The Government has decided to extend the Help to Grow: Digital scheme to businesses with at least one employee – allowing 1.2 million businesses to benefit from funding.
Eligible business can access discounts worth up to £5,000 on approved software that helps with the management of their operations, including online accounting applications and systems.
The funding is part of the Government’s plans to boost productivity and growth among UK SMEs but was only previously available to businesses with more than five employees.
By extending the eligibility criteria an additional 760,000 micro-businesses can access this useful funding, which can also be used to purchase eCommerce software now.
More than 30 software solutions from 14 leading technology suppliers can now be purchased using funding from the scheme.
As well as supporting the purchase of technology, the Help to Grow: Digital scheme can also be used to fund one-to-one advice for SMEs on how best adopt and implement digital technology.
Announcing the extension of this scheme, Business Minister Lord Callanan said: “Boosting productivity isn’t some abstract concept to be sniffed at – for individual SMEs it means bigger sales and breaking into new markets. It can add £100 billion to the British economy overall, creating jobs and opportunity across the country.
“Adopting the latest technology is proven to help businesses make the most of their potential, and by making more than one million firms eligible for the scheme, we’re helping to level up the UK economy and bolster the ability of our businesses to compete with the best worldwide.”
The Digital scheme works alongside the Help to Grow: Management scheme, which offers to fund 90 per cent of the cost of 50 hours of leadership and management training across 12 weeks for business leaders.
If you would like assistance to make use of either of these Government-backed schemes, including use of the Digital scheme to purchase online accounting software, please contact us.