Exactly What's Included?

Site Design & Build

All of the following is included in the standard website package. There is no set-up fee and a monthly fee of just £99 plus VAT (£95 for Mercia members).

  • Choice of Designs, Matched To Your Branding. We offer a choice of web designs and use your corporate colours, logos and any imagery you use to customise the website to your firm. If you don't have a clear corporate identity, then we'll add our standard look and feel to your website. And if you don't like what we've done .... then just let us know and we'll change it. We'll only be happy with the site when you're happy with it, and it's all included in the price!

  • Tailoring. The demo sites show some sample standard pages - if you want to add other pages, change the page titles, add new menu items, change the images, etc, then just let us know and we'll amend the site accordingly.

  • Biennial Re-Design. Every two years we'll offer you the opportunity to have a freshen up of your website or to swap to one of our other designs. This will keep your site fresh and avoid the design becoming dated.

  • Bespoke Design. We will match the design of the website to your company image and branding, and 99% of our customers are happy with this. This is included in our standard package which has no set-up fee. However, if you want to create a unique looking website that uses our systems then click here to find out about our bespoke design options.

  • Content Provided. When you place your order you'll be sent pre-written content relevant to your particular firm (home page, about us and our services). You simply edit this text making as many changes as you like. You don't have to get it done all in one go (although there really isn't that much to do!). Just send the important information back to us and then change anything else at anytime once the website is up and running. When you return the text to us we'll build your new website. It'll be live within seven working days.

Resources

  • Factsheets. The site includes over 70 factsheets, packed full of useful and interesting information for your website visitors. The factsheets have been written by experts at Mercia in a language your clients will understand. They are always relevant and regularly technically updated, when new topics are also added. These factsheets cover starting up in business, general business, corporate and business tax, VAT, employment issues, employment and related matters, personal tax, capital taxes, pensions, ICT and specialist areas. To see an example click here.

  • Online Calculators. A range of interactive calculators including mortgages, company car BIKs, company car fuel BIKs, loans, APR, VAT, payslip checker and stamp duty.

  • Tax Calendar. The key tax deadlines (personal and companies / employers) linked to taxREMINDER email reminders.

  • Market Data. Contains historical interest rates, exchange rates, FTSE rates and other vital statistics.

  • Useful Links. Relevant business and finance websites.

  • Tax Rates & Allowances. Full tax tables.

  • Downloadable Forms. HMRC and Companies House forms.

  • Budget Summaries. Mercia's Budget update - emailed out to your clients and available in your site automatically the day after the Budget (Autumn and Spring).

News

  • Business & Accountancy News. eNEWS is a series of 10-15 business, accounting and taxation news items added to your website each month. To see an example click here.

  • Live News Feeds. LiveNEWS feeds news headlines and market information directly into your website. Click on the headline and a window will open with the full story. The news is updated directly into your website every 10 minutes and is sourced from a number of agencies - including the BBC and Reuters. There are various categories of news, including business, personal, market news, world news, technology news and sports news. You can simply switch on and off individual news feeds in your online admin area. To see an example click here.

  • Hot Potatoes. If an important topical news item comes up (eg Arctic Systems, A Day, CIS, etc) then we'll highlight the story in your website and provide more information.

Maintenance

  • Always Up-To-Date. Once online we'll manage the website for you. Having an out-of-date website can be very damaging for your business but with Mercia totalSOLUTION your website content will always be up-to-date.

  • Updating Service. We don't expect you to learn complicated online website content management systems, we just ask you to email any changes to us and we'll process them for you within two working days. And you can send as many updates as often as you like, all included as part of the £99 monthly fee.

  • Technical Resources Always Up-To-Date. The technical resources within the site will be updated automatically for you by Mercia without you even having to think about it ... and we'll let you know every time we've updated the site through our news system. The factsheets are regularly updated. The tax rates and allowances are updated at the start of the new fiscal year. The market data is updated every month. The Budget reports are added to your website the day after the Budget (in the Spring and Autumn).

