Clear Books launches new home page design
Exciting changes. We are really excited to share with you the new home page design and direction for the Clear Books marketing website. Check it out www.clearbooks.co.uk. We have been busy at work and there are many new and exciting...
Clear Books reprices Companies House reports to £0.95
Download reports from Companies House for just £0.95. That's cheaper than Companies House. For some time it has been possible to download reports from Companies House within Clear Books for £2.00. When we looked at the numbers it became evident...
Clear Books introduces a new VAT feature
Today we're introducing a feature many of you have been asking for - the ability to pick up late invoices on a VAT return. When you create a new VAT return, just tick the "Include late invoices" box and it...
14 books every budding entrepreneur should read about successful entrepreneurs
My wife enjoys reading 'normal books' on holiday. I like to read books about business. Does that sound familiar? I have only four and a half years experience running my startup, marketing to prospects and leading a team so I...
The pros and cons of working with your family
My second hire at Clear Books was my brother, John, who is our most experienced support agent. My fifth employee was my sister, Lizzie, who heads up our marketing team. The biggest advantage of having siblings work for you is...
One easy exercise to get your website to the top of Google
Google is an important source of potential customers for your business, so here's a quick SEO tip to help improve how your website performs in search results. Not sure what SEO means? Read this introductory article: New customers are not...
5 minutes every morning that will transform your team’s communication
I like to get on with things rather than talk about them so I've never been a fan of planning or meetings. That all changed with the "stand up". It’s a meeting format that is really quick, productive and is brilliant for...
Clear Books introduces new buttons in Labs
Last Friday we posted about the New Navigation Bar which you can enable in Labs. We could not go a week without blogging about our latest progress! You will now have access to our new set of buttons which have...
Clear Books updates its mobile app
We've spent the last month working hard to finish the long awaited mobile app. We'd like to thank you for your patience - and we promise you it'll be worth it! We have now released a bigger and better version...
New customers are not finding your website. Learn the basics about SEO and win more customers
Clear Books would not have the thousands of business customers that we do if we had not put in the groundwork with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Sure, your website can be useful to existing customers. However, as a marketing platform...
Clear Books introduces P11D tagging for employees’ expenses
P11D tagging for your employees' expense items is now available in Clear Books! You'll find this new feature in 'Labs' section in your services drop down menu. P11Ds are used to report benefits provided and expense payments made to employees...
This is what really keeps business owners up at night
When I was in audit at KPMG one of the questions we used to ask business owners and managing directors to try and identify risk was, “what keeps you up at night?”. What keeps me up at night as the...
Clear Books introduces faster menu bar
What once took 3 clicks now takes 1! Following on from the previous blog posts about the new menu navigation bar functionality and the new navigation bar design we are proud to let you know that the new navigation menu...
Clear Books adds payment buttons to invoices
The Clear Books community have asked and we have responded. Payment buttons on invoices are finally here! At the moment PayPal and PayPoint are the two payment providers that are available for this feature. If you have those bank accounts set-up...
Two simple steps to recruiting successfully on Linkedin for free
Linkedin is a disruptive recruitment tool. The two employees who resigned from Clear Books in 2012 were both headhunted on Linkedin. I posted about them resigning in this article, A surprising opportunity hidden in key employees resigning. Recruitment consultants have...
RTI is coming to Open Payroll
We'd like to let you know the kind of data RTI will require from you, most of which you can start entering now. Here is an update on how we're getting on. User Interface Changes We've been working on adding...
The surprising opportunities hidden in key employees resigning
I received two unexpected letters of resignation in 2012 from key members of the Clear Books team. Neither departure left a vacuum but rather spurred on productivity. As the CEO should I feel let down when people want to leave?...
Remarkable businesses on Facebook
Your business is remarkable. Not everyone has the guts to start their own business or to be their own boss. You did that. As the champion of small businesses, Clear Books wants to recognise your remarkable business. Go to facebook...
If you have an open plan office then get a separate meeting room now
When the coffee shop staff next door to your office start to greet you by your first name then that’s the sign you need to get a meeting room. The Clear Books team was housed in an open plan office...
Hire people who are better than you
Recognise your strengths and weaknesses and hire people to fill in the gaps in your team’s ability. I have had conversations with people who have seriously questioned why I would want to hire someone to join Clear Books who is...
Instant messaging within Clear Books
We have been beavering away trying to find ways to make it easier for you to communicate with people within your group in Clear Books and have come up with a nice new messaging system! In a similar style to Facebook, once you...
New features in Clear Books! Recurring payments and invoices, and expenses copy function
Happy Monday Clear Books users! We have some good news for you on this snowy day, there have been further time-saving feature updates which are now live in Clear Books! Firstly we have now made it possible for you to...
Navigation bar design
Following from the previous blog post about the new menu navigation bar, the team has come up with two designs and we would love to hear your thoughts about them! These two designs focus on the main navigation bar only,...
You’re fired! Firing isn’t nice but do it fast.
There is a startup mantra, hire fast and fire fast. Firing fast is good advice if you have made a hiring mistake (however, I don’t agree with hiring fast because hiring the wrong candidate is a time consuming and expensive...
Don’t hire that candidate you are not 100% sure about
Never hire someone out of desperation. When Clear Books started gaining traction in 2010 I was desperate to hire a third developer. I was too desperate. Our candidates take a 45 minute exam and this particular candidate scored a woeful...
Thanks for completing our surveys
The Clear Books team has been busy emailing our customers with several surveys over the last couple of months. First, I wanted to thank every customer who has contributed as your feedback is extremely helpful to us. Secondly, I wanted...
We’d like to invite you out for a drink
There's a definitely a community vibe in the air at the Clear Books HQ. We want to make sure that our 4300 + customers are all given the chance to get involved with that! Please save the 28th February for...
New menu navigation bar
Here at Clear Books we are always keen to get as much feedback from our customers as possible. We want to make sure that Clear Books is the best it can possibly be! Based on your feedback we have decided...
Work Experience at Clear Books
We received a phone call before the Christmas break from one of our customers. He wanted to know if the Clear Books team would be interested in welcoming his daughter on board for a week's work experience. "Clear Books looks...
Put customer community at the heart of your business
Powerful movements are the result of community. For your small business to be more than just a piece of software (or any other product or service) you need to nurture your customer community. Communities, tribes, religions, clans, cults and political...