Reply to: Expense receipt question

[FrontEnder]

Yes its 120+ vat. I am working in the London area so I'm sure its expensive than other places. I was a little pissed that he is giving me only 15 min but I wasn't sure if they have higher tier for this kind of consultation.

I personally don't see the need to have an accountant who's local. I've never met mine and do most things via email. He's 50 miles away, which is about an hours drive so not too far if I did need to see them. I do most things by email, I prefer it this way, but as I said before he's available on the phone whenever I've called.

I'd bin them if I were you. Part of what I pay an accountant for is is his expertise, not just the admin.

[Patrick@Intouch]

You should enquire about a bookkeeping package. Lot's of accountants will process bookkeeping for you and this may be priced separately from their core service as the software available and being used in the marketplace are enough for many contractors.

There are also apps that will allow you to take a photo of your receipts for them to be uploaded to your accountant and thereby be included in your records. This should avoid expenses being missed and is a tool that we are currently using for clients on our bookkeeping service.

[TheFaQQer]

Are many people photographing + uploading receipts to their accounting systems, or just keeping on file in case required? I'm using FreeAgent and I'm 'doing' expenses but not attaching receipts - to me that would be the really tedious part taking perhaps 1 hour vs 5 minutes per month.

My accountant said that uploading photos is the ideal, but as long as I keep them on file for auditing it's okay too. I've started using separate envelopes per month to keep it organised.

If you download the data from Freeagent, then unless you use third party software (I can't remember the name of a provider) you won't get the attachments downloaded with it.

So I keep a local copy just in case as well.

[Michael at BI Accountancy]

Thanks Michael, that's a great idea. Have a question since you are an accountant. Do you think its ok to call my accountant if I have questions like these? My accountant firm implies that they prefer most of the communication via online/email. I asked for his time and he said he has 15 minutes next week to chat. I pay him 120/month so not sure if that is enough to get his time.

That's a new one! I've heard of firms not offering face to face meetings, however reducing call times and insisting on email is a little ridiculous. At £120 per month I'd say your paying a little bit more than average, you should certainly be able to book in a call for longer than 15 minutes!

Are many people photographing + uploading receipts to their accounting systems, or just keeping on file in case required? I'm using FreeAgent and I'm 'doing' expenses but not attaching receipts - to me that would be the really tedious part taking perhaps 1 hour vs 5 minutes per month.

My accountant said that uploading photos is the ideal, but as long as I keep them on file for auditing it's okay too. I've started using separate envelopes per month to keep it organised.

We've found a mix with our clients, look's like it depends on the type of expenses being incurred and if you simply have time to snap the photo whilst on the go. Plus side of it is you can get rid of the physical receipt, however like you say so long as you has some form of copy then that is sufficient.

[rookiecontractor]

I wouldn't accept this level of service. I haven't had to call my accountant often, but when I do he's always available or gets back same day.

Is that 120 + vat? It's on the expensive side if it is, but not unreasonable. I'd be very pissed off with "15 mins next week" for that amount.

Yes its 120+ vat. I am working in the London area so I'm sure its expensive than other places. I was a little pissed that he is giving me only 15 min but I wasn't sure if they have higher tier for this kind of consultation. I also asked him about the pension contribution and he told me that he has a friend who is a financial advisor and he will be the best person to speak to about how much to contribute for pension.

[Camels]

Thanks Michael, that's a great idea. Have a question since you are an accountant. Do you think its ok to call my accountant if I have questions like these? My accountant firm implies that they prefer most of the communication via online/email. I asked for his time and he said he has 15 minutes next week to chat. I pay him 120/month so not sure if that is enough to get his time.

First of all +1 for FreeAgent - very easy to use and does lots for you automatically; as others have said you can enter your expenses as you go along and not leave them to pile up. If relevant you can also choose which ones are to be billed, for example, and it can sort all that out for you on invoices etc.

Gorilla Accounting charge £85+VAT, that includes FreeAgent software access and you get an accountant to speak to by phone or email - might be worth speaking to them if you're not entirely comfortable with your current accountant?

[Zylon]

Are many people photographing + uploading receipts to their accounting systems, or just keeping on file in case required? I'm using FreeAgent and I'm 'doing' expenses but not attaching receipts - to me that would be the really tedious part taking perhaps 1 hour vs 5 minutes per month.

My accountant said that uploading photos is the ideal, but as long as I keep them on file for auditing it's okay too. I've started using separate envelopes per month to keep it organised.

[FrontEnder]

Thanks Michael, that's a great idea. Have a question since you are an accountant. Do you think its ok to call my accountant if I have questions like these? My accountant firm implies that they prefer most of the communication via online/email. I asked for his time and he said he has 15 minutes next week to chat. I pay him 120/month so not sure if that is enough to get his time.

