice Accountant to join our team in Hale

  • Do you want to launch your career in accountancy? 
  • Perhaps you have recently left 6th form, college or University? 
  • Join our growing practice in Hale as an apprentice accountant

The role: Apprentice Accountant 

Alexander Knight & Co is a leading accountancy and audit practice based in Hale, Greater Manchester. We have a strong, positive and entrepreneurial culture, reflected in our impressive client base.

We are growing and we’re hiring now. We pride ourselves on recruiting the best people so that our clients can be assured they’re in safe hands. We are now looking for an apprentice accountant – at either L3 or L7 – to join our team at the start of 2021. We have a good track record of helping the next generation of accountant develop in their career.

Jack joined us as an apprentice and is now progressing in his career as an accountant.

Read Jack’s story here – he joined us as an apprentice and he’s now progressing a successful career in accountancy at Alexander Knight & Co.

What you’ll get if you join us as an Apprentice Accountant:

  • Supportive, friendly and flexible working environment.

  • Grade A office in the heart of Hale village.

  • Regular training and career development.

  • Competitive salary + flexible benefits.

The successful candidate’s duties will be varied, and office/client based. Our clients are spread across the Greater Manchester and Cheshire area and in some instances the apprentice will be expected to travel to see clients independently.

Key responsibilities will include:

• General accounting and office duties – and checking and analysing client invoices
• Drafting financial statements
• Assisting with personal and business tax
• Credit control
• Updating and creating spread sheets and using computerised accounting software
• Basic costing duties

Desired skills

• High level of numeracy and literacy essential
• Computer literate with experience of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus excellent keyboard skills
• Accurate and analytical approach, paying attention to detail
• Strong communication and organisational skills, plus effective time management and attention to detail

Personal qualities

• Must be professional with a smart appearance
• Punctual, hardworking and keen to learn and progress within a professional environment
• Enthusiastic, self-motivated but conscientious and able to work both independently and as part of a team

Desired qualifications

The successful candidate must have achieved:

  • A minimum of 5 good GCSEs to include Maths & English (ideally at the highest level A/A* or 8/9)
  • A minimum of 2 A-levels (or equivalent)

plus 

  • A degree (or equivalent for Level 7 of the Apprenticeship)

APPLY NOW TO BE AN APPRENTICE ACCOUNTANT AT ALEXANDER KNIGHT & CO.

Send your CV and a covering letter to:

alison@alexanderknightaccountants.co.uk

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Say hello to…Daniel

We are pleased to have appointed Daniel McKeown as an accounts senior here at Alexander Knight & Co.

Joining Alexander Knight & Co is a natural progression for Dan who has spent his entire career advising successful entrepreneurs in the SME market.

Like many of our clients, we are on a positive growth curve and since the start of the year we have picked up a range of new audit clients as well as specialist tax work from international firms trading in the UK.

In addition, we’re also moving into new, bigger and better office space in the heart of Hale village to accommodate future growth plans.

We are delighted to have appointed Dan to our growing team and we’re confident that our clients, who range from fast-growth businesses to seasoned entrepreneurs will be well served by his skills.

Dan McKeown, accounts senior at Alexander Knight & Co, says

I have a passion for advising entrepreneurs and I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues and the fantastic array of clients we have here at Alexander Knight & Co.

 

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General election: a calm and considered reaction

Well it wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to see a “Conservative landslide” and a clear mandate for a so-called ‘hard Brexit’.

Now the shock of the result is over, it’s worth taking stock and having a look at what the result means for you and your business.

We’ve spoken with many business owners within our own client base since the general election and it’s worth highlighting that they are all, without exception, taking a very stoic and pragmatic approach to it all.

Most say it wasn’t the result they were looking for (or expected) because they wanted to get clarity and stability during the Brexit negotiations.

Some people may be tempted to adopt a more cautious approach to completing deals (buying, selling or merging with other companies) over the next few weeks and months. It is important that entrepreneurs don’t miss out on deals if they are too good to miss.

There’s naturally a concern that the market stagnates in the short-term because confidence is such an important factor for people buying or selling a business. Things will settle down if the Government can secure some quick wins in the Brexit negotiation process.

Business owners wanted stability, certainty and confidence going into the Brexit negotiations and that has clearly not happened here.

The more cautious business owners will be delaying decisions, deals and expansion plans until the path of the Government becomes clear.