Email Newsletters & The Budget

  • Monthly Email Newsletter. eNEWS is a monthly newswire, written by Mercia's technical experts, covering recent tax developments and other business issues. We'll automatically post these stories on your website AND email them out (in the form of a branded monthly eNEWs newsletter) to everyone who's registered on your website (and opted in to receive them). If you want you can bulk register your clients / prospects / contacts via contactMANAGER, our online administration system.

  • Your Branding Included. The email will be sent out as if it's come from you, with your logos and contact information. The news stories will include a headline and description with a link back to your website for the full story. So not only will it keep your clients / prospects / contacts informed, but it will also drive them back to look at your website. To see an example click here.

  • Budget & Pre-Budget Reports. The day after the annual Budget and Pre-Budget reports are announced we will email all of your contacts with a detailed summary of the announcements, linking to your website for more information. Again the emails look like they've been sent by you and will hit your clients' inboxes before other firms are even starting to put their reports in the post.

taxREMINDER

  • Tax Reminder Emails. taxREMINDER sends regular emails to your clients / prospects / contacts reminding them of the key tax deadlines and events.

  • Online Registration. taxREMINDER uses the online tax calendar in the resources section which shows the key business and personal tax deadlines (click here to see this). A visitor to your website can register via an online form to receive these regular email reminders.

  • Automatically Sent. Two weeks before the tax deadline, taxREMINDER sends out an email to those who've registered. This email is addressed from you, includes your company logo, contact information and describes the up and coming deadline and is generated without you having to lift a finger!

DOCmanager (New!)

  • Secure Area. DOCmanager is our secure document storage and exchange system. You get full administration rights which allows you to give your clients access to their secure area of your website.

  • Space Allocation. You'll receive 250mb of space as part of the website monthly fee.

  • More Information. Full details can be found by clicking here

Registration

  • Registration System With Freebies. Visitors to your website are given numerous opportunities to register on your website. Registration will give visitors access to over 70 FREE Mercia factsheets, use of taxREMINDER, a monthly email newsletter, Budget and Pre-Budget reports delivered to their inbox the day after the budget and bonus freebies (FREE resources which include a 25 page tax planning guide and factsheets covering purchasing property overseas, Excel tips, Sage function keys and modernising company law).

  • Email Sent to Registrant. Once users have registered the full website will be available to them. The website will show a welcome message with their name in it and issue a unique login that they can use to log back into your website at anytime.

  • Email Sent to You. Upon registration, the system will send an email to you with the registrant's contact details. The registrant will also receive an email thanking them for registering and including the freebies that the site promised them. If they've registered to receive eNEWS and taxREMINDERS then these will automatically be sent out on the appropriate dates.

Managing Contacts

  • Online Contacts Database. contactMANAGER is a database of everyone who's registered on your website. Through an online administration system you can access the contact details of everyone registered on your website. Here you can:

    - add new users
    - bulk upload a contact list (or email the list to us and we'll do this for you)
    - edit the profiles of those who've registered
    - download all the contact details to update your own systems.

  • Sign-Up Users For Email Services. When you add / upload new users you can sign them up to receive your monthly newsletters and taxREMINDERs.

  • Unsubscribe System. Each email has an unsubscribe link to give recipients the freedom to unsubscribe from these services should they wish to.

accountantSEO (New!)

  • Search Engine Optimisation. Each site is carefully built to make sure it's easy for search engines to catalogue. This way you'll list more highly in their rankings. Also, it's content rich and full of the latest information, giving lots of information for the search engine robots to catalogue.

  • Managed Service. Our SEO manager will laise with you to find out the key phrases you would like to be listed under in the search engines. We'll then optimise your site for these phrases, reporting to you on a monthly basis on the positioning of those phrases across the major search engines.

  • Behind the Scenes. We have created a wealth of systems which will work to get your site to the top of the listings. This includes automatic submission of site maps to Google, use of Google analytics, directories and blogging, etc.

eFORMS (New!)

