Bespoke portal vs FreeAgent & Accountancy/Insurance advice

[SegaFish]

Hello

I'm new here although have used the forum a lot for searching before creating an account! I've got a few questions which I thought I'd try and put in the same thread...

I'm with an accountancy firm that uses a bespoke portal at the moment and, although I don't believe I am doing anything wrong by using this, the MSCP stuff that I've read on here has made me want to move away from this just to mitigate risk if anything. The advice on here seems to be to use an accountant that uses FreeAgent.

Question 1
Obviously every bespoke portal is different but the one I use contains a personal tax calculator which, whenever I pay salary or declare dividends, updates with the personal tax and student loan figures that I need to put aside. It also shows how much has been declared to date and what is available to withdraw.
As well as the above, it creates and saves minutes when declaring dividends, auto creates weekly wage slips, updates figures when invoices are uploaded, etc.

Does FreeAgent do all of the above? I'm trying to understand in advance what I will need to do differently and the videos of FreeAgent that I've watched online don't seem to provide much clarity on the above. From what I've seen it seems to have lots of features like creating estimates and adding customers and suppliers which all seem unnecessary and overkill for an individual contractor?

Question 2
From reading threads on here and reviews online I've narrowed my choices down to Gorilla Accounting or Maslins. Is there anyone currently with either of these providers that's able to provide any first hand experience? - Or if someone has used both and can provide their experiences or comparisons between the two, that would be great.

Question 3
Is there a business insurance recommendation thread on here like the accounting one? If not - can anyone recommend insurance providers that cover the usual? I've got a quote covering £1m Professional Indemnity, £5m Public Liability, £10m Employers Liability and IR35 protect with £0 excess coming out at £650 which seems quite high?
Any providers that you seasoned contractors use and recommend would be great so I can get a couple of other quotes.

Thanks in advance for any questions you're able to help with.

[jamesbrown]

Q1: Yes, and a lot more, although I personally don't use minutes that are generated within FA based on user input as I like to generate this stuff using my own templates:

https://support.freeagent.com/hc/en-...vidend-voucher

Q2: I don't use an accountant myself, but you won't go far wrong with either, from what I can tell. However, Chris Maslin is a regular poster here and very knowledgeable, including of ITEPA Ch. 9, so that would give them an edge from my POV, FWIW.

Q3: There are many. Kingsbridge, for example. I personally use Randell Dorling because, at least in previous years, they were hard to beat when going via IPSE. As an aside, you might consider joining IPSE, although it's much less of a no-brainer than it used to be.

Regarding MSCP risk, the only way to be sure is to do the accounts yourself, but I infer from your post that you may not be comfortable doing that (definitely requires you to be realistic, because messing up your statutory responsibilities is a higher probability and with potentially worse consequences than the MSCP legislation). The next best option is to go with a local accountancy for your end of year filings only. Anyone using a specialist contractor accountancy to file their monthly/quarterly or other high-frequency filings is taking some level of risk, IMHO, portal or otherwise. The next best option after that is the one you've identified.

[Guy Incognito]

Personally I am going with Xero and a local accountant. Lowest risk imo.

[northernladuk]

Does FreeAgent do all of the above? I'm trying to understand in advance what I will need to do differently and the videos of FreeAgent that I've watched online don't seem to provide much clarity on the above. From what I've seen it seems to have lots of features like creating estimates and adding customers and suppliers which all seem unnecessary and overkill for an individual contractor?

It is but you don't need to do it. FA need to make money and they can't run a business creating such a cut down bespoke product for such a tiny part of the market. They've got to appeal to other smaller set ups. Contracting is far too niche to be investing in. It's still the best most cut down product there is by far.

And yes it does do all those other things. If you don't want to add customers or estimates then just don't use them.

Question 2
From reading threads on here and reviews online I've narrowed my choices down to Gorilla Accounting or Maslins. Is there anyone currently with either of these providers that's able to provide any first hand experience? - Or if someone has used both and can provide their experiences or comparisons between the two, that would be great.

Both of those are very good choices. Gorilla is a large set up, Maslins is medium and getting larger but I'd add Paper Rocket to your list as a small set up where you get to speak directly to Sarah or Nikki direct so a very personal service.

Question 3
Is there a business insurance recommendation thread on here like the accounting one? If not - can anyone recommend insurance providers that cover the usual? I've got a quote covering £1m Professional Indemnity, £5m Public Liability, £10m Employers Liability and IR35 protect with £0 excess coming out at £650 which seems quite high?
Any providers that you seasoned contractors use and recommend would be great so I can get a couple of other quotes.

Try QDOS, Hiscox, Caunce Ohara and I think Kingsbridge. They are the ones that have been mentioned on here. I'd start with QDOS first personally.

Check your contract. In many cases you don't need Public Liability but it's often in the contract and it's generally a good idea to have it.
Also check what IR35 protection covers. You can get it via IPSE membership or a separate TLC35 from QDOS which includes some free contract checks. Arguable you actually need it now the onus is on the client for the determination nowadays though.