I wouldn't accept this level of service. I haven't had to call my accountant often, but when I do he's always available or gets back same day.

Is that 120 + vat? It's on the expensive side if it is, but not unreasonable. I'd be very pissed off with "15 mins next week" for that amount.

[rookiecontractor]

Get a FreeAgent accountant who will include the software as part of there fees!

The software is great, however it's only as good as the information being put in. If you was to use the software and input expenses in annually this would be in my opinion useless, the software is set up to help with "real time" information.

Thanks Michael, that's a great idea. Have a question since you are an accountant. Do you think its ok to call my accountant if I have questions like these? My accountant firm implies that they prefer most of the communication via online/email. I asked for his time and he said he has 15 minutes next week to chat. I pay him 120/month so not sure if that is enough to get his time.

[Michael at BI Accountancy]

Wow that was some good advice. It looks like I need Free agent. Its only 24/month. Also Free Agent doesn't file taxes so I have to keep the accountant.

Get a FreeAgent accountant who will include the software as part of there fees!

The software is great, however it's only as good as the information being put in. If you was to use the software and input expenses in annually this would be in my opinion useless, the software is set up to help with "real time" information.

[rookiecontractor]

Wow that was some good advice. It looks like I need Free agent. Its only 24/month. Also Free Agent doesn't file taxes so I have to keep the accountant.

I have no idea about IR35, Wholly and exclusively and 24 months rule so I have to read up on it. I didn't realize this will be so complicated. Hopefully my accountant has already taken care of all of this.

TheFaQQer,
How much will your secretary charge? I am a typical IT contractor so no complicated stuff.

[TheFaQQer]

1) Why is my accountant insisting on filing it every month?

It makes everyone's life a bit easier to get it done in little bits rather than letting it pile up.

I've had three different accountants over the years, with different approaches. First accountant was happy to let it build up, which I did. The only things I ever handled regularly was invoicing properly and accounting for VAT every quarter (since I was on FRS it was straightforward). The big problem was that at the end of the year I'd spend a few days trying to go through receipts and remember what they were for, entering them into the spreadsheet we used and then paying myself a large amount to recover the money I'd effectively loaned to the company to pay for them. It was a pain to spend time (usually on my holiday) entering the data and then finding that the company owed me thousands. Didn't help my personal or company cash flow really either.

Second accountant had a proprietary portal and I did everything monthly. This was a lot easier - I could get monthly management accounts, a regular idea of what the corporation tax bill was going to be, the paperwork was neatly filed and I no longer had to wait to the end of the year to do a big lot of work to clear my self-imposed backlog. It also meant that every month, I'd reimburse the expenses so I wasn't out of pocket personally for long.

Current accountant uses FreeAgent which makes it even easier - I scan the receipt / take a picture / upload the PDF and attach it to the expenses and any transactions that go through the company bank account. I now usually do expenses and mileage straight away, because it's there and I can do it either on mobile or on my computer. I still file the paper copy away, but I guess I no longer need to do that if I have an electronic copy elsewhere.

Doing it monthly / regularly saves time and effort, improves your cashflow, helps you get a better overview of your business position, and makes it less likely to make a mistake. I'm not sure you need to religiously do it every month and then close the month off (I used to make some mistakes and then have to get my last accountant to reopen a month so I could enter it), but regular bookkeeping will help a lot.

2) Is there a tool/service that does the expenses for you or just take care of all my tax filings?

Find someone who will do that side of the bookkeeping for you - hand over the receipts and then they do the expenses management for you. You'll pay for the service, but if you don't want to do it yourself, or find you're missing things out then that might be the best option for you.

I'm not sure that it's worth it, depending on how many expenses you have, but if you want someone to do it for you then for the right fee my company secretary could always do that when they do my expenses as well.

[Lance]

+1 for Freeagent.
I would also suggest doing the expenses weekly. It takes me around 30 minutes a week to do. And if I do it monthly I forget things.

I also recharge some expenses to my client, at client rates. Freeagent does all the heavy lifting around that so I can use a Freeagent invoice to validate the claim to the client.

[FrontEnder]

You're not going to get much simpler than the freeagent app. Take photo of receipt on your phone, enter the details. I usually just do it while waiting for my meal.

You can set up recurring expenses to, so that takes care of the majority of mileage. Can work for other expenses too if they're the same amount.

If you can't be bothered actually typing in the amounts there's also a 3rd part app that will OCR them, but it costs more.

[mudskipper]

I've recently switched to freeagent an find it much simpler - I can photograph the receipt on my phone and add it using the app and it's done.