Send Invoice may be based out of London, but our users hail from across the globe.

Here are some stats showing the breakdown for our major regions:

United Kingdom: 36%
Rest of Europe: 12%
United States / Canada: 15%
Rest of World: 37%

We’ve now got users in more than 100 countries, from Argentina to Zambia. There are no countries starting with the letter ‘x’, so unfortunately the claim to cover every letter of the alphabet cannot be made – but it is at least close!

So, where are you from, Sir?

We’re now on the chrome web store, which means it’s even easier to launch Send Invoice from your browser.

Check it out here

We have this month revamped Send Invoice’s customer section. You’ll find an enhanced interface that makes it a breeze to manage extensive contact details on your customers. In addition to name, position, company and address details, you can now add multiple e-mail addresses, phone numbers, Twitter accounts and even instant messenger details. You can also add notes as background information on your client.

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The customer view depends on what details you’ve added for the customers. For instance, if you’ve added a Twitter handle for the contact, we’ll pull their logo and description from Twitter.

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Stay tuned for more exciting changes and integrations in the customer section of Send Invoice.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback so do get in touch!

From 1 April 2011 all UK companies have to submit their company tax return in iXBRL format for any accounting period ending after 31 March 2010. Most medium-to-large companies use one of the major accounting software packages, and these now offer iXBRL output for tax return statements. However, where does this leave small businesses?

First, what is iXBRL?

iXBRL stands for Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language and is an international standard that has been adopted by HMRC for ‘tagging’ of financial data.

Why is it important?

What this means in practice is that regardless of how you format your accounts or whether you use different labels to the company next door, HMRC can machine-read your accounts and easily aggregate and compare at a detailed level the vast amount of data it receives from companies each year. It’s greatly increases the accuracy and speed of processing, and allows HMRC to automatically check what you submit against e.g. other companies in the same industry.

How do I submit my Corporation Tax in iXBRL format?

This depends on how you’ve organised your business finances.

If you’ve got an accountant for your small business you do not need to give iXBRL a second thought as he or she will have already acquired software to manage your returns in this format.

If you have a small business and decided to go down the route of managing your company tax affairs yourself, you should consider using HMRC’s online filing software. There is a demo available showing you how this works. The filing software is only suitable for companies with comparably simple accounts and tax affairs. Note that you must have registered for Online Services and enrolled for Corporation Tax Online service before you can submit your Company Tax Return. The online filing software require you to enter your company information, financial details and computations into a PDF, which is then used to submit the information to HMRC.

So where does this leave us?

iXBRL is the future for business reporting in the UK, and the future is here now for Corporation Tax. Small business also have to adopt this standard and should make the most of the guidance available on the HMRC website and seek professional advise where appropriate

What are the new year resolutions you’ve set for your small business or venture?

Here at Send Invoice, we’ve decided on three that we’ve posted on the wall and will be regularly tracking against.

Resolution #1 – Increase Social Media Presence

Hand’s up, we admit it – this is on area in which we’re not performing. We’re on Twitter, we’ve got a blog, but there’s so much more we can do. First, we’ll ensure we regularly post on this blog and on Twitter. Second, we’ll build our presence on other sites and networks.

Resolution #2 – Shout more

One thing we’ve done well in 2011 is to listen to our customers. Most, if not all, new or enhanced features this year have been built following user feedback. We’ve got a long roadmap of new features yet to be launched, either because they’re still on the drawing board or they’re being tested to ensure robustness before we make them live. We regularly bump features up the priority list based on user feedback. However, we’ve not been very good at shouting about it. In fact, several customers have pointed out that they “didn’t realise” that certain things were possible with Send Invoice. That’s why, in 2011, we’ll commence regular ‘newsletter-style’ e-mails to our customers, highlighting new features and communicating what to expect next.

Resolution #3 – Grow our business

While we’re pleased with the pace of growth seen in 2010, there’s scope for more. The business model is highly scalable and the investment in developing an even better product is made possible with the revenue generated from new customers. A significant proportion of new customers join Send Invoice because it has been recommended by a friend or business associate. We’d like to reward our customers for recommending our product, and will be launching a great referral scheme in 2011. A good chunk of revenue from new customers will be paid to the referrer each month – it’ll be our way of saying ‘thank you’. If you’d like to be part of the group testing this before we roll it out to everyone, contact support (-a-) sendinvoice.co.uk

Season’s Greetings from Send Invoice!

Best wishes to all our readers and customers. In the spirit of giving, we are offering a free 6-month subscription to our popular ‘Professional’ plan to five new customers. All you have to do to be considered in the draw is to use the code XMAS2010 when registering for a free or paid account

The small print: One entry per customer only. Entry by 31 December 2010. Winners informed by 5 January 2011. No purchase necessary.