How easy is it to switch Accountants?
It is incredibly easy and hassle free, at our initial meeting we will ask for certain information from you, once received we send this information to HMRC who then generate an Agents Authorisation code which is sent by post to either your home, business or registered office address within 7 -10 working days, once you receive this code you will need to pass it on to ourselves so that we can complete the authorisation process. Once this is complete you are now on our client list and we can start working together.
We also write to your previous Accountant for professional clearance and continuality documentation.
How can an Accountant help me?
An Accountant will provide you with not only initial but ongoing advise and planning to ensure you meet your legislative obligations and to be as tax efficient as possible especially as scenarios change.
Having an Accountant advising you allows you to get on with running and growing your business and during this process where needed, we can introduce you to a number of other trusted professionals to assist you.
What is the difference between an Accountant and a Bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper completes the day to day processing for the business such as invoicing, credit control and ensuring the ledgers are up to date.
An Accountant uses this information to compile the businesses financial statements to ensure they adhere to the current accounting standards and where applicable Companies House requirements, calculate any tax liabilities and offers ongoing advise and tax planning efficiencies.
Do I need to be a Limited company?
The answer is it depends, we will look at your situation and advise accordingly, as no two situations are exactly the same, the main consideration is tax efficiency and look at items such as profitability, other personal taxable income and partners income for this.
Some of the other factors to take into consideration are things such as what are your customers or potential customers requirements for their suppliers, a limited company allows for protection against personally owned assets, flexibility of when removing funds from the company and also certain information will be available to be viewed by the public in relation to the board, owners and structure of the company.
Can I complete my own Tax Return?
Yes, you can and we do support the small number of our clients who choose to complete their own Tax Return.
However, it can be noted that not everyone who completes their own Return is aware of the various allowable expenses and reliefs available and therefore are not as tax efficient as they should be.
This is where we can add value by advising on the expenses and reliefs available to make you more tax efficient and save money, also it removes the hassle for yourselves as filing the Return late or paying your liability late results in statutory penalties and interest being charged by HMRC.
What Accounting Software do you recommend?
As a practice we have experience in and work with many different accounting software programmes, the main and most popular products available are Sage Business Cloud, Sage 50, Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent. The majority of these if not all of them will allow you to have a free trial period.
We prefer to let our clients decide which software they want to use and are always available to assist and advise where required including setting up the software.