Bookkeeping Services for Small Business

Why does a business need bookkeeping?

Every business has a legal obligation to keep records of their transactions. There is no set format that must be adhered to but at the very least records of all sales, expenses and purchases should be kept.

Unfortunately if a business fails to keep adequate records then they can be fined up to £3,000 by HMRC along with an additional tax bill if the inadequate records resulted in an incorrect tax return being filed.

Aside from the obligations, keeping good records is an essential part of running a successful business. When good records are kept the business owner knows at any given time, how much is owed from customers, how much is owed to suppliers, how profitable the business is and how much cash is available. This means better decision making can be made and improvements in cash flow and profitability can be made if necessary.

Why outsource your bookkeeping?

Outsourcing your bookkeeping to professionals such as The Accountancy Partnership not only removes one of the biggest headaches involved with managing a companies financial affairs, but also offers a multitude of benefits such as:

• The most appropriate bookkeeping system being used. We will review your business type, circumstances and requirements and then select the best bookkeeping software package to suit. For the majority of our clients our very own cloud based software, Pandle, is the perfect choice.
• Peace of mind. As a full accountancy practice, our clerks have many years bookkeeping experience to ensure fast and accurate data entry, resulting in a correct and complete set of accounts and tax return at the end of the financial period. This is even more important if HMRC where to select your business for an investigation as there is a much less chance of discrepancies being found provided the records given to us have been accurate.
• Tax savings. As we complete your bookkeeping your dedicated payroll clerk will constantly be looking for any potential efficiencies which may result in less tax being owed to HMRC. Spotting these inefficiencies and making changes early on can result in significant savings for you

How does the process work?

We have gone to great lengths to make the process as easy as possible for our clients. Paper records can be sent to us using our pre-paid mailbags that we provide for free upon request. Simply deliver the mailbag to any Post Office and it will be sent to us fully insured and trackable via Special Delivery and arrive with us before 1PM the next day.

For electronic records (such as invoices sent as PDFs) you simply forward them on to your assigned bookkeeping clerk via email.

Once you have decided to appoint us to complete your bookkeeping we will ask you to send us your records at a suitable frequency. So for example, if we complete monthly management accounts for you then we would ask for your records monthly. If we take care of your quarterly VAT returns, then we would ask for your records quarterly. If you are not VAT registered then we may only need to ask for records annually.

Once your records have been received we will input the transactions into bookkeeping software which (if using our cloud based system) you can then access at any time. We will then use the finalised bookkeeping to complete your VAT returns (if applicable), accounts and tax returns.

Can I do my own bookkeeping?

Whilst outsourcing your bookkeeping does have its clear advantages there can also be advantages to completing your own bookkeeping:

• Cost savings. If you are just starting out or are a very small business it might make more sense for you to complete the bookkeeping yourself in order to save money.
• More up to date information. You can complete your bookkeeping more regularly than we can. If you complete your bookkeeping daily or weekly you will have access to near real time information concerning your business’ finances, such as how much cash is on hand or how much a particular customer owes to you. It can also be beneficial to complete your bookkeeping more frequently as you are less likely to forget what some transactions relate to, ultimately meaning less detective work!
• Being aware of how much is being spent. When completing your own bookkeeping you are much more aware of how much is being spent and in which areas, and so it’s much easier to quickly spot where potential savings can be made.

How much does all this cost?

We charge a fixed fee of 45p for every transaction processed. This fee is charged monthly. So for example if you have 100 business transactions per month we would charge £45 per month.

If your business requires more complex bookkeeping services such as currency conversions then we may charge an hourly rate instead. However all fees are agreed up front, before any work is started.

Get in touch to find out more »