Steps to redundancy – 3. SQL backup dumps
We take backups of our Clear Books database and other site files hosted by CatN on a new schedule. All of our backups are stored on Amazon S3. We use the EC2 Slave to perform all of our backups to...
Steps to redundancy – 2. MySQL replication
We have adopted replication methods for our database hosting that adds numerous layers of redundancy. In the CatN replication stack used to host Clear Books we use one Master server and two Slaves. The Master and one of the Slaves...
Steps to redundancy – 1. Hardware
We have carried out a hardware refresh and have consolidated to purely HP servers from our previous mixed hardware. This includes all our database and application servers and virtualisation hosts. The previous infrastructure contained numerous brands with slightly different configurations...
Champagne breakfast
Some clever person decided to film our Champagne Breakfast moment as we celebrated reaching 1,000 customers. For the record I am not in the habit of hitting employees! Read More
Online Accounting Keeps Adding Up: Clear Books Hits 1,000 Customers
Online Accounting Keeps Adding Up: Clear Books Hits 1,000 Customers London (16/11/10) – Clear Books, the online accounting system for small businesses, is pleased to announce that it has exceeded the important milestone of 1,000 paying customers. Clear Books officially...
LimeGreen Accountancy Loves Clear Books
LimeGreen Accountancy were kind enough to free their time and tell the world why it is they love Clear Books. LimeGreen Accountancy provides accounting services to small businesses in the creative industry. See why Clear Books has made life so...
Calendar widget update
Just a quick update to let you guys know about some changes to the Calendar Widget for the Clear Books dashboard. The Calendar widget is now integrated within the permissions system of Clear Books - meaning events are only displayed...
Work experience in the UK
Work experience doesn’t mean that you are wasting your time. It is a special gap in your life where you have the opportunity to do something that you want to do in your life. I came to the UK from...
Software Satisfaction Awards 2010: Clear Books
Earlier this year we had a fantastic response when we asked our users to complete the Software Satisfaction Survey to give Clear Books a shot at winning an award in the SME Accounting and Finance category. At the time some 20%...
Blog Action Day 2010: Water
Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event which started back in 2007 with a simple idea in mind; to "unite the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day, in order to raise awareness and...
Capital purchase or administrative expense?
It’s so important to us at Clear Books to collaborate with our customers. Without you pointing us in all sorts of directions, Clear Books wouldn’t have all the great functionality we offer today! Clear Books is popular with you non...
Clear Books backs Blog Action Day 2010
What is Blog Action Day? "Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15th that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and...
Introducing Miss Clear Books
Hello there! Some of you may have heard from me over the last week. I have been ringing round to introduce myself and catch up with you, your suggestions and (fitting in with this month’s campaign) understanding what it is...
Personal back ups are back and restore points too
We are making great progress with our 6 point plan to massively improve the security of your data on Clear Books. This is a quick note to let everyone know that you can now personally back up your own data. When...
Newsletter July 2010
There has been a lot going on behind the scenes at Clear Books this month. With new developers on board we will hopefully see new features rolling out very soon such as better invoice customisation and automatic Paypal imports. Here...
UK Accounting Software Market Report
In keeping with our open approach as a business, I am pleased to unveil our UK Accounting Software Market Report. For a copy please click here: UK Accounting Software Market. If you would like to use this report or quote from it, you may do so providing...
Clear Books Accounting Software Small Business Survey 2010
Clear Books accounting software undertook a survey of 8,816 small businesses a week before the election to find out their views on the the economy; half of those that took part in the survey were one person businesses, with a large proportion...
Labour support only 11% in huge online poll
ClearBooks.co.uk has announced the preliminary results to one of the most comprehensive surveys on the UK economy on the day of the 2010 final leaders' debate. The "2010 Election Survey: Business and The Economy" has been completed over the last 24 hours by 33,279 members of...
Furnish.co.uk using Clearbooks
Up until relatively recently, I'd always done my accounting using a Microsoft Access database I'd knocked out years ago. It was pretty basic and 100% manual, but it worked. The alternative was using off-the-shelf accounting software, which all reminded me...
Clear Books Customer Support
We like to think that Clear Books has from the very beginning made every effort to engage with you about your ideas, questions & problems and to feedback what we are doing about them. As we continue to grow we...
MPs Offered £100 000 Worth of Accounting Software To Publish Their Expenses
MPs Offered £100 000 Worth of Accounting Software To Publish Their Expenses London (04/02/10) - Every MP has been offered free online accounting software to publish their accounts publicly on the Internet. All 646 MPs are being offered a term's...
Starting a business from scratch
Starting A Business From Scratch (Part 1) This is one of a number of business startup guides that will be posted over the coming weeks thanks to Duncan Accounting. Today's post is the first of two posts on the basics...
Easy API integration
Clear Books offers an API, along with full details and simple examples using the PHP SoapClient (you can also communicate via XML if you please). And to my surprise it was very simple to use. In a nutshell the API...
End of year accounts
End of year accounts will be filed by many accountants on behalf of small businesses across the UK over the coming months in what is commonly known in the accounting world as 'busy season'. This coincides with the fact that...
Snow proof accounting software
Clear Books is accounting software that defies winter's icy grasp. If you live in the UK you will no doubt have noticed that it has been snowing; some people are saying that it is one of coldest winters since 1963. If...
VAT changes
VAT is changing on the 1 January 2010 with a return to 17.5% from the temporary rate of 15% imposed since 1 December 2008. This will affect VAT registered Clear Books users in the following ways. Normal Invoicing We have...
10 tips for speed networking
Clear Books experiences and tips from taking part in some Speed Networking whilst at the Business Start Up Live Event in Olympia, London.
Companies House Webcheck built into Clear Books
Today we are pleased to announce that we have worked with Companies House to make their webcheck service available right inside Clear Books. This means you can order from a huge range of official documents that have been recorded with...
Online accounting growth story… write your own chapter
We've had some interesting questions raised about our growth plans. It's important for prospective interns and employees to appreciate where we have come from and where we are going. It may be interesting to our users too. I was nine months into my...
Online VAT returns recognised by HMRC
We are pleased to announce that our online VAT returns system has been recognised by HMRC. We are now listed on their 3rd party VAT software page: HMRC Recognised VAT Software We currently support online submission of VAT 100 forms (the...