  • Bespoke Forms. eFORMS is our own system which allows for the easy creation of website forms. It can be used for data capture, registration, seminar bookings, questionnaires, recruitment forms, free offers, etc

  • Packed with Functionality. There's so much in eFORMS that we could write pages on it! The key features are:

    - the forms match the style of your website
    - the data is captured into a database which can be exported as a spreadsheet
    - equations can be used to allow calculations within the form
    - custom emails can be generated on submission of the form.

  • Online Payment. eFORMS allows for integration with PayPal and Worldpay to allow you to take payments online.

Hosting, Domains & Stats

  • Hosting Included. We will host your website on our own servers making sure that it's available 24/7. We already host hundreds of websites and have comprehensive systems in place to make sure your site is always online and regularly backed up.

  • Domain Included. A domain name is the core of your online identity. It's the address that web surfers use to find your website, eg www.abcaccountants.co.uk. If you don't already have a domain name then we'll supply one (of your choice). We'll also provide you with an email address to receive email which uses this domain in the address (eg info@abcaccountants.co.uk).

  • Already Have a Domain? If you already own a domain then we can use this as the address for your new Mercia totalSOLUTION site, and we'll sort out all the technical issues for you to make this happen.

  • Web Stats Included. We provide comprehensive online website statistics so you can track how much your site is being used and who's using it. Find out which pages are the most popular, how often people come back to your site and how long they spend on your site. To see an example of these stats click here.

Accessibility

  • Compliance. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 was introduced with the intention of comprehensively tackling the discrimination which many disabled people face. Changes to the DDA that came into effect in 1999 and 2004 have now created a legal duty for websites to be made accessible. The definition of accessibility includes blind and partially sighted users.

  • Text Only Pages. In order to comply with this legislation we have developed a new service called click4text which simply translates your website into a text only version, without having to maintain a separate text only site. It can be accessed by a text only link at the top of each page. Different contrast options and font sizes are available for partially sighted users and the text is generated in such a way that their own browser settings will define the text size they require. The pages are also suitable for screen-reader software (used by blind users) to read.

  • Increase Your Site Availability. click4text is included as standard in all of our websites, ensuring not only that your website is compliant but also information about your services is easily available to the disabled user market. The text only version of your site will also work very well on mobile and handheld devices. The number of people who access the Internet using hand-held devices and mobile phones is growing - did you know that over 13 billion pages were accessed via mobile phones in 2004 (source: Mobile Data Association)?

Other

  • Welcome to Our Website Mailing. Once online you can send us a list of your clients' email addresses and we'll send out a "Please take a look at our new website" email to each of them. The email briefly describes the features, benefits and tools available on your site. As with all of our mailings, the email will look like it's come from you in an attractive HTML format.

  • Website Search. Every page on the site has a search field at the bottom. A user can enter the topic they're interested in and it will search your site for that topic. First of all it will list pages relevant to your services before it lists results from the factsheet and resources sections.

  • Christmas eCARD (New!). Each Christmas we'll create an eCARD for you and send it to your contacts. This can provide a seasonal message and, if you wish, details of your office opening hours over the Christmas period. It will also include your logo and corporate colours. We won't charge you for this service, but will ask you to make a charitable donation in lieu of using this service. In 2008 we had over £9,000 pledged to charity by users of this service.

  • flipBOOKS (New!). We can turn your PDFs into fancy eBOOKS. To see an example click here. Try moving your mouse over the top right hand corner of the page until the page folds, then click on it with your left mouse button and pull it to the left to open the page. To zoom in and just just double click on the page.

  • Free Directory Listing. A free listing in our online directory of accountants. Click here to view the directory.

How Much Does It Cost?

No set-up fee.
£99 per month plus VAT (£95 for Mercia members).
There is a minimum contract period of 12 months.

How To Place An Order

Click here to add a website to your Shopping Basket. When you've chosen everything you need click on the shopping basket button and checkout. You can pay by cheque or direct debit.

Note: Order two or more services at the same time and receive a 10% discount on the total order value.

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