| How much will it cost to have accounts prepared? This really depends on your personal circumstances and the quality of your book-keeping. We provide a service tailored for each client, delivering the required level of expertise to each process. Our pricing is part of our company ethic and we will always deliver value for money to our clients. For example our Self Assessment Tax Return service starts from as little as £95, and increases upwards dependant on turnover of the business and the amount of paperwork to process. |
| Do you set up Limited Companies? Yes we can offer this service to you, but would consult first to make sure this would be the most beneficial option to yourself. The simplest way to start up a new business is as a Sole Trader and has little cost implications, or accounting demands. However, if you are an established business and want to take the next step we can calculate first if this will save you tax. |
| I have been trading on a small scale for 6 months now. I have not registered with the tax office - what advice can you give me? You should ring or link direct to 'HM Revenue and Customs' or chat to us as soon as possible so that we can help. You should be aware that you are liable to pay Class 2 national insurance contributions from the day you become self employed. If you do not provide notification of self employment within 3 months you will be issued with a £100 penalty. It may be possible to have the penalty waived if your earnings to the date of notification have been small, or there is a good reason for late notification, we can help with this too. |
| How qualified are your employees? We have accredited accounting technicians (bookkeepers/accountants), qualified chartered accountants, trainee chartered accountants and accounting technicians. Everyone at Easy Accounting Solutions has trained or are training for accredited certifications in AAT, ACCA, which you can link to from our website on our 'Contact Us' page. |
| Can I hire a bookkeeper to do the accounting for me? A good bookkeeper or even a good accounting software program can help you organize your accounting quickly. You can hire bookkeeping services from us, as we have accredited accounting technicians (AAT). We can also advise on some useful free and cost effective software that can help. |
| Do I really have to understand the different depreciation formulas? It's best to let your accountant calculate these precisely, at the end of the year. If you have last years figures you can use these as a guide to work with, although these will greatly change at the Year End if you have sold/purchased assets. |
| How can a balance sheet help me? If your business is really small, you can manage it fine without creating a balance sheet each month. But any size business, including a part-time one, will find a good profit and loss statement each month very useful. Balance sheets will help in highlighting any significant change in working capital that you should be aware of (from fluctuations in debtors/creditors). This is useful in working out the cash flow of any business, a healthy balance sheet would typically have a positive working capital. |
| Can I complete my own self assessment return, or does an accountant have to do this for me? Yes, the forms and online processes have been made significantly easier for anyone to use, which most accounting firms would never tell you. In our favour, as we love accounting and keep up to date with government budget changes we are best positioned to help reduce your personal tax bill. We have many happy customers who return annually. Because we help to let businesses do what they do best, whilst we do what we do best. |
| Do you offer consultations? Yes, we can offer you half hour, or hourly consultations in the following: Start-up business advice, Business Health Check, Self Assessment advice, Tax Management & Forecasting, budgeting, Limited Company vs Sole Trader status, General Accounting and Bookkeeping, Management Accounting, Financial and Cost Accounting. |
| We are a small company and we might need work only on a part-time basis? Is this possible? Yes. We work with many small companies and we can arrange to work only on a part-time basis. |
| What is an income statement? An income statement is usually requested by banks when looking for business credit, bank loans and mortgages/remortgages. It is just another name for a profit and loss statement. It shows the revenue, expenses and profit or loss for a given period of time, usually a month or a year. This helps to show banks whether you are financially viable to repay the loan amount. |
| What is considered to be an asset? An asset is any expense that has a life expectancy of over a year and is usually over £500. Examples of assets are computers and equipment, vehicles and machinery, buildings and land. A ball point pen for instance is an example of an asset as it has a life expectancy over a year, however, as it is a small expense and has no residual value for selling onto a third party, it is not considered an asset and is written off as a stationary expense. It's very much a discretionary area and hopefully common sense will prevail. We can advise as to which of your purchases can be deemed an asset and produce an asset register as required. |
| What can be claimed as capital expenditure or capital allowances? Simply put, it is any expense that has a life expectancy of over a year and would be considered an asset or an improvement to an asset. i.e. landscaping of grounds and car park area of your business. As long as the expense (usually over £500) adds value of your original asset (in this case the business premises) and will last over one year, it can be described as capital expenditure and therefore be claimed as a capital allowance. |
| Can you provide payroll services on a weekly basis? Yes, and also on a monthly basis with Year End submission to HM Revenue & Customs, with the option of internet submission. |
