"the company didn't have time to waste sourcing and installing a traditional accounting application... "
         Stephen Drew - Millifoods Limited "Now, I'm doing a job I wouldn't be able to do without Liberty, from wherever I happen to be."
         Heidi Hayes - Body Active Chiropractic Clinics "There are other systems out there,' he says, 'but there aren't any truly viable offerings that are equivalent"
         Barnaby Scott - Waywood Furniture "When I log into Liberty it immediately lets me know which client accounts are due or coming up for payment"
         Mary Palmer - Mary Palmer Consulting "Our accountant is happy with it, and the non-accountants have found it very easy to use too."
         Gregory Bricusse - 020 London Directory "They can't help you enough, so the support is fantastic"
         Tracy Purdon - London 1st Accounting "I don't have to worry about making security backups or updating the software."
         David Ryder, Treasurer - St Marks Church, Sheffield "....and Liberty was the only one with integrated payroll"
         Liam Logan - Wollaton Building Limited "If I want to get up and do my accounts at six then go for a run at nine, I can do that. Why should I commute just to get access to information...?"
         Graham Jackson - Jackson Maunders "The real beauty of an online system is that it can be tailored to fit the client"
         Ray Backler - Capsa Consultants "....who then had to re-key everything into the Revenue online portal.... automating the process saves up to 10 minutes for each return"
         David Hughes - Accountants4Contractors "Liberty Accounts looks like a package that has been thought through and developed by real users"
         Nigel Harris - AccountingWeb May 2006 "Liberty Accounts is so user friendly I don't feel intimidated..."
         Sarah McCaig - MJM Plumbing and Heating Ltd "It is possible for the firm and its clients to review and update the same financial picture, even though they're at different locations"
         Tracy Purdon - London 1st Accounting "Every day, the software provides me with a snapshot of exactly where the business is..."
         Stephen Drew - Millifoods Limited "With Liberty, Wollaton is getting an enterprise system without the big costs"
         Liam Logan - Wollaton Building Limited "We no longer have to worry about incompatible version numbers, or being locked out of the system because we don't have the latest upgrade"
         Tracy Purdon - London 1st Accounting "Because we're a charity, we pay a reduced rate... "
         David Ryder, Treasurer - St Marks Church, Sheffield "We don't have to worry about back-ups," says Jackson, "and we have very robust recovery in the event of a computer failure."
         Graham Jackson - Jackson Maunders "020 was set up so that we could all work from anywhere, and we wanted the same from our accounting system..."
         Gregory Bricusse - 020 London Directory "Liberty Accounts has revolutionised my working day..."
         Sarah McCaig - MJM Plumbing and Heating Ltd "We can make changes to our system and get them out there really quickly because we don't have to wait for the next big upgrade"
         Alan Wright - Liberty Accounts "Your customer service is probably the best I've experienced from anyone - ever..."
         Alexander Greene - Greene & Greene Wines

Want to know more? - Call us on 0845 230 9803

Strategy Planning

Strategy is a well-used word. Strategic plans are regularly referred to in business literature. Definitions abound and books, guides and advice are available from a vast number of sources, a search on the Internet (UK sites) will offer over 1.5 million site references. We invite you to do as much reading and study as you find convenient, however in this section we are simply providing some tools to get you started.

Starting from asking the question about what is the purpose if a strategic plan, we offer here are some basic tools to provide some input to developing a business strategic plan.

What is the point of a strategic plan?

A strategic plan should highlight where a business is currently positioned, describe where is wants to be and importantly identify the initiatives and actions necessary to get it there.

The bulk of the planning activity will be about gathering information and insights into such things as:

The key point is that no enterprise (or none that we know of) is isolated from the rest of the world, and that strategy is about determining what will give a competitive advantage to your enterprise within an interactive environment.

The environment external to your enterprise consists of many elements, any of which could have an impact on your business or the industry you operate in. Often overlooked by smaller enterprises are the potential impacts both positive and negative that events more remote from the particular industry can have. Examples could be a change of Government, new legislation or technological development. There are many examples of companies or industries caught offside by these influences.

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PESTLE Tool

A useful tool to use is the “PESTLE” analysis. PESTLE stands for the following factors

The tool invites you to collect information and reflect upon whether any of these factors have a development coming towards you that will have an impact. There are many versions of this tool but you can download our version of the tool here.

PESTLE TOOL (pdf)

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Customer Needs Tool

One of the critical influences on your enterprises is of course your customers. Knowing their needs and the degree to which you fulfil them and the degree to which your competitors fulfil them more or less completely will determine the success of your business. Doing those things, within your resource capacity, which maximise the satisfaction your customers feel using your product or service is a vital part of the strategic plan.

The tool available here provides a structure to investigate these issues.

Customer Needs Tool (pdf)

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Competitor Review Tool

Competitors exist. You can either chase them or make them chase you. Having a good understanding of just who your competitors are, what their strategic goals are and how they are likely to react to your strategic initiatives is an important input to any strategic plan.

Investment in collecting information about your competitors and keeping it updated usually pays dividends particularly if you can adapt your strategic plan to deal with what they are doing, or find a unique attribute to your product or service which separates you from them.

There are many sources of information:

Make sure that you apply a critical review to any piece of intelligence and just don’t accept it at face value.

The tool available here provides a structure to investigate these issues.

Competitor Review Tool (pdf)

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SWOT Tool

SWOT is a commonly used tool in strategic planning. SWOT stands for:

Usually the sources of strengths and weaknesses relate to the internal capabilities of the enterprise often in comparison with competitors.

Opportunities and Threats derive from what is happening outside of the enterprise, often informed by PESTLE and Customers needs.

This tool helps to draw together the threads of the strategic position of the enterprise. More fundamentally the tool asks what initiatives or actions you are going to take to reinforce or improve this position; this is your STRATEGIC PLAN.

SWOT tool (pdf)

You can write many words if you wish, but in essence knowing the actions you need to take and doing them will deliver your strategic plan.

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