| We can help you with Bookkeeping |
We work with small businesses or sole traders, helping them with their accounts while they get on with the job of trading. Especially for a very young business, an hour or two each week will set your accounts on the right road, and you can take them over whenever you are ready – the need for expensive third party software can be avoided.
We provide accounts for a Sole Trader, Partnership or a Limited Company , and we value a close, geographically local relationship; that way we can help the most. Bookkeeping - VAT returns - Payroll - Annual accounts - Tax returns / self assessment (all obligatory) Interim accounts and Management Reports are optional |
| Kittiwake sets up and maintains computerised accounting, flexible to fit your needs but no more complex than necessary. Our charges are based upon time spent posting transactions to your accounts, so while your business is small so are our charges. You will appreciate our itemised monthly invoices. Manual entries using pen and paper are the traditional way of recording money transactions. and for a one person business is the lowest level of organised record keeping, in a single book satisfying statutory obligations and providing the key indicators about the financial health of the business. An account book such as Simplex D is laid out ready to receive manual entries, organised into 52 weekly periods with a summary report for each period but excluding VAT or wages. We can keep your accounts in a Simplex book if this is what you are used to or do not like computers. But time moves on and the number of firms using such simple methods is dwindling. Kittiwake only works with computerized accounts and personal computers, and will set up an accounting system on one of their PCs. but you will appreciate being able to read your accounts on your own PC. |
Kittiwake makes imaginative use of Microsoft Excel, that powerful but often underestimated spreadsheet programe which you can read on your Windows PC. Your accounts can be sent to you by e-mail and so they are always accessible.
Click here to view a portfolio of typical Kittiwake spreadsheet accounts Consider some alternatives. Sage is the popular choice of many accountants, strong on management reports and is valuable if you have large numbers of clients on credit. But you will need a Sage licence to read your accounts We can manage your accounts using QuickBooks which is fully featured but rather complex and not easy to learn. It needs updating regularly. And you will need a QB licence to read your accounts We can use free software like TurboCash7 which can do what Sage or QB do but it is rather unfriendly and not popular |
In these days of tight governmental regulation, any person wanting to become self employed either part or full time must register with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), who will require him to declare his earnings and his profit to them each year, and pay tax accordingly. But unlike former times, we now calculate our own tax liability and HMRC will normally take our word for the correctness of our self assessment process. But they do insist that a full set of trading accounts is kept for six years even though they will often never see them
The laws governing how we all run our businesses change all the time but Kittiwake will watch for changes relevant to you, and tell you about them Here is how we might be able to help you, in the commonest situations:- |
| Sole proprietor, not VAT registered, no employees |
Your position as owner of the business, personally responsible for its success or failure, puts you in the tax category of self employed, and you must pay tax on profit from the business as well as NI contributions
On day One of a brand new business entries are made of the opening capital, or on day One of a new financial year of an existing business the assets and liabilities are carried forward from last year. Thereafter, all money spent and received is written into the computer files which form the separate ledgers, to analyse where the money is going to or coming from. A double entry system checks for errors as items are typed in. A Profit or Loss account for the business, and a balance sheet setting out assets and liabilities is kept up to date as data is typed in. Probably you will prefer to simply gather all incoming and outgoing invoices and receipts into a box awaiting K ittiwake to collect and promptly return them say once a fortnight after which you will file them in a safe place.
If you ask us to we will check the actual balance from your monthly bank statement and post direct credits, standing orders, direct debits and bank charges to the proper accounts. We will produce a bank reconciliation statement to explain any reason for disagreement, like a delay in presenting a cheque for payment until a later time. Quarterly or half yearly, some profit-conscious traders may wish to produce Interim Final accounts so that they can get an indication of their likely profit for the whole year, perhaps to discuss with the bank manager. We can do this for you, following the same guidelines as for the annual Final Accounts. Annually, a sole trader must produce a set of accounts which show his profit or loss for the year. These accounts comprise the Trading Account, the Profit and Loss Account and the Balance Sheet of the business. Then he must complete the statutory Self-Assessment Tax Return by the due date, copying the figures asked for by HMRC from your accounts. We will do this for you. |
| Sole Proprietor, registered for VAT, with or without employees |
| Registration for VAT is optional if you are sure that your annual turnover will reach the minimum required and that the VAT you will reclaim on purchases justifies the extra cost of accounting for it. All VAT transactions must be recorded in a separate account, and the total of VAT you have collected must be remitted to HMRC quarterly without fail. There are several alternative VAT schemes to suit different types of business. We can help you choose the right one, then operate within its rules and avoid penalties for being late |
| Partnership |
A partnership has the benefit that each partner can cover for the other to keep the business running at all times.
Being in partnership changes nothing except for the legal requirement of a written agreement about how the profits and liabilities are to be divided. |
Sole Proprietor with one or more employees |
| If you employ someone, either part time or full time, either temporarily or permanently, tax and NI contributions must be deducted from their wages, and remitted to HMRC together with your employer’s NI contributions. Your legal position as self employed owner liable to tax remains, and you must pay both Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance contributions for yourself. So employing workers increases the accounting burden considerably and this is where many small businesses decide to seek help because of the work involved of managing payroll and PAYE. |
| Sole Director of a Limited Company and its only employee |
Under this arrangement, very popular when a worker’s stock in trade is personal skill to sell, he sets up a limited company called a Personal Service Company or PSC which legally employs him. The PSC invoices each client for the worker’s services to them, the client pays the gross amount due to the PSC which then pays the worker a salary within his personal allowance and so there is no tax or NIC to deduct. If the PSC has enough profit after Corporation Tax at the year end, the PSC is allowed to pay a tax-paid dividend to the worker because he is the sole shareholder. It offers some valuable tax advantages and is legal provided that he trades with a diverse clientele, not critically dependent on one client, because in that case HMRC may rule that he is, for tax purposes, employed by that client and must pay tax on what they pay his PSC.
A business should not be set up this way without taking advice about restrictions on its operations and the extra bureaucratic burden it imposes to ensure compliance. The Personal Service Company must operate a proper PAYE tax structure even for one employee, and must self-assess itself for Corporation Tax annually, without fail |
| And finally ........ |
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All your records must be accurate, in balance, and submitted in the correct way
and ON TIME. We will nag you to accomplish this, for your real benefit | |