Thanks for stopping by to read our newsletter. In this edition, we’ll be helping you with MTD, with our simple timeline. We also have some important payroll updates; and we have some brand new courses available

If you’re an Urmston Business, read our interview to find out how the Urmston Partnership could help you.

The COS Crew News – Spring 2019

Find out what the staff and membership have been up to, and their latest achievements.

Our New Office and Training Space

We’re excited to announce that we recently moved to an office on the floor below and are now in Suite 3 instead of Suite 5. We are using Suite 5 for training space instead which means all of our members’ meetings and training courses will be taken in Suite 5. Please feel free to stop by for a brew.

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Meet our New Staff

We’ve been making lots of exciting changes at COS over the last year. For many years we were mainly based on site with clients and didn’t have the need for many Bookkeepers in-house. With the rise of cloud accounting and demand from clients for support at the end of the phone, we have developed a bespoke support service. We now have a dedicated in-house team of Bookkeepers providing a support service to clients.

To make our service even better, our in-house team has had some recent editions. We’d like to give a warm welcome to Tasnim, Paul, and Ann (we have 2 Anns now!). Each Bookkeeper has their own particular set of skills and software proficiencies and they are now managed by our new Account Manager: Steph Marshall.

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We’re now a Xero Platinum Partner!

We are proud to announce that we are now in the top 2% of Xero partners and are now Platinum Partners! We could not have achieved this without our staff, members, and clients; so we’d like to say a huge thank you to you all.

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COS Members take to the Stage

The award-winning Sale Gilbert and Sullivan Society are performing Princess Ida at The Lowry Studio Theatre from Monday 29^th April to Wednesday 1^st May. Tickets are selling fast and can be bought directly from the Lowry (no booking fee for the studio theatre).

Two of our members: Rebecca Murray and David Hunt, will both be starring in the show. They would love to see some of their COS friends supporting them.

Stop panicking about MTD and read this: Your MTD Timeline

Registering for making tax digital, at the right time, is crucial. Here’s our handy guide.

Once you are signed up and authenticated, you will need to authorise your software to submit using MTD.

New Rules for Payslips from 6th April 2019

Under the new rules, payslips need to be clear and easily understood. If an employee is paid a set amount every month based on an annual salary, there is no need to make any changes, however, if other payments are made such as overtime, the hours and the rates must be shown. Employees paid on varying hours and rates must be provided with a payslip showing the number of hours and the rate(s) paid.

There are varying scenarios – our advice is “If in doubt, split it out”.

How Urmston has been transformed into a sought after place to live and work

An interview with Claire and Sarah of The Urmston Partnership

Co-Chairs of the Urmston Partnership: Sarah Steinhoefel and Claire Foster, took some time out to tell us about the voluntary organisation that has helped transform Urmston.

• What is the Urmston Partnership and how did it come about?

The Urmston Partnership is a not-for-profit organisation which came about when the old shopping centre in Urmston was demolished. The group was setup with the help of Trafford Council to help local businesses bounce back. The thought was that businesses locally would suffer! That was over 15 years ago and we’ve not looked back since. In 2017 we changed from covering just the Urmston town centre, to covering the whole of the M41 postcode. We still have really close links with Trafford Council and all our elected councillors. We’re also really proud of the fact that our town centre is thriving, when others are in decline.

• What is the partnership doing to support the community and local business?

The partnership is in a period of change. Claire and Sarah took over as joint chairs 12 months ago; and of course have brought some new ideas to the table. The plan was to make the partnership more relevant to how M41 is now, not how it was in 2003. We have a number of new businesses who have started trading in the last few years, our hope is that we can increase the community feel and make M41 a great place to live and work.

We have a wealth of experience within our membership and we often use that to support local groups (see below)

• What kind of events and projects have the partnership done before and how have they been received?

The Partnership was a driving force in getting the Artisan Market into Urmston, which has been a huge success. We’re also supporting projects such as Urmston in Bloom, the Christmas light switch on, and various other local projects.

There are always ideas of what other things we can do, so if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to get in touch!

• What upcoming projects and initiatives are the partnership working on?

We’ve been in talks recently with Age UK Trafford and one of our local councillors about how we can help our residents with dementia. We’re an aging population, and sadly a lot of people would not know how to spot if someone was struggling when out and about and needed help. We’re hoping to get involved in rolling out some training to local businesses. It’s in the early stages of planning, but we should have more news soon.

We’re also helping with the new group: Friends of Urmston Station, which has recently formed. They’re looking at how the area surrounding the station can be made more welcoming.

We’ve just redeveloped the UP website, whilst there is still a lot of work to do on it, we’re really proud of how it looks.  We’re also thinking about planning more networking events, and perhaps a business breakfast – so watch this space!

• Why should people join the partnership and where can get they find out more?

We rely on our members to help with new ideas and suggestions. We’re always asking for people’s ideas of what they think would make our area even better than it already is!

As a member, you can have a direct impact on how the M41 area evolves. Every meeting we usually have our local councillors, a police update and news about projects like Market 41 etc. The meetings are great places to meet other local business people too.

It’s not all just about business owners though, we have a residential membership and often have members from other local organisations such as the local WI groups at meetings.

If you’re interested in becoming a member then please either email chair@urmstonpartnership.org.uk or check our website.

Upcoming Events- Spring 2019