Random ramblings and ravings of Richy B
I’m aware that a number of people reading this blog at the moment are looking for work – well, here’s a few resources you can try that you may not have considered:
(yes, Workcircle should be paying me a small commission if you find a job through their system).
Are there any unusual resources for IT jobs that you know about which you’d like to share?
In my previous post, I mentioned that I was considering switching to the FreeAgentCentral system to handle invoice creation, book keeping and general “keeping things in one place” sort of stuff – mainly because Free Agent Central offers a much more UK orientated system than FreshBooks.
However, I hit a snag. The agency I’m currently working through )Ashdown Group) requires signed printed timesheets from the client – and I’d like to be able to keep these in the same place as the invoice. Ideally, I’d like to have the scanned in timesheets attached to the invoice when it’s sent out to Ashdown. Freshbooks has a “documents” facility where you can classify files to a client/customer: but you can’t attach them to invoices. Free Agent has the facility to attach files to Expenses: but you can’t upload files for any other purpose.
I therefore asked them via their quite good public help system if they had any plans to implement this sort of facility – and the response I got from them was outstanding – not only did they say it was a good idea, but when they said they couldn’t get it implemented before my free trial ran out they would extend my trial free of charge until it’s implemented!
You can’t say much better than that: quick, accurate and customer orientated support which goes beyond boundaries (ok, Ed, who responded, does appear to be the “main guy” behind FAC so he’s got authority to make changes such as offering people FOC extensions) – and I’ll certainly be switching to Free Agent for my online book keeping and accounting and will be recommending them to my other half for her web design services and a PR company in Leicester who ask for suggestions yesterday.
Thanks again Ed!
Well, I did mention that I’ve become a freelance PHP consultant (although currently I’m more working in ASP/ASPscript) and that I’d write my finding/experiences up on this ‘er blog: but I’ve just been so busy recently, I haven’t even really had the time to keep up with my other projects. However, a question by an ex-colleague prompted me to write about the options there are if you are considering going freelancing/consulting. As per usual, this is not legal/accounting advice yadda yadda – if you want proper formal advise, find somebody you can pay to give you advice.
There’s three ways (as far as I’m concerned/aware of) you can go freelancing:
The accountancy company I use has a handy calculator on their site at http://www.sjdaccountancy.com/contractor_calculator/index.html and some other resources at http://www.sjdaccountancy.com/about/ourservices/recruiter_resources.html which may help you decide what to do (if you do decide to use them, please enter me as a referral on their site as I’ll get £50 – however, in the interests of fairness, I have to admit that whilst SJD is doing a good enough job, my partner (not business) is considering http://www.nixonwilliams.com/ for her books and they are cheaper (£75 per month compared with £95 for SJD). You don’t technically need an accountant (there’s no legal obligation), but they’ll be able to advice you on what can be counted as an expense, what can’t, what you can claim VAT back on (and advice you whether to become VAT registered, VAT flat-rate registered or not registered) and help ensure your tax forms (corporate and personal) are filed in time.
We both registered our Limited companies via http://www.uk-plc.net/companyformation/ and we both currently use Freshbooks for invoicing although I’m trying FreeAgent as it’s a lot more UK orientated and can deal a lot better with UK tax and even provides you with a profit/loss statement: it is more expensive though…
Well, that’s it for now – not a lot of information I admit, but hopefully enough for you to think about and to consider…
$this->hasFlavr() ? $nom->nom('nom') : $want->doNot()
Source: QDB
Yep, it’s official – I’m now 29 years old and just working through the first few hours of my thirtieth year of this incarnation and no, I won’t tell you which bank I bank with (hello UFies! 🙂 ).
I didn’t do too badly – got a few cards, got some money (which will come in very useful at the moment: with becoming a contractor just at the time the PHP contract market appears to have dried up means I’m pushing my overdraft to it’s limits!) and my other half treated me to see Superhero Movie (reasonably ok – but Leslie “Airplane!/Naked Gun” Nielsen had a smallish part, Brent “Data” Spiner had a smaller one, Robert “Airplane!” Hays had an even smaller one, and Craig “US Red Dwarf Lister” Bierko, Dan “Homer Simpson” Castellaneta and Pamela “Baywatch” Anderson had even smaller parts: if they all had larger parts and said more then two sentences each it might have been a bit better, but it wasn’t a too bad Superman spoof except for the OTT Stephen Hawkin bit which had parts in bad taste and the necrophillia and beasility references which us think made it warrant a higher than 12a rating) and then to a carvery meal at the Toby Carvery at the Foxhunter Roundabout in Enderby (despite her not liking carverys).
Not a too bad day overall then despite the extra aging!