It’s important that the voice of business is heard during the Brexit process and the results of this election means that entrepreneurs will have to keep a closer eye on proceedings during the next two years than they had originally planned.

For our clients, we’re paying close attention to developments and we’ll be sharing our insights so you can make informed decisions for you and your business.

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Auto enrolment: are you ready?

Speak to us about auto enrolment options

Nearly 600,000 small employers reach their staging date for auto-enrolment during 2016/17, and a further 1.1 million new employers stage in 2017/18.

Most of our clients are turning to us to help them comply with these new pension regulations.

If you haven’t taken action yet – you really should speak to us.

Advising employers on workplace pension schemes is time consuming, risky and challenging if you don’t get proper advice from us.

We’re on official partner with Workplace Pensions Direct, which enables us to offer all of our clients – without exception – a comprehensive and affordable auto-enrolment package, from initial assessment right through to declaration of compliance, and beyond.

Make sure you comply with the new regulations – and speak to our team now.

 

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Fancy £600 tax free?

Gift cards tax break for directors

One of the most underused perks of being a company director is the ability to award directors with an annual £300 ‘trivial benefit’.

To get £600 – you draw £300 before April 5th – and £300 after April 5th and purchase a retail gift card with the funds. John Lewis, Selfridges or Tesco – whatever takes your fancy. That makes a total of £600 tax free over two days.

If your wife or husband is a company director, they can also have the perk. Meaning that, as a family, you can collect £1200 tax free!

This tax perk is because HMRC considers it acceptable to reward directors with a ‘trivial gift’ up to the value of £300 each, per tax year.

For more details on how to do this correctly and in accordance with current HMRC rules speak to one of our tax team.

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New private healthcare deal

Private healthcare with Alexander Knight & Co

If you’re a company director of a growing business it makes sense to review your choice of private healthcare provider. In our experience, too many of our clients are paying too much for distinctly average ranges of cover.

As a result, we’ve teamed up with Vitality Healthcare – and we feel that we’re able to offer a much more competitive rate and more comprehensive cover than your current arrangements. As well as protecting you when things go wrong, it also helps you to lead a healthier life. – meaning you don’t need to make a claim to benefit. It’s the way insurance should be.

Whether it’s a fresh look for you and your family or a scheme you’d like to introduce or update for your staff, speak to us and we will arrange a competitive quote. Switching healthcare provider is easy and hassle free – so in our mind, it’s worth getting a quote so that you can reduce your expense on this increasingly important benefit.

Speak to Murray Patt to arrange a FREE quote.

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Keeping you safe

cyber essentials logo

As part of our ongoing commitment to improving our information security management system we took the decision to gain the Cyber Essentials certification. We’re proud to be the first accountants in Greater Manchester to gain this certification and one of the first in the Northwest.

Cyber Essentials certification is aimed at helping companies guard their client data from hackers.

Keeping your data and information confidential is a top priority for our team.

In today’s climate of increasing numbers of cyber-criminals hacking into the servers of professional advisory firms we’re committed to staying one step ahead for our clients.

This certification provides you with the assurance that we are taking the necessary steps to prevent future cyber threats.

The certification recognises organisations that have taken appropriate steps to protect against most common cyber threats as a baseline for security. It was established by the UK Government in 2014.

Some of the things we do as standard practice in our business include:

●       downloading software and app updates as soon as they appear on devices and computers

●       using strong passwords

●       deleting suspicious emails

●       using anti-virus software

●       training staff

If you need to upgrade your own cyber protection for your business, talk to us and we can point you in the right direction.

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A new website

Welcome to our new website.  We thought long and hard about what we wanted our website to do and say. Then, we talked to our clients to see what they wanted. We hope you like it. We’ve kept it clean and simple and improved the usability of it.

Everything from the layout, the copywriting and design elements are all intended to convey our own personality and highlight the key things that our clients need. It’s easier to find our contact details, find out more about our approach and our people.

As well as being more efficient at the back-end (which means it’s simpler and faster for us to update) it’s also built with ‘Google love’ in mind. This means it’s quicker than our previous site and should be found ore easily on the search engine results pages. It also works on multiple devices, so it works just as well on your iPhone or iPad as your PC or MacBook.

Businesses have to evolve. If you stand still your competitors will seize the advantage. Having a modern, accessible web presence is important to our practice. It means clients can more easily get what they need, prospects and professional advisors can see what we’re all about in an instant. It’s also better for our future employees as we grow our business – to give them insight into our culture and approach to work.

Read more

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