What do I need a bookkeeper for?

[Pawellardo]

Hi Every one,

I have a small vat registered LTD I use for use for some part-time business with me as the only employee. Currently I am really unhappy with my bookkeeper, as he is not reliable and not worth the money I pay per month. I have 1-2 sales invoices per month and maybe 10 transactions for fees. So I think I should be able to keep the accounts up to date myself and thinking what do I need a bookkeeper for?

I am trading with the company for 2 years and totally trusted my bookkeeper in regards of filing requirements and due dates… but not anymore.

Anybody here doing the bookkeeping himself?

What Information do I need to get from my bookkeeper before I quit and what filing requirements or other legal requirements I have to watch out for?

I have to submit VAT returns on a quarterly bases?

What do I need to do in regards of salaries? I am as the director the only employee of the company.

Any reason, why it should be not a good idea to do bookkeeping alone?


Thanks a lot for your time and feedback.


Best
Pawellardo

 

[LeeroyBrown]

Helloooo

It sounds like your bookkeeping requirements are fairly simple. Bookkeeping is the recording of your business transactions into a system (whether it be spreadsheets, software or manual books). This information can then be used as a basis for filing VAT Returns, a starting point for compiling accounts and tax returns and for giving you useful information such as how much you are owed from customers or owe to suppliers at any point in time.

In order to complete the bookkeeping yourself you will need a trial balance and a breakdown of outstanding invoices from your bookkeeper (assuming you are using a different system than he used, otherwise you can just carry on from where he left off). Those balances can be keyed into any software package and then you can continue with your transactions.

Most software packages will enable you to file the VAT Returns online or will at least give you a VAT Return report for you to copy the figures across to the HMRC portal. However your VAT Returns will only be accurate if the transactions you have entered are accurate, so it's important you are confident everything is correct.

If your bookkeeper is completing your payroll he/she should be filing an RTI Return each month. Some bookkeeping software packages will enable you to do this or you can you a third party software package: Moneysoft Payroll is cheap and fairly easy to use.

Filling accounts and tax returns is were it will get more complex and I would always recommend using an accountant for this, especially if you have a LTD company!

If you are looking for a really easy to use bookkeeping package, try Pandle Bookkeeping and for a well priced accountancy firm try The Accountancy Partnership, you can get an instant quote online within 1 minute.

I hope this answers your question

 

[Energise Accounting]

You can do the Book-keeping yourself it sounds like you have fairly simple requirements. My advice would be to pay an accountant to do your year end with a support package, to help you with your book-keeping that way you will save yourself some money.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

@LeeroyBrown

Do you work for/own The Accountancy Partnership by any chance!!!

 

[Energise Accounting]

@UK Contractor Accountant he indeed dose work for The Accountancy Partnership

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

@UK Contractor Accountant he indeed dose work for The Accountancy Partnership

is that allowed!!!

 

[Bob]

That is why there is a Report this post button Having said that, it probably wouldn't be deleted as not purely self promotion

 

[Energise Accounting]

why would this not be allowed @UK Contractor Accountant asked a question i just answered it.

 

[Lentinus]

..and he is the baddest man in the whole damn town!

Anyway, if every directly/indirectly self promoting post was deleted from this forum it would be about 10% of its size!

Back to the OP any of the on or offline book keeping packages will sort you out with about 10 minutes work a week - I am a big fan of Quickfile but everyone has their favourites (though never heard of the one above).
For payroll try Brightpay, very simple and clear. Both of these packages/cloud systems are free for your size of co. I use them both, work for neither!

Quickfile will do you a basic year end submission of your accs - by an accountant, for £200. This is JUST making sure the right numbers go in the right boxes and wrapping everything up so you are compliant with the law. Not to be confused with all the other stuff an accountant might do for you, like telling you how to pay less tax etc.

 

[yasmin2015]

I am a self-employed bookkeeper catering to small-medium businesses.
Having a bookkeeper clean up or take care of your accounts will significantly reduce your end of year accountancy fees.
Services Offered:
• Sales day book/ purchase day book
• Credit control
• Bank reconciliation
• VAT returns
• Payroll
• Management accounts (i.e. Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet)
• Self-Assessment Tax Returns for Sole traders and self-employed professionals
• Set up accounting package (i.e. Sage /QuickBooks) or develop excel template for
bookkeeping/ auditing purposes
• Other financial duties
I also offer a virtual assistant service to help you with any other office duties such as filing, invoicing, statements, chasing payments, typing and much more.

Please PM me for further discussion.

 

[Pish_Pash]

My reply will be desperately unpopular, but all you need is accounts software & a little bit of nous (if you can run a business, you can certainly handle accounts software yourself).

