Anyone used Paystream?

[kristen330]

Are they contractor specialists with a leading cloud portal?

If you personal and business banking is the same are you sure you're ready?

No unfortunately they don't have any fancy cloud website. :/. They seem like a small business specialist.

North London Accountants | Finance | Free Consultation | Call Us Today

Would any of those cloud services websites be better than this company? I don't plan to have many expenses - just a bus pass a month, and maybe the odd coffee perhaps. I was told I would be able to send a .csv download to the accountant to do the bookkeeping by e-mail.

[northernladuk]

No Freeagent? I'm out. Your call.

[kristen330]

No Freeagent? I'm out. Your call.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is freeagent? Is this the cloud services portal that some companies offer eg what paystream offer?

Getting really confused now :S

If I'm going to have minimal transactions through the company (money coming in, bus pass as an expense), will this freeagent thing make a big difference? The plan was to just download a .csv from the company bank account and e-mail this to the accountant.

Also great post linked earlier northernlad. Thanks very much for this. In your opinion, what is the benefit of going with a firm that specialises with contractors over a local guy?

[northernladuk]

You could try Google. Or search on here. Plenty of threads discussing it.

https://www.freeagent.com

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Fr...obile&ie=UTF-8

I'll let you work out why a contractor specialist could better than a generic local guy

[Andy Hallett]

@Kirsten330 what NLUK is trying to say, albeit in a gruff way is correct. Running a contract business is quite specialist and there are lots of good providers out there that specialise. They usually perform better as they understand contracting and have better tools to support etc.

Although they may not have a local presence, the savings in time and potentially errors should outweigh any slight additional cost.

In answer to your original question, lots of our contractors use Paystream, they are very good.

[Michael at BI Accountancy]

Also I've come across IMS (Income made smart)....they charge £35+VAT all in.

Are you sure???

We've had quite a few clients come across from IMS and the fees are "eye watering".

Also, you'll tend to find most contractor accountants, ourselves included, will set up the company and register you for the relevant taxes free of charge (given you sign up to a package).

FreeAgent lets you sign up for a free trial in order to have a play around with the software, I'd highly recommend giving it a try!

[kristen330]

You could try Google. Or search on here. Plenty of threads discussing it.

https://www.freeagent.com

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Fr...obile&ie=UTF-8

I'll let you work out why a contractor specialist could better than a generic local guy

Hmmm. Interesting. If the accountant does everything for you then surely FreeAgent wouldn't be of any use? FreeGent looks like something for people do most of their own accounts? Am I missing the point?

[kristen330]

@Kirsten330 what NLUK is trying to say, albeit in a gruff way is correct. Running a contract business is quite specialist and there are lots of good providers out there that specialise. They usually perform better as they understand contracting and have better tools to support etc.

Although they may not have a local presence, the savings in time and potentially errors should outweigh any slight additional cost.

In answer to your original question, lots of our contractors use Paystream, they are very good.

Would it be safe to assume that all accountants would know how to run a limited company in the most tax efficient way and put through their fees as an expense to reduce corporation tax, and the same with other expenses etc?

I honestly don't plan on having complex company accounts. Money in, monthly bus pass, nothing else. Paystream advised me I won't be able to put my lunch groceries through the company either, as Buying bread and hummus and things to make a sandwich don't constitute an expense whilst at work! So as a result of this I'll have pretty much just one expense!

[northernladuk]

Go for it then.

[kristen330]

Go for it then.

I noticed that you could upload receipts to freeagent. If I went with an accountant without freeagent, do you know how submitting expenses would work? Would it just be sending them a table of expenses on Excel, and not sending receipts, or do all accountants need the receipts sent to them one way or other?

If it's the latter, I can quickly see how Freeagent would be beneficial!

I had a look through the suggestions you recommended for accountants but they all seem more expensive than paystream and unless i'm missing something, they both do the same job (bar the £300 winding down fee paystream have). Paystream have their own cloud based system to store expenses and update transactions etc.

I've had a read through your freeagent thread but I'm not quite sure I understand the real benefits of it. How does it help you day to day? It it more the fact that you can immediately see how much take home pay there is in the company account without having to go to the accountant or something else? Sorry for all the noobie questions! >.<

Thanks again for all the help everyone!