Expense receipt question

**WTFH** · 29 September 2017, 14:52

Hi there.
He’s asking you to file every month to make it easier for you to keep on top of your paperwork. If you were only to do it annually, you’d need to take several days off to sift through it all.

I’m not sure what sort of tool you are looking for, but how many expenses are you putting through your company each month?

**Michael at BI Accountancy** · 29 September 2017, 16:05

I'd agree with them on keeping on top of expenses, not only does it lighten the load, but would also help keep you up to date in terms of the company finances.

Look at FreeAgent, for a contractor this is the ideal software. Xero in my opinion would be for the big boys so to speak.

If you are still not impressed putting expenses into the system look at something like receipt bank.

**rookiecontractor** · 29 September 2017, 16:22

Originally posted by WTFH View Post

Hi there.
He’s asking you to file every month to make it easier for you to keep on top of your paperwork. If you were only to do it annually, you’d need to take several days off to sift through it all.

I’m not sure what sort of tool you are looking for, but how many expenses are you putting through your company each month?

Well I'm putting travel expense, meals,taxi and any office supplies. They do add up over a month. I'm just trying to find out if everyone is doing their expenses every month.

**NCOTBAC** · 29 September 2017, 16:35

Well if you've messed up doing them monthly imagine the problems trying to do 100s at a time at the end of the year. It's also money tied up in your company account earning no interest when you can take it out monthly and spend/invest.

I empty my receipts in to a box and just do them whenever I've got a few minutes to spare. Monthly at the very most. It only takes a few minutes unless the portal is really bad.

When you say their portal are you with Intouch or Crunch or are you using Freeagent which is a 3rd party portal?

There isn't really a tool for doing expenses. You have to still look at the receipt and type it in/catagorise it etc.

It's all part and parcel of running your own company I am afraid.

It would be worth reading up on the 24 month rule which affects expenses at some point as well.

**ladymuck** · 29 September 2017, 16:57

The other approach is to not put any expenses at all through your company. No data entry to be done. The downside is you have less to offset against your CT bill at the end of the year but you may decide your time is worth more than any potential tax saving.

**rookiecontractor** · 29 September 2017, 18:16

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I have to do this myself otherwise I'm going to lose out the benefits. I was hoping that the accountant will do that for me if I'm paying 120 pound a month. Any accountancy firm that do that will get my business. I was an employee all my life so all this is new to me especially the taxes part. It is so confusing.

**northernladuk** · 29 September 2017, 19:04

Originally posted by rookiecontractor View Post

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I have to do this myself otherwise I'm going to lose out the benefits. I was hoping that the accountant will do that for me if I'm paying 120 pound a month. Any accountancy firm that do that will get my business. I was an employee all my life so all this is new to me especially the taxes part. It is so confusing.

Time to step up I am afraid. You run a business now so have to start thinking like one. You are making a huge amount of money so doing some expenses is a very small price to pay.

Part of thinking like a business is considering the £120 a month you pay your accountant. How much effort would you put in for £120 a month? Remember the accountant is a highly qualified professional. How much did your garage quote you per hour to work on your car? How much do you charge an hour. You aren't going to get a lot of his time are you. He also does a lot of stuff in the background like keeping up with legislation and so on. They will also have work to do putting your company figures and SA at the end of the year and so on and so on. £120 is very cheap for all that.

You need to spend a lot of time reading up on the taxes. With expenses alone you need to understand 'Wholly and exclusively' rules and the 24 month rule. That's before you get in to any of the complex stuff.

I have a feeling you don't really know what IR35 is either and have bought a contract check and all the relevant insurances etc.

Have you read your contract? Do you understand every word of it as well?

Spend some good time reading up on the link on the right hand side, particularly the first timers. There is a huge amount of really useful information in there and you need to know it all.

**mudskipper** · 30 September 2017, 06:47

I've recently switched to freeagent an find it much simpler - I can photograph the receipt on my phone and add it using the app and it's done.

**FrontEnder** · 30 September 2017, 08:50

You're not going to get much simpler than the freeagent app. Take photo of receipt on your phone, enter the details. I usually just do it while waiting for my meal.

You can set up recurring expenses to, so that takes care of the majority of mileage. Can work for other expenses too if they're the same amount.

If you can't be bothered actually typing in the amounts there's also a 3rd part app that will OCR them, but it costs more.

Expense receipt question