New Business Advice Please

[Kim1977]

Dear all,

I am a very experienced and qualified Bookkeeper and am now looking to start my own business offering a service of full Bookkeeping, Payroll, Self Assessment and VAT returns.

I am however stumped on how much I should or can charge? I would appreciate your help and guidence.

Thank you
Kim :|

[Mark CFL]

Hi Kim

From a users point of view we would want a fixed monthly charge. However most bookkeepers like to charge by the hour because they don't know how much work they will have to do week to week.

I would suggest that you promote yourself as charging a fixed monthly fee which will provide a USP. You could then visit a new client, cost it on a hourly basis and then covert it to a fixed fee with a provision that if there is any unexpected additional work then you can charged for it and that you can review your charges at any time. You would then have a 'menu' of charges for year end bits and add ons.

The other advantage of this is you can set up a direct debit which means you don't have to chase for payment.

My brother runs a small business (3 people) and he has been quoted £175 per month which he is very happy to pay.

I hope that this is clear and helps.

Regards

Mark

[kimteh]

I would suggest that you promote yourself as charging a fixed monthly fee which will provide a USP.

[harryhyden]

Nice thought I like it..

[locasan]

Myself and my partner are opening a coffee shop, and dont anticipate it turning over more than £70k.
How do we pay ourselves? at first we thought that we would each get the minimum amount each month that keeps us under tax allowance (about £600 per month am i right?) and then we were going to take a dividend of the profits as we thought this was the most tax efficient way of doing things. But HMRC say that we cant take a dividend unless we are a Limited company. We were going to set up as a sole trader, but someone else reckons we would have to be a partnership!! AAARRRGGHHH my head is about to explode as i just dont know what to do for the best.
Any advice you can give us would be hugely appreciated.
Kind Regards
Phill & Gemma

[K2012]

Hi Phil & Gemma,

You are correct that the personal allowance to ET (earnings threshold) is £589 per month, this is what most directors of small companies pay themselves as it keeps their NIC contributions up for pension purposes etc..

As you wish to do this as a sole trader I genuinely have no idea if the same rules apply regarding the £589. I know 100% you cannot take a dividend.

What you need to do is speak to an accountant, who will probably give you a good hours consultation and will clear this up for you:) Try and have a word with Elain from Cheapaccounting.co.uk - or see her twitter thread for useful @cheapaccounting

Good Luck with the shop

Kev

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

Thanks Kevin

The £589 does not apply to sole traders as they do not get a wage from their business

[locasan]

Thanks Kevin much appreciated

Thanks Elaine i appreciate your clarification on that. can i ask, as a partnership instead of a sole trader what would be the best way to pay ourselves each month?

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

Drawings are how you would pay yourself as a sole trader or partnership

Not allowable for tax of course

[locasan]

so we would draw the net profit (or whatever amount we wished to take out the business profits) and then set aside the amount of tax we will need to pay at the end of the financial year? can i please ask what % tax will we pay? and do we pay NI?

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

so we would draw the net profit (or whatever amount we wished to take out the business profits) and then set aside the amount of tax we will need to pay at the end of the financial year? can i please ask what % tax will we pay? and do we pay NI?


Have a read of this which also applies to partnerships ...



http://www.cheapaccounting.co.uk/blog/index.php/starting-your-own-business-sole-trader/

[Tax-UK]

Anything above £15 p/hour, less than that and assuming that you will not work 40 hours a week, will reflect on a turnover of around £20k per year

[RevaxMedia]

Dear all,

I am a very experienced and qualified Bookkeeper and am now looking to start my own business offering a service of full Bookkeeping, Payroll, Self Assessment and VAT returns.

I am however stumped on how much I should or can charge? I would appreciate your help and guidence.

Thank you
Kim :|
Estimate the work load in hours then times by a rate you would be happy with. That's what I would do.

[markjason]

Are you dealing in sale of accounting software for a medium scale business.?