filing / archiving

[knight007]

Im coming to the end of my first company year contracting through a limited company. I would like to know how people keep their files in order.

I was going to bung everyting for the whole company year in one folder but then started thinking about the tax year too. There is a overlap between tax year and company year.

Do people normally maintain 2 files?

[SimonMac]

Im coming to the end of my first company year contracting through a limited company. I would like to know how people keep their files in order.

I was going to bung everyting for the whole company year in one folder but then started thinking about the tax year too. There is a overlap between tax year and company year.

Do people normally maintain 2 files?

If by tax year you mean April to April this is only for personal accounts, your company's tax year is what you should go by

[SueEllen]

Do people normally maintain 2 files?

One file a year for company year. (Sometimes I can't open it without due care at the end of the year.)

One file with dividers for personal tax year.

[knight007]

I think i was getting confused with things like p11d and p35 since they are related to the tax year. But i guess they should be filed in the company year file.

[northernladuk]

Hmm... how to file paperwork for your business. That is a new one.

[malvolio]

Simple. I store paperwork vertically. The thickness of the dust on top of the pile is a good indicator of which year it belongs to and how recently it was accessed. The cleaner is not allowed to dust the study, of course.

[Clare@InTouch]

You can keep soft copies of all information, there's no need to keep boxes of paperwork. I'd recommend keeping one file for the company information and another for tax return information. Forms like the P60 can be copies into both.

The only exception is dividend vouchers - you must keep original copies of those as they contain a tax credit.