Well – my first Blog post for quite some time, and a lot has happened in that time.

On a personal and sad note, my father passed away on 18th February. He had been ill for some time with an agressive form of demantia so whilst this was very sad and a real shock, it was also a good thing that it happened when it did. I would not normally post personal issues such as this in my blog (generally I think it is good to keep professional and personal lives separate), but if clients did not hear from me much in February or early March, this was the reason. I am now completely back into the swing of things, although as several people have told me, the death of a parent is something which changes you and is therefore something you never truly recover from.

So far I have had no regrets about going self employed and am finding it to be an exciting, stimulating and challenging experience. The loss of my father was a poignant reminder that I am on my own, as I did not receive any paid compassionate leave, but still no regrets. My father’s illness was one of the pivotal reasons why I decided to go self employed, he had always worked very hard in his career and got afflicted with his illness after an all too brief retirement.

I have managed to pick up some new work and the work I have done to date has been varied and interesting. This includes running a course which was a success in both Manchester and London, to doing some consultancy for a high profile Manchester based charity in addition to more “run of the mill” accountancy. I am currently gearing up to working on March year end charities but also on the look out for new work so do contact me if you think I could help you.

On a more technical note, the Charities Act 2011 is now in force. This act essentially consolidates earlier Charities Acts such as the 1993 and 2006 acts.  The main impact on charity accounts is that any references to the Charities Act should be the 2011 act, and the references in independent examiners and audit reports should be updated. More information can be found on the Charity Commission’s website  here

I know I said that I would not post personal issues here, but I do feel that I should mention that a good friend of mine, Ian Reynolds Young, released an album “Shreds” about a month ago. I played on this album, and on 15th March we supported the wonderful Kirsty Almeida at Bury Met. For me it was a real experience to play there as it is one of my favourute venues in the Manchester area and is the first (and only) time of perfoming there, here is a photo of Ian and I at Bury Met:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now, I’ll  post something here every now and then about how business is going and any technical and topical issues.

Thanks for reading

Paul