Buy yourself something like Quickbooks, keep it up to date (very simple) then for your year end accounts, list a job on peopleperhour...sit back & watch everyone undercut one another. Select the most suitable candidate, crack open a cool one & suckle on the nipple of smugness safe in the knowledge that you've saved several hundred pounds.

[dons tin helmet & flameproof underpants - retreats a safe distance]

 

[Twoscoops]

I've been doing my own bookkeeping for 10 years. I just use a spreadsheet with outgoings and income, with VAT separated-out. Every qtr the spreadsheet automatically filters the figures for my VAT return and I file it online (5 minute job). The spreadsheet also has a P&L which it automatically updates every month. At year-end I send it to my accountant who prepares my annual accounts.

Just myself and wife in the business and accountant does the payroll. I'm a retailer and don't have any customers on credit, so I find it really easy, probably 10 minutes a day.

 

[Energise Accounting]

@Pish_Pash using people per hour can save you money however, the bottom line I see people doing year end returns for £100.00 and less sometimes. this is impossible to achieve by the time your factor in software, insurance, professional subscriptions plus the 15% PPH take off the contractor.

 

[Ian J]

My reply will be desperately unpopular, but all you need is accounts software & a little bit of nous (if you can run a business, you can certainly handle accounts software yourself).

I agree. I do all of my own bookkeeping using Excel spread sheets and just send them off to my accountant at the end of each year

 

[Pawellardo]

Hello every one,


Thank you so much for your responses. Unfortunately I haven’t checked earlier.

After I received ‘a late filling penalty’ from companies house I terminated the cooperation with my bookkeeper last month.

I am now waiting to get the latest trial balance and a breakdown of outstanding invoices from my bookkeeper and want to start off with a spreadsheet or QuickBooks …or is there any simple offline solution you can recommend that supports multi-currency?….I am honestly not such a big fan of this online solutions.

How do I know what due dates I have to watch out for?

I am VAT registered business. How often and when do I need to file VAT and EC sales lists?

Regarding payroll…I am the only employee of the LTD…but would like last Decembers salary to be my final pay. Who do I need to inform?



Thanks a lot and best regards


Pawel

 

[Energise Accounting]

Most accountants would advise you not prepare your accounts on a spread sheet. for a good free software package use VT cashbook.

 

[Bob]

After I received ‘a late filling penalty’ from companies house I terminated the cooperation with my bookkeeper last month.

I am now waiting to get the latest trial balance and a breakdown of outstanding invoices from my bookkeeper and want to start off with a spreadsheet or QuickBooks …or is there any simple offline solution you can recommend that supports multi-currency?….I am honestly not such a big fan of this online solutions.

How do I know what due dates I have to watch out for?

I am VAT registered business. How often and when do I need to file VAT and EC sales lists?

Regarding payroll…I am the only employee of the LTD…but would like last Decembers salary to be my final pay. Who do I need to inform?

Looking at the questions you are asking, it would probably be best for you to speak to a qualified accountant as some of the questions are quite basic. Build up a relationship with an accountant for your year end filing and tax advice and, if you wish, do the day to day accounting yourself. QuickBooks will handle multi currency although I do not believe VT cashbook does. Unless you are an expert, avoid spreadsheets for accounting like the plague

 

[Scalloway]

I am VAT registered business. How often and when do I need to file VAT and EC sales lists?

Regarding payroll…I am the only employee of the LTD…but would like last Decembers salary to be my final pay. Who do I need to inform?

VAT is normally filed quarterly. Info on EC sales lists here

https://www.gov.uk/corporation-tax-accounting-period

If your last pay was in December you will still need to continue file nil PAYE returns each month.

 

[DavidHoul52]

I am in a similar position, having a small private limited company with no employees except myself as director. As my company is signed up to the Flat Rate Scheme the quarterly returns are extremely simple. Easy to work out on a spreadsheet. I also use Quickbooks online which works out the VAT amounts and also has a free Payroll add on.
Year end accounts are a bit more challenging, but there is plenty of help on the internet and HMRC themselves are very helpful. Paying an accountant £50 - £100 a month is really not justified if you have some knowledge of bookkeeping and your business accounts are not complex.

 

[Karen Bennett]

I think, the ins and outs of doing your own bookkeeping can take your time away from your core business. For year end, the admin can be time consuming. In a previous role we did it in house with no experience and we spent more time re-doing mistakes, etc due to no experience. In the long run for us, it would have been better to get a bookkeeper/accountant to look after it, at least the year end. The days spent going over receipts was torturous. There are a lot of really good bookkeepers out there.

There is a list of available bookkeepers on the ICB website.

I work for BrightPay. Thanks @Lentinus for the mention. For payroll BrightPay is free for up to three employees. It is easy to use and if you had any payroll questions our support is free so that would help if you bring the payroll in house.