Bookkeeping
Did you know that bookkeeping and its derivatives are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters? That’s probably the most interesting thing about it - let us save you from boredom and take the admin off your hands.
In its simplest form, bookkeeping is the recording of all the income and expenditure of your business.
Complete and accurate bookkeeping can be the lifeblood of the business and integral in helping you shape, grow, and most importantly understand your company. Without good bookkeeping you may not discover your business has a problem until it is too late; this is where management accounts come in, as these reports are based on your bookkeeping.
We provide bookkeeping services through online packages such as Xero & FreeAgent. We support Sage Line 50 and we can help with your manual ledgers or excel based bookkeeping.
We understand that some companies prefer to do their own bookkeeping and we can provide training and support in these scenarios, should they be needed. If you’re feeling in over your head (which is completely normal!) we can complete the bookkeeping for you, allowing you to focus on your own trade instead of ours.
Record Keeping
All businesses must hold onto their records such as: receipts; invoices; contract paperwork etc for a pre-determined amount of time. HMRC have not made these rules easy to remember (it’s their ‘thing’).
Records relating to a self-assessment should be kept for at least 22 months from the filing deadline. If you file late, they must be kept for 15 months from the date your self-assessment is filed.
Limited companies must keep records for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to. This won’t necessarily be when the money was spent; for example, paperwork relating to the purchase of a vehicle should be kept for 6 years from the year the vehicle is sold.
If we complete your bookkeeping, we may hold onto your records (if you wish) until your year-end accounts/self-assessment are complete and filed. At this point (or sooner, should you wish to hold them yourself), we will return them. These can be collected from the office, or we can deliver or post them.
To make things easier (especially during a time of limited face to face contact), Hubdoc is available for uploading paperwork to Xero; this means we don’t need to physically hold your records and you can file them away immediately. A little tip – put a piece of glass or Perspex over your receipts to flatten them for an easier and clearer photograph. The glass from a photo frame can be handy for this. Just remember to turn your flash off!