Compliance Services
Compliance services are the boring bits that are a necessary evil. The encompass:-
| Basic book-keeping and payroll preparation |
| Annual accounts preparation and submission to Companies House (if necessary) |
| Tax return preparation and submission |
Without these basics, you're business won't survive - simple as that! HM Revenue & Customs and Companies House (if a limited company) both have draconian powers to charge you penalties, surcharges and interest if you don't prepare and submit the necessary accounts and returns. Companies House have the power to strike off the company and HM Revenue & Customs will ultimately press for bankruptcy if these basics aren't kept up to date.
Seeing as all businesses have no choice but to "comply" with the rules and regulations if they wish to survive, let us help you minimise the time, cost, and disruption these activities will cause you.
| We can help you set up basic book-keeping and
accounting systems - we can...
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| If you don't want to do it yourself - we
can...
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Generally speaking, you, the business owner, will be responsible for the basic book-keeping, payroll and quarterly VAT returns, and your accountant will use your books to prepare the end of year accounts and returns. These tasks are flexible, you may want your accountant or book-keeper to do the payroll and VAT returns for example. We can help you understand what is required and help you decide where to draw the line between what you'll do and what you want us to do.
In our opinion, good housekeeping is the key to good book-keeping. Keep it up to date, keep all paperwork filed neatly in order, properly balance your cash and bank accounts (we can help show you how), and you're 90% there. A lot of people tell us that they hate book-keeping, but the fact is it isn't the actual book-keeping that is the problem, it is a lack of organisation, with paperwork randomly strewn about the office and car, using the wrong chequebook, etc. Adopt good housekeeping practices, and the book-keeping follows through.
We recommend the following simple procedures:-
| Never mix business and private transactions through the same bank or credit card account - get a separate bank and credit card account for you to use for ALL your business transactions. When you need to use personal money or need to draw from the business, just do a simple bank transfer from one account to the other. |
| If you deal in cash, make sure that ALL cash is banked intact without being used for wages, petty cash, a chip-butty, or whatever else - the tax inspector wants to see proper control of cash and the simplest way is simply to make sure that the amount banked tallies exactly with the sales invoice. |
| Avoid paying for anything in cash - use your business credit card for fuel, stationery, supplies, etc (virtually every business accepts credit cards these days) and use the bank account debit card where credit cards aren't accepted, i.e. for postage or other sundry small items. |
| By avoiding cash, you have a paper record of your transactions via your statements - if you pay in cash and the paperwork is washed in your Jeans pocket, you've just lost the expenses claim and won't be able to balance your cash. |
| Where there is a mix of business and private use of an expense (i.e. home telephone or broadband, a private car, etc), don't confuse the issue by trying to pay a bit privately and a bit through the business - best to pay privately, but keep the paperwork to give to your accountant at the year end to make the claim. |
| Be organised - set up files for your invoices and put them in date order - keep unpaid invoices in a separate section at the front, to keep you aware of them, and only file them in order when they are paid. |
| Never pay "round sums" - if you can't pay all the invoices from a supplier, select a few that you can afford and send the exact cheque for those only - keeps your and their records nice and simple. |
