Features Provided by Accounting Services Firms

Payroll, including all payroll tax filings (Forms 941, 1099, W-2, etc.) Accounts payable and vendor files Accounts receivable and billing services

General ledger and financial statements Cash flow management Tax preparation

 

Bookkeeping Services

If your small business is not going to hire a bookkeeper as a staff Position, then searching for a good bookkeeping service will certainly be a wise decision for you. Don't try to handle the day-to-day bookkeeping activities that occur, because before you know it you will be spending too much of your valuable time on going through bank statements instead of concentrating your business.

Text №9. LOCAL GOVERNMENT

 

The Permanent Principles

Although the United Kingdom is a unitary state, not a federal one, a very large part of the public services are administered by elected local councils (local authorities) which together employ more than two million people.

London employs only one-third of this number. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems which are not quite the same as that of England and Wales.

All local authorities derive their existence and their powers and functions from Parliament and the central government. Parliament can take powers away or add to them, and it can even abolish any particular authority, or group or class of authorities if it wants to.

Although Parliament has these powers over local authorities, and has used them recently, it does not exercise any detailed supervision through any office of the nature of prefect or local governor. Many of the activities of local authorities are in fact supervised, advised or controlled by the central government. But in each area the elected council and its officers have direct relations with the various central government departments - though these may have regional offices through which some of the central-local relations are conducted.

Traditionally, the most important local area is the county. England has been divided into counties for more than 1,000 years ago. Most of these counties those near the outer edges of England, have the old word 'shir" in their names e.g. Yorkshire. In each county the Queen appoints a Lord Lieutenant as her representative, now only for ceremonial purposes.

Within the counties the oldest units are the parishes. These arc the local communities or villages which became established in the Middle Ages, each with a church as its focal point.

Until 1888 they were important units of administration. Although they still survive and have elected parish councils they have almost no power of their own.

From the early Middle Ages, as some villages grew into towns, the Crown gave them 'charters of incorporation' as 'boroughs' or 'cities', with their own mayors and councils.

 

Text №10. LONDON

Greater London, with nearly seven million people, consists of thirty-two 'London boroughs' and the City of London. Most of these boroughs have between 150,000 and 300,000 people. The best known

of these is the City of Westminster. At the centre the City of London

survives as an independent unit, with less than 10,000 resident

inhabitants, half a million office workers by day and a few thousand

visitors to the Tower, Guildhall and St. Paul's Cathedral at weekends.

The Lord Mayor of London is concerned only with this small area, in

all other parts the boroughs' elected councils to run all the services except

a few which necessarily concern them all. The buses and underground

railways are now run by the London Transport Executive, responsible

to the central government, and the Home Secretary is in charge of the

Metropolitan Police (the police force in London).

A London Residuary Body was set up to manage the business of handing over the County's functions and property to the boroughs or other agencies.

Shire-'counties' of England outside London consist of thirty-nine shire' counties. Many of these are the old historic or geographic counties though the smallest have been joined together.

The thirty-nine 'shire counties are responsible for the main local functions, such as education, social services and police. Each is divided into 'district' which provide housing, refuse collection and other services best managed on a smaller scale. In general, most towns with more than about 80,000 people within these counties have become districts, but outside these towns the district divisions arc new creations, normally including a few towns and several dozen rural parishes, all of which have elected councils but very few functions. Some districts are called by the names of their biggest towns, others have newly invented names chosen by their councils, often after prolonged argument.