Accounts
We can prepare the full range of accounts that your business
may need, whether for HM Revenue & Customs, Companies House, or banks and
other lenders.
Preparing your accounts gives us a good
understanding of how your business works, which we can then use to give you
business advice on matters such as marketing, pricing, staffing, reducing costs
and keeping organised. Our preferred approach, particularly with new clients, is therefore to
complete your accounts soon after the end of your accounting year.
This also means that we can give you plenty of notice about your forthcoming tax liabilities
(the payment date does not change), or alert you to any problems so they can be sorted
out sooner rather than later.
Where the accounts
are being prepared for tax purposes, we claim all available expenses and
capital allowances, and discuss with you any areas where it looks like
tax-deductible expenses may be missing.
We can also prepare internal management accounts for any
interval you choose (eg. monthly, quarterly or 6-monthly), so that you can
keep on top of how your business is progressing and act accordingly.
Frequently asked questions about accounts
What do you need from me to do my accounts?
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Different businesses vary so much in what records are relevant, and how
complex the records need to be. However, for your accounting year
(which often, but not always, ends on 31 March or 5 April), and for shortly afterwards we
usually need:
- Bank statements for all bank accounts that were part of the business
(please make sure that they are actually all there, and that they cover from
the very first day to very last day of your year).
- Cheque books and pay-in books for all such bank statements.
- Statements for all credit cards used in the business.
- Details of your income, such as your sales invoices or income records.
- Details of your expenses, such as invoices or any expense records you keep.
- If you are VAT registered and have prepared your own VAT returns: copies of your
returns, together with calculations which show how your figures
were worked out.
- Agreements for any loans or hire-purchase agreements taken out.
- If you employ staff and operate your own payroll: all the payroll records.
- If you work under the Construction Industry Scheme: all your CIS vouchers for the tax year to
5 April.
- Your record of business miles travelled.
- Details of any vehicles or equipment you have introduced into the business.
- If you have kept any records on computer, then please
them to us or let us have a disk.
Don't worry if your accounts records are poor, in a bad state or if there is
information missing. We will have a look at what you have got, ask you
some questions about your business, and then get on with the job.
I'm a sole trader, and I'm not interested in writing up full double-entry records. I just want to present my
accounts to you once a year. How can I best organise this?
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Again, all businesses are different, but our clients have found some of the following suggestions helpful.
- If you receive very few invoices and receipts during the year, get hold of a large envelope or folder, write the dates of your
accounting year on it, then during the year put all business records straight into the envelope as soon as you get them.
As soon as your accounting year finishes, start a new envelope.
- Buy a large diary, then each day or week, make a note of your income and expenses for that day or week. You can staple
receipts to the pages, or keep them in separate envelopes.
- If you pay any money into your bank account that is not taxable income (for example, a loan from someone,
or a birthday present), then make a note of it on the statement. Otherwise, you might end up paying tax on it.
- Rather than writing up your record manually, enter it on a spreadsheet program (such as Excel), even
if it is just a very simple list.
- If you produce your sales invoices on computer, then keep a copy of each invoice as a separate file
on your computer, rather than printing it then overwriting it each time.
- If you are set up for internet banking, then regularly save a record of your
bank statements to your computer (use the 'Save as PDF' or 'Print as PDF' option). These are just
as good as bank-printed statements for our purposes, and can save a lot of time and expense
if any of the printed statements are missing when we come to prepare the accounts.
Note however that if you are trading near the VAT registration limit, which is currently turnover of
£67,000 per year, then you will need to look at your turnover every month to check whether you need to register.
Discovering at the end of the year that you should have registered several months ago can be very costly.
Got another question? Email us and we'll try to help.
