For many of you managing your own business, you will now be preparing for the new financial year. It takes a lot of effort and passion to start your own business and even more to keep it growing! Whatever your business, when you are in the early stages, the hours are very long and there is a huge amount to consider.
By outsourcing your financial administration, you can free up a huge amount of time and rest assured that your business is in the capable hands of a financial Expert.
How can we help you?
We are your local Chartered Accountants, and we understand how important your business is important to you. We work with many businesses and sole traders, right through to large organisations, providing a dedicated, tailored service, no matter your size. As your business grows, so will the service we provide.
When you are starting in business, it can be too easy to spend or lose money by inexperience in managing business financial affairs. By having regulatory systems and checks in place from the start, you can save a lot of money and time.
When you work with us at GRC Accountants, we provide an individual service and get to know you and your business in depth so that we understand how to help you grow and thrive.
Record Keeping
The paperwork a business needs can be really confusing, knowing what it is important to keep can be a real headache! The best advice we can give you is to keep everything connected to the business for a minimum of six years. However you can store much of this electronically so don't worry that you will end up with boxes and boxes of paperwork.
The things you need to ensure are recorded accurately are as follows:
Receipts – every bit of expenditure by your business will need to be documented. They can be either paper or electronic but they must be recorded.
Invoices – every bit of income into your business will also need to be documented. When creating invoices, you should record the amount, date and the type of work for your records.
Bank statements – these should be reconciled regularly and they should match the receipts and invoices that you have recorded.
Depending on your type of business, other things may need to be recorded, for example; payroll, vehicle mileage logs, stock takes and credit card statements.
It is also very important to keep your business and your personal finances completely separate. This will keep your records in order and make is much easier for HMRC to check.
Business Accounts
When you are planning out your financial budget or creating cash flow statements, we are here to help. We are able to work with you to create a plan to help to manage your business finances.
It is also our role to make sure that you are prepared for everything in the tax calendar throughout the year so that your accounts are prepared and submitted on time to avoid any fines from HMRC.
VAT Advice and Assistance
Our team of chartered accountants can offer advice on which VAT scheme is the most suitable for your business and make sure your business is fully up to date with the latest VAT laws and regulations. We can also help you to register your business for VAT and then we will prepare your VAT Return on your behalf.
It is so important to understand VAT and be aware how this affects your business as there are special rules for many different organisations including charities, the supply of second-hand goods, tour operators, buildings & construction and imports & exports. Our team are here to help and will provide expert advice on each aspect that applies to your business.
HMRC Investigations
Although it is rare, HMRC can choose to investigate your company randomly at any point and will expect you have all of your documents available for them. You may find that even if everything is correct that you are subject to an extensive investigation. This can provide a huge amount of extra work for you and your Accountancy team. Should this occur, we are on hand to provide professional assistance and we always advise our clients to insure themselves against any costs this may incur as part of our service.