This threatens to be a non-glorious year for businesses of all sizes. The serious possibility of war and the insecurity whether it happens or not, the economic climate and the level of consumer debt all bode ill. There are some predictable events, though, that will happen regardless and can be helped by technology. Here are a handful of them.

· January 31: It's that tax return time and, oh look, it's tomorrow. This basically means taking your tax return if you have one (and most business owners and all self-employed people will) to your local tax office with a cheque for your first payment this year. Packages that will help if you've left it this late include Microsoft Excel if your finances are straightforward and you can calculate the amount owing by yourself, or Intuit's Taxcalc and similar products if you can't (for a more in-depth explanation see On top of the form, Business Solutions, September 26 2002). If your books are not yet in order then forget the software, you need Harry Potter with his magic wand. And an escape capsule.

· February-March: Ideally you will be working on cash flow forecasts for the coming financial year during this period, except many small businesses don't have the money or inclination to produce detailed forecasts in this way. One answer is to look at some of the cash flow systems available at low cost; IntelligentApps has one (www.intelligentapps.co.uk) for £99 per user, which is essentially a mega-tweaked version of Excel. The advantage is the low learning curve and access to the sort of sophisticated financials you'd normally associate with a much larger company.

· April: Depending on how you are set up, your tax year will almost certainly finish this month, and this would be a good time to re-evaluate the accounting system you use. Issues to consider include: Self-employed people might be using a personal finance package with invoicing added on. How satisfactory is this, and how simple is it to enter bills from suppliers you have yet to pay? It could be worth upgrading to a proper accounting system - TAS Books, Quickbooks, Instant Accounting, Simply Books and MYOB are all inexpensive and will handle everything you need.

How easy would it be to change your systems if you started employing someone, if you don't already? Check on the availability of a payroll module for the system you use, and if there isn't one look at changing again.

Will you be selling overseas this year, and will you need to set up multiple currency bank accounts as a result? Not all systems allow you to do this - double check that you will be equipped to cope.

· April: Related to the previous point, this year the flat-rate VAT system comes into effect for businesses with small turnovers. Forget the technology for the moment; accountants will be able to advise on whether this will or should apply to you, and how to amend your reporting to take account of it if so. If your accounts package calculates your VAT automatically make sure you're registered for updates now so that when the system changes you'll be brought into line without any extra charges, or if you were thinking of changing your accounts system anyway consider doing it now with something up to date.

· April again: April is when all the changes from the last Budget take effect - not to be confused with the Budget statement in November, which doesn't come into effect until it's morphed into a full-blown Budget later this year. They do it to confuse you - you're not paranoid, it's entirely personal. This makes April a very good time to chat with your accountant to ensure you are up to date, and to check your accounting system or payroll system is up to scratch. If this sounds like too much hassle it might be worth looking at MyBusiness (www.mybiz.co.uk) which will take your employees' gross salary, squirt them down a broadband connection to the MyBusiness server, which will process them according to up-to-the-minute regulations and send back the P60 you need to send off all the cheques.

· April yet again: All the corporate reporting has to happen here. Company returns can be done online and this will save time. The one not to do online, unless something dramatic changes, is your VAT return; for reasons that beggar belief, it's actually more expensive to do it that way than simply to send the paper form in.

· June/July: The UK is expected to adopt the European directive on intangible goods, which is going to be a riot if you buy and sell software, music, images or any other 'soft' goods online. The Americans are opposing it, but the principle will be that if you sell anything in this way it will be up to you to arrange the local sales tax. This should mean an end to the postman or courier turning up with your goods and a bill when you buy foreign software. On the other hand it means people with websites with pull-down menus allowing customers to select their home country will in theory need to know all of the local sales tax rates in all of those countries. And assuming America's one of them, that includes more than one rate of tax. Corporate tax software supplier Taxware has set up a pilot scheme in the US which allows for the automation of payment of different sales taxes between states, taking the onus off the trader; Customs and Excise is understood to be watching carefully to see whether an adapted version will work over here.

· July 31: Second payment of income tax for self-employed and anyone with a tax return.

· September 30: First of the tax deadlines for self-employed and company directors - if you're uncomfortable with calculating your tax liability, this is your deadline to get your tax return in. You will then receive a bill for January. Which is about where we came in...