Self-accounting

[JHamp82]

I'm with Gorilla Accounting and have full access to freeagent. All my accounts are linked and I approve / categorise the expenses / payments myself.

If I have a qeuestion about which category, or whether something is a legitimate expense, I just drop them an email and they normally get back within a day.

It costs me £126 (inc vat) per month, but they've been pretty good so far. They help me sort out payroll, RTI, VAT, file self assessments etc.

In the grand scheme of things, it's an expense I'm willing to pay to have that advise available.

I am with Gorilla too and I would have to agree with this comment. My queries are answered within a day, if I have any urgent question I can just pick up the phone to speak to my dedicated accountant, which is great!

[jamesbrown]

While FA is extremely good, there will be a lot you don’t know unless you’ve been contracting (and paying attention) for many years. Doing your own accounts is a risk. On the other hand, having an accountant prepare them is also a risk unless you are paying close attention. You should also bear in mind that FA alone is not enough. Yes, you can make simple submissions, but you will need a CH presenter account and an HMRC account. Anything out of the ordinary with your submissions, and FA may not be able to handle the actual submission itself. As far as I know, most FA accountants do not use FA to submit end of year accounts or SATR, although both options are now available in FA (the former for simple micro-entity cases; e.g, you cannot carry forward losses).

[Fred Bloggs]

While FA is extremely good, there will be a lot you don’t know unless you’ve been contracting (and paying attention) for many years. Doing your own accounts is a risk. On the other hand, having an accountant prepare them is also a risk unless you are paying close attention. You should also bear in mind that FA alone is not enough. Yes, you can make simple submissions, but you will need a CH presenter account and an HMRC account. Anything out of the ordinary with your submissions, and FA may not be able to handle the actual submission itself. As far as I know, most FA accountants do not use FA to submit end of year accounts or SATR, although both options are now available in FA (the former for simple micro-entity cases; e.g, you cannot carry forward losses).

Whilst I maintain DIY is not for everyone, I think the companies house and HMRC filing requirements are really easy provided you have the numbers to hand. FreeAgent is ideal for that. Provided you're determined enough and the company is simple. I found that even for a first time user going really steady, triple checking everything, filing on line for CH and HMRC took me a couple of hours.

[jamesbrown]

Whilst I maintain DIY is not for everyone, I think the companies house and HMRC filing requirements are really easy provided you have the numbers to hand. FreeAgent is ideal for that. Provided you're determined enough and the company is simple. I found that even for a first time user going really steady, triple checking everything, filing on line for CH and HMRC took me a couple of hours.

Yes, the secondary HMRC/CH accounts are very straightforward to obtain, you just don't want to be unaware of that and submitting accounts at the last minute (for example, a CH presenter account takes at least 24 hours to go live and it may take 2-3 days to get the credentials). Anyway, that is minor stuff.

The less minor stuff is the stuff you don't know. For example, CH will not reject accounts because you have incorrectly declared the accounting basis (as micro-entity when it should be something else). Bottom line, self accounting is a great option if you're confident and you do legitimately know what you're doing, having been trained or built significant experience watching a competent accountant do the work in prior years. I say competent because there is no particular qualification needed to declare yourself an accountant in the UK, but if you are a qualified accountant, you will know a ton more than an average contractor. At some point, you will probably need advice if you encounter new situations.

[escapeUK]

I would be particularly grateful for advice from anyone that has tried this themselves. Did it work for you? If not, what mistakes were made, and what challenges did you face?

If your accountant is anything like Crunch you will have been checking the accounts in great detail anyway as they take no responsibility for any mistakes.

That's the position I found myself in when starting again, and I am with Natwest got Freeagent for free. Its super easy, and even better now it can submit all accounts with Companies house / HMRC which was effortless when I did it recently a few months ago. (You just need yet another login from inefficient gov to make this work). The bank integration is really good, all you have to do it tell it what each transaction was. Payroll just works too).

In these difficult times, I would rather the £1000 plus a year I wasted on an accountant (to then have to legally check the accounts myself anyway) is much better in my pocket than theirs.

I had one query early on, the helpline was answered quickly and were helpful. I would go for it.