Honestly, how difficult is it to keep your own accounts?

[hgllgh]

100% agree

IMHO we have to spend time doing the books, so adding on a few simple calculations for VAT at PAYE and the end of each quarter isn't adding on much more time anyway....

[Bluebird]

Linky ?

www.pornforfree.com

or you could look yourself....

[monkeygeorge]

Due to recent price increases I've been motivated to look elsewhere myself but before committing to a cheaper acocuntant, I wanted to look at doing my own accounts.

I've installed the HMRC Employer CD ROM, but I want to know if that will do the basic monthly stuff, ie: calculates salary and available profit based on invoice amounts, expenses and subsistence etc. Does it produced payslips and dividend vouchers etc?

Can anyone help, and is there a good online tutorial?

Thanks.

[Olly]

VAT, I'm registered on the flat rate scheme and do it online. All it involves is totalling up your invoices once a quarter and then calculating 13% of the gross.

...does your ltd earn any interest on it's funds?

[KackAttack]

Due to recent price increases I've been motivated to look elsewhere myself but before committing to a cheaper acocuntant, I wanted to look at doing my own accounts.

I've installed the HMRC Employer CD ROM, but I want to know if that will do the basic monthly stuff, ie: calculates salary and available profit based on invoice amounts, expenses and subsistence etc. Does it produced payslips and dividend vouchers etc?

Can anyone help, and is there a good online tutorial?

Thanks.

HMRC CD ROM is really only useful to do your payroll, it does a good job with this and it is easy - it works by you telling it how much salary you want. I would suggest that if you are unaware of what it does and how to use it you might not be ready to go accountant free as payroll is one of the easiest jobs.

[zedAccounts]

I've had some bad experiences with accountants over the past year and to be honest, don't really trust what my current one is doing. I'm pretty sure things are getting bad as I've had my first phone call from the IR asking for late Tax/NI payments. This is something I'm paying my accountant to do and is the first time I've had a phone call of this nature.

I've bought myself a couple of books on bookkeeping and accountancy (just waiting for delivery) but I'm wondering how much of an arduous task this could be and if it's worth just looking around for a better accountant. But I would be saving about £80 a month by doing it myself.

Anyone got any advice? Do you do your own books? Is it worth buying some software to help me out? Sage Instant Accounts is only £100 and can be put through as a company expense.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I too refuse to put my trust and time in accountants. So I taught myself to keep my own accounts and read up on taxation issues. It's not that difficult, but it will need some investment of your time in the first few months. Once you become confident it's really easy. I've written my own spreadsheets in the past and then a Windows desktop application to manage my accounts. This can be found by googling zedAccounts. Good luck.

ZED.

[Waldorf]

Due to recent price increases I've been motivated to look elsewhere myself but before committing to a cheaper acocuntant, I wanted to look at doing my own accounts.

I've installed the HMRC Employer CD ROM, but I want to know if that will do the basic monthly stuff, ie: calculates salary and available profit based on invoice amounts, expenses and subsistence etc. Does it produced payslips and dividend vouchers etc?

Can anyone help, and is there a good online tutorial?

Thanks.

Whilst I do not know what rate you are on, is doing it yourself really worth the hassle and stress? I pay my accountant £75 per month and it is so stress free, if you are paying more than that PM me and I will let you know about mine.

In my experience a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, if you are happy with what they do for you and it is a reasonable fee than I would stay with them.

[monkeygeorge]

HMRC CD ROM is really only useful to do your payroll, it does a good job with this and it is easy - it works by you telling it how much salary you want. I would suggest that if you are unaware of what it does and how to use it you might not be ready to go accountant free as payroll is one of the easiest jobs.

What part of the CD ROM does payroll? I understood you use it for P14 and P35 etc. My brother's an accountant and he quickly went though the payroll with me, it really does look very simple:

Use the the HMRC tables to work out the tax based on your tax code, but basically salary is fixed each month, add on your expenses to give your Nett Pay. Subtract this and any company expenses from your nett invoice total to give your profit, then subtract 21% for CT to give your available nett profit.

The difficult thing is knowing what needs to be done, after that you're following the same routine each month.

Whilst I do not know what rate you are on, is doing it yourself really worth the hassle and stress? I pay my accountant £75 per month and it is so stress free, if you are paying more than that PM me and I will let you know about mine.

In my experience a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, if you are happy with what they do for you and it is a reasonable fee than I would stay with them.

I have found an accounting charging the same as what you're paying (inc VAT) but even then, it just doesn't make sense to be paying that amount of money for what should take 15 minutes each month. I spend about that time compiling my expenses and preparing invoices anyway so I really don't think it's hassle or stress. I just think you need to be organised and patient. Is that naive?

Granted the Corporation tax, VAT etc are additional but at the end of the day it's just inputting some figures onto a form.

The annual accounts are a bit more involved and I probably will need to use an accountant for that. I know someone who pays around £200 for that which seems reasonable for an annual fee.

[Maslins]

Granted the Corporation tax, VAT etc are additional but at the end of the day it's just inputting some figures onto a form.

You're right, but only to the extent that an IT guru just clicks a few buttons to fix your PC.

It's knowing what to do, when, and how. As others have said, if you've got plenty of time to Google it all (obviously you can only Google the questions you know to ask, not the ones you don't even think of), or ideally a mate with accounting knowledge, there's no reason why you can't DIY.

[pcitshop]

a good accountant

a good accountant not only keeps things inline as far as compliance is concerned but also helps in business development and growth. I am an accountant with great love for IT, if i can be of any help plz do let me know. I wrote a short article on how to do book keeping a while ago, have a look, it will give you good starting point to learn about book keeping

[Mod] Hi pcitshop,
If you belong to an accountancy please read the T&C's and ask Admin to rename your login myname@myco, then you can post your answers on the board, as the other accountants do.

Thanks [/Mod]