The Practitioner: Make bills whilst the sun shines

THE PAST COUPLE of weeks have seen some fantastic weather here. Fantastic that is, if you don’t have to work.

Unfortunately for us the sunshine has brought the worst out of a couple of new recruits: phoning in sick; leaving early for doctors appointments, only to then be caught on Facebook checking in at the local beer garden.

There’s a lot to be said for the rain: you may as well be in work.

Once the sun comes out however people seem willing to sacrifice their job just to catch a few rays.

Clients seem to bother us less whilst it’s sunny though. The woes of normal everyday business seem to get put on the back burner when it’s sunny, and everyone’s attitude improves slightly.

So perhaps now is a good time to send bills to clients?

P35s have all been dealt with, so perhaps sort out some invoices.

P11ds are in progress also. The majority of these are nil returns, but surely still deserving of a bill. Once you factor in the time taken to review last years, complete the checklist, type and send out letters for approval, and online filing then surely that’s a good £150 plus vat?

If it stays sunny maybe that could be increased to £200?

We are planning to hold a management meeting next week to review work in progress.

Again, now could be the perfect time to invoice certain clients for work done on ad-hoc projects that for one reason or another never got billed. The list includes:

– client divorce workings
– property purchase appraisals that fell through
– visit to property auction with client
– work done on restructuring shares – then client changed his mind

All chunky pieces of work but each one with equally good reasons to bill, or not to bill…

The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from within their own practice – having left a regional firm in the heart of England