Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

hjd

PasturesNew wrote: »

That's what I currently use.... I do all my accounts in £s, I receive 4-5 currencies, which I change into £s.

The biggest mental gymnastics I have is if I receive, say, US$200, then spend US$40 and US$10 when it comes to do the accounting bit it should read: Turnover $200, expenses $50, convert $150 to £ - but I have to convert the $200 and the $40 and the $10 as they are separate items (turnover, expense, expense ... resulting in profit). But as those three events could have happened at different rates, I kind of worry that I might be out by tuppence and will end up in jail

I guess sticking with Excel is OK/fine.

Eidt: What I mean is, it's the difference between declaring an income of $200 ... then expenses of $50 (at unknown exchange rates as it was never exchanged). -v- simply declaring $150 income (with no expenses) converted to £s and "ignoring" the expenses.

But the tax return wants to know: total turnover.... total expenses.... total profit.

Still not sure I explained that properly...

I understand (I think!)
Strictly you do need to separate income and expenses so that turnover is gross not net. You can decide how you convert the figures though. Either take the conversion as actual on the day that you receive it (so you would have the amount in £ you are paid by Paypal, irrespective of the $ amount) and then either convert expenses at the actual rate on the day they were paid, or use the same rate as Paypal used when you get the income.
An alternative is to keep separate records in each currency (so a $ sales/expenses/net, then say a € sales/expenses/net). Keep those records in excel. At the end of the accounts year then convert using the average exchange rate for the year. You can then add all the converted figures together to give your "global" figures.
Hope I have explained it right...the main thing is to be consistent, and obviously the best method for you may depend on exchange rate fluctuations.
I use http://www.oanda.com/currency/average for the average calculations.

misskool

lostinrates wrote: »

My lawnmower was returned from repair and servicing a few weeks ago and today seemed the day to use it.....

Grrr, the fault it went in for is still there. The drive belt for the blade keeps hopping off. Dh is trying to get it back on now as the shop is closed at weekends. He is a dab hand and getting it on, but he shouldn't have to.


Meanwhile heating people trying to re write history ATM so that needed to be knocked on the head. (not being a nice person comes so much more naturally to me at times) and our woodpellet delivery (goodness only knows why we are feeding pellets to the thing when it doesn't work adaquately) has been delayed, so I need to go and buy some woodpellets.

Dh and I cannot agree what to have for supper. My suggestion of 'soup' went down like a lead balloon.

is it still economical to fix the lawnmover? it appears to spend more time being fixed than being used. although the grass at the moment must be absolutely sodden.

and give it to the heating people. i'm sure between you and dh, they are going to have wished they found a solution faster.

Supper can be a mixed plate? we often have those although for tonight, it's a brisket roast with potatoes and veg.

zagubov

Masomnia wrote: »

Thanks, I'll be needing that myself soon.

....
I used to work in a garage and helped out with MOTs for a few weeks, and I saw one car fail its emissions test in that time, and it was a clapped out old Ford.

My earler post had a bad link- fixed it so this is the page about MOTs.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

is it still economical to fix the lawnmover? it appears to spend more time being fixed than being used. although the grass at the moment must be absolutely sodden.

and give it to the heating people. i'm sure between you and dh, they are going to have wished they found a solution faster.

Supper can be a mixed plate? we often have those although for tonight, it's a brisket roast with potatoes and veg.

We had the 'is it economical' discussion with them before servicing, they said yes (and they sell second hand ones so....). Also, the work is under warranty so this time yes!

I think, but not sure we are having. MUSHROOMS for supper. Probably mushroom risotto.

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

I hope your family were ok when the cyclone went through (cyclone = hurricane, it's a different word for the same thing). From what I've seen the waters rose quickly but washed through pretty quickly too as the ground wasn't saturated like in 2011.

BOM are now putting out tornado forecasts for the region:

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDQ20032.html

Those things bother me as they just spring up and go away again. There's not necessarily anything for the emergency services to come looking for immediately. At least they can track cyclones.

Thanks Gen. There are rumours on Twitter that a tornado has hit Hervey Bay, but that is not substantiated and one feed is denying. The emergency svs in Qld has put out an announcement saying if you see tornadoes etc, call the police emergency number, don't stick a post on Twitter. The road between Maryborough and Hervey Bay now cut off, as anticipated.

mystic_trev

zagubov wrote: »

My earler post had a bad link- fixed it so this is the page about MOTs.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot

I use Just MOT's for £27 but I think they're only in the SE. They do 'what it says on the tin' If you check lights, wipers and tyres before the MOT, you've a good chance the car will pass.

GDB2222

michaels wrote: »

I hope that is them paying you and not the other way around.

Also AX - wow anything is going to feel like a huge step into the 21st (20th?) century after that.

It definitely is worth at least £100, judging by what I got for the Punto.

michaels

misskool wrote: »

oh, so that's what it's like to have power steering

i have a proper car now. terrified of denting it though.

Congratulations MsK, all done with out any of the silly procrastinating and debating whether I had the best possible deal that I would have done.

I'm also glad you aren't driving an AX any more, I think they were one of the lightest (ie flimsiest) cars ever built. I definitely would not have wanted to be in an accident in one.

GDB2222

misskool wrote: »

he came, paid me £90 and took it away. putting the form into the envelope for DVLA now.

Gone to be broken down for parts I think. He got a free half tank of petrol because I had no idea how to siphon it out.

To be honest, it's sat on the side of the road for almost 2 weeks not working Being rid of it was worth anything more. I know it sounds terribly un-MSE but it was the only way I could deal with it.

If it's any consolation, getting the petrol out of a car these days is a real palaver! I tried following Michaels' suggestion of disconnecting the fuel filter, only to find that the fuel filter is under the rear seat. In the end I broke the petrol inlet pipe off the fuel injection and hot-wired the petrol pump, so it pumped he petrol into a 5 litre can.

Not for the faint-hearted, and my how people would have laughed if I had burnt to death!

GDB2222

By the way, darling daughter's Nissan Micra has been written off in really quite an inventive way! She took it into a garage for servicing, and, whilst they were extracting the oil, the machine they were using exploded and sprayed about 50 L of oil over the car. To make matters worse, the windows were open.

It is remarkably difficult to remove all traces of oil. For example, the surface of the seats looks clean enough, but the oil has settled into the foam padding. Oil has penetrated the seals between the window and the door, so the window gets smeared with oil every time it goes up and down.

Anyway, it is not our problem. She is getting some cash, and the garage's insurers are getting the car, which will no doubt appear on the market as a category D write-off.