Ask yourself this: Would you service your own car? It’s probably not a good idea unless you’re a trained mechanic.
It’s the same with accounts. Using a bookkeeper isn’t mandatory, but its strongly advised. There’s a common misconception that doing your books will ‘save’ you money which isn’t true.
Unless you’re trained in accounting it’s likely that you won’t do them properly and make errors without realising. You then risk declaring the wrong figures which will result in paying too much tax (or too little) and your accountant could charge you extra fees for ‘unpicking’ your mistakes which can be very expensive.
Using a bookkeeper will ensure your figures are correct from the start and your accountant will be able file an accurate tax return for you.
From April 2026 anyone who is self-employed or a landlord with a rental or holiday let, will need to start submitting their tax returns via software (like Xero). You’ll have to make a submission every 3 months and if you fail to do so you will face penalties from HMRC.
To start with, it only affects people earning over £50,000 per year. From 2027 it will include people earning over £30,000.
Read our full article here and get yourself ready if this applies to you.
If you’re selling your products on your website, then that part of your business is ecommerce. If you have a Shopify account, that’s ecommerce. And if you’re selling on Amazon or Etsy that’s also ecommerce.
Essentially it simply means you’re selling online.
We set up your accounting so that your online sales feed through to your accouting software automatically; making things much faster and streamlining your bookkeeping.
You must register when your total sales exceed £90,000 within a 12 month period, and you must do this within 30 days of exceeding, or expecting to exceed this threshold.
But saying this, you can choose go VAT registered from when you very first start, if you prefer.
Failure to register, or registering too late, will incur penalties and you also be required to surrender any backdated VAT that’s due.
It is not only Limited Companies that apply. Sole-traders, Partnerships , CIC’s and Charities also need follow the rules for VAT registration.
Yes. It’s not just Limited Companies that have employees on PAYE. Sole-traders, Partnerships , CIC’s and Charities can have PAYE/payroll too.
You can either hire contractors or permanent staff – and hiring permanent staff involves additional costs, taxes and administration time, so you should consider it carefully before committing to it.
You need to register with HMRC as an ‘Employer’
You’ll need to hire a payroll service to submit the monthly figures to HMRC.
You’ll need to pay extra National Insurance for Employers
And you’ll need to pay for their Holiday Pay, Sick Pay and Pensions.
You can hire people and pay them directly as contractors without having to pay their holiday pay or sick pay.
If you’re hiring regular people that work on a recurring monthly contracts, then you’ll need to follow the rules around ‘IR35’.
If you’re in the Construction industry this will involve CIS submisssions.
A Sole Trader is you and your business as one — simple to set up, but you’re personally responsible for any debts. A Limited Company is a separate legal entity and you become its Director. It can offer tax advantages and limits your personal risks, but comes with more admin and reporting.
There are several apps to use these days. You can take a photo with your phone and it will send it automatically to your accounts. If you’re using Xero for your accounting then we recommend using Hubdoc because its free. Others are Dext, Pleo and Apron.
Yes you can. Using spreadsheets is still a popular method and it works well for some businesses. However, if you’re VAT registered you must use accounting software to submit your VAT returns, and from 2026 all self-employed people will also need to use software to submit self-assessment tax returns. So, our recommendation is to speak to a bookkeeper to see how you can transition over to using Xero or QuickBooks.
Professional, forward-thinking, tech-savvy advice to help your business run smoother.
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