The HSE have updated their guidance with regard to PAT Testing and small, low risk companies. They are advising against testing too often, explaining that for many businesses, there is little need to test all their equipment every year. ITexpress recognised this some time ago and since then have started to include PAT Testing as part of our Complete IT Support package, testing your supported IT equipment every two years. This from HSE;

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition. However, the Regulations do not specify what needs to be done, by whom or how frequently (ie they don’t make inspection or testing of electrical appliances a legal requirement, nor do they make it a legal requirement to undertake this annually).

To find out more about PAT Testing just give us a call on 01405 765782

The project went very smoothly, and ITexpress not only designed the site, using WordPress as a platform, but also helped Damac produce the copywriting for the site. “The website was produced in a matter of weeks, and we are very happy with the professional look, having had positive feedback not only from our employees, but our customers too.” said Kath.

We think the website will help Damac make the right impression and look forward to working with them further.

The chief update is the new screen, which is what Apple call a Retina Display, with a Resolution double that of the iPad 2, and promises to play video at full HD quality.

The next update is really the camera which is now the camera Apple provides in the iPhone 4. At 5 MegaPixels it is still not that great but the current iPad camera is terrible, so hat is a welcome upgrade.

Other than that there isn’t much to report. The ability to record video in HD is good, but the prices and storage capacities are still the same. For those who like to connect to the internet while away from wifi the new iPad will now be able to connect using what is called 4G, although whether any of the ISP’s are actually providing that level of service at the moment we don’t know.

If you haven’t yet purchased an iPad then these updates may well give you more of a reason to get hold of one, but for current iPad users, there is little to persuade you to upgrade. The largest criticism we have is that the storage capacities haven’t increased, which is a real limiting factor in the iPad.

The basic iPad is £399 with 16GB of storage, which is not much more than 12GB in actual capacity. By the time you save a few HD movies to the device, take some nice high res camera pics, and record some HD video, we expect that the storage will be just about used up, and that is without the apps, which of course, will be larger in size if they are using the higher resolutions. Maybe Apple think everything will be streamed to your iPad through the iCloud, but that isn’t always practical, or even logical.

Despite the screen, which undoubtedly will be amazing, this is a bit of a backward step in our opinion. We wouldn’t recommend the lower capacity iPad models at the moment, and when you start going up in capacity, the price of the iPad is then in real laptop territory, and it is no longer such an easy purchase decision.

During these last few years it has become clear that the traditional forms of advertising and marketing are no longer as effective in attracting customers, and even tourism hotspots like Helmsley have found themselves needing to branch out and try new methods to not only attract visitors and customers, but to encourage them to return again and again.

Businesses also can’t expect the public bodies to provide answers and funding, as their own monies are decreasing and if anything, they are keen to take money out of the business enterprise, not put money in. Businesses are really on their own, and wherever possible, we recommend that business owners should get together and try joint ventures, or leverage each others talents to help each other become more successful. Keeping in touch with visitors and customers is paramount in getting your message out there and remaining in the customers’ consciousness, so that whenever they think about the industry you are in, your brand is the first thing they recall.

We had a really enjoyable chat and we wish Helmsley in Business all the success with their new venture.

As well as paying money out to employees and to suppliers using BACS, you can also get money in by allowing your customers to pay by direct debit. In many cases this allows companies to improve their cashflow significantly, and also reduce the costs associated with receiving monies and the subsequent banking fees and payment processing overhead.

Taking direct debits is a lot easier than you would think. There are a few things to consider but overall it is a straighforward process. Here’s what you need to know;

• You will need to sort out the facility with your bank as they will need to be happy that you have the funds to fulfill the direct debit guarantee. This is usually in the form of a bond or a set amount of money left in a bank account for security.
• In the event that this proves difficult (some bank managers are not familiar with how direct debit works) then you can usually get the details of the right department from your BACS bureau (Some bureaus will help you through the process. We do).
• Once you have the bank facility setup then you will need to start collecting bank account details from your customers, using the direct debit forms, which display the direct debit guarantee on them. You will normally then collect these details in a report which is in a format the BACS bureau can accept.
• You provide the report to the BACS bureau, and this will allow the bureau to process all the transactions. The way to think about it is that you are pulling money from the customers’ accounts. They are not sending money to you.
• Over time you will need to send updates to the bureau to keep the list up to date. Normally the frequency of these updates depends on how often your direct debits are processed, but once a month is typical. There are rules on notifying customers that direct debit amounts have changed. Your bacs bureau can help with this.

And its as easy as that. Moving customers to direct debit is probably the best way to handle the payments processing in your business. You can find out more by giving us a call on 01405 765782 or contacting us using the form.

• 19 April:Outstanding PAYE tax and Class 1 NICs – postal payments must reach your HMRC Accounts Office
• 22 April: Outstanding PAYE tax and Class 1 NIC – cleared electronic payments reach HMRC bank account
• 19 May: File your Employer Annual Return (P35 and P14s)
• 31 May: Give each relevant employee a form P60
• 6 July: File expenses and benefits annual return (forms P11D, P9D and P11D(b)) if applicable – give a copy to your employees
• 19 July: Class 1A NICs – postal payments must reach your HMRC Accounts Office
• 22 July: Class 1A NICs – cleared electronic payments must reach HMRC bank account

As well as all these tasks don’t forget that from 1st April 2012 VAT registered companies will also have to submit VAT Returns online and pay any VAT due electronically.

The dinner itself was a great event and it seemed to be fully subscribed. The businesses that won the awards were a wide mix of large and small and covered many different industries. You will be able to see who won when they update the site. We don’t want to spoil their thunder.

As for ITexpress, we didn’t apply for an award this year but we aim to be up there next year so watch this space!

In the meanwhile a few people had a ‘preview of the preview’ and have produced detailed reviews;

The first is from Mashable and they have this to say;

Still, Windows 8 can only get more stable and easier to use while it slowly advances toward a general release, and Metro is gorgeous enough to keep me looking forward to Windows 8′s final act.

The next is from extremetech and they were pretty positive too;

I am now convinced that Windows 8 will be a hit with consumers — users who have historically opted for “it just works” devices — but I’m not so sure about power users and IT admins.

There seems to be a few concerns about how screens swtich from the Metro interface but we think that Microsoft will use this feedback and make it better when the next preview or beta is released. Each time there has been a new release we can see that things have improved.

Today it is a lot different. There are many more devices around which may show the data which is contained in your application, many more ways in which that information is portrayed, and also many ways in which information can be input and collected. There is also the fact that the internet has transformed how people work and interact with data, to a point were building a piece of software which doesn’t include internet technology is almost unthinkable.

So here is our small checklist when developing software for our clients which help us with selecting the right platform;

• What is the purpose of the software?
• Who will be using it?
• How will data come into the app?
• How will data be presented from the app?
• What are the different devices you expect to use with the app?
• Will you always have an internet connection when using the software?
• Does the software need to talk to other software which you use within your business?

Once we have answers to these questions then things do become a little clearer, and more often than not the answer has been made for you (particularly when you have a need to transfer data from and to other parts of the business)

When it comes time to actually choose the platform you need to balance the answers you got from above with the skills of the team you are employing and the budget you have for development, not only the financial budget, but also the time budget.