Accounting Recommendations

[Baddish]

Can someone recommend me the best way to operate through an accountant in uk with company set up and the initial admin included. I need one stop shop with reasonable fees that provide reasonable service so I am grateful for anyone with experiences of any to point me in right direction. Thankyou.

[Fred Bloggs]

Can someone recommend me the best way to operate through an accountant in uk with company set up and the initial admin included. I need one stop shop with reasonable fees that provide reasonable service so I am grateful for anyone with experiences of any to point me in right direction. Thankyou.

If only there were a thread stickied about this topic, eh?

[Lance]

start with this First Timers Guides - for IT Contractors | Contractor UK

Then read this Accountant recommendation threads inc local requests - Contractor UK Bulletin Board

[Bodger]

To be fair, that sticky is 65 pages long.

Here's the summary from the first post:

"The general consensus of the threads I have read below are to go with the contractor specialist ones rather than a local bod. Knowing our business is better than face to face it seems. Some people are recommending a local guy so the choice is yours. I have done both and the specialist one wins hands down. I am with Gorilla Accounting now, previously with SJD just to be clear. They are in no particular order.

Maslins
BI Accountancy
Dolan Accountancy
Gorilla Accounting
Clarity Accounting"

I personally use Gorilla. They've handled the bog standard stuff (company formation, VAT, Payroll etc) just fine. They're always quick to respond to emails, and have been generally helpful when I've needed them.

That being said, I've not had any difficult situations, so not sure how they handle tricky situations or complex queries.

[Fred Bloggs]

Personally, I think before anyone engages one of the sausage machine accountants, they should read the ongoing Churchill Knight and Boox thread. At least then making a fully informed decision about how to proceed with as low risk as possible. Anyone now engaging an accountant for anything beyond simple book keeping is taking a risk.

OP requests "an accountant in uk with company set up and the initial admin included. I need one stop shop".

If he continues down that path he could end up regretting those words. Maybe.

[JHamp82]

To be fair, that sticky is 65 pages long.

Here's the summary from the first post:

"The general consensus of the threads I have read below are to go with the contractor specialist ones rather than a local bod. Knowing our business is better than face to face it seems. Some people are recommending a local guy so the choice is yours. I have done both and the specialist one wins hands down. I am with Gorilla Accounting now, previously with SJD just to be clear. They are in no particular order.

Maslins
BI Accountancy
Dolan Accountancy
Gorilla Accounting
Clarity Accounting"

I personally use Gorilla. They've handled the bog standard stuff (company formation, VAT, Payroll etc) just fine. They're always quick to respond to emails, and have been generally helpful when I've needed them.

That being said, I've not had any difficult situations, so not sure how they handle tricky situations or complex queries.

I think the best course of action would be ring one of the accountants from the list and request to speak to an accountant to have a feel of the service. Fire away your questions and see how they respond.

I personally did this when I was looking for accountants and to me Gorilla worked out to be the best value and I have never looked back since then.

Happy to share my referral too!

[simes]

Hewitt Accountancy.

Immediate response to everything. Tax Returns completed months in advance. Very active to look into savings before you have to ask the question.

[northernladuk]

Hewitt Accountancy.

Immediate response to everything. Tax Returns completed months in advance. Very active to look into savings before you have to ask the question.

Do they use FreeAgent?

[Fred Bloggs]

Do they use FreeAgent?

No, apparently not. You get a Xero subscription thrown in if you pay monthly. Personally, I would rather have FreeAgent. But that might not be everyone's choice.

[WTFH]

Oddball question:
Are you based in the UK?