Accountants - No FREEAGENT OR ACCOUNTANCY SYSTEM

[MonkeysUncle]

I am currently using an umbrella but my LTD is with Inniaccounts.
They offer this service for an additional price.
Personally I dont see the point. I get you are busy or want to focus on training etc but if you cant dedicate even 1 day a month to managing your business....go brolly.

[fatJock]

I use KashFlow for all my own invoicing, expenses and VAT returns so am fairly self sufficient. Accountant has accountant access and is there offering advice, YE accounts, SATR and payroll.

The day to day admin is hardly taxing or time consuming - I spend little more than an hour a week on it. You have to wonder how folks manage to do a day job if they can’t keep an active hand in their company numbers.

[oilboil]

Personally I prefer XERO to freeagent but other than that all the other reasons for using systems like these still stand and are infinitely better than just mailing your stuff to somewhere and hoping they do it right.

Yes that's what you pay them for, but ultimately you are responsible and I'd rather take a little interest in my accounts (actually I take quite a big interest) if I'm going to have to defend them later - HMRC don't generally accept the "it's all my accountants fault" excuse...

[Lance]

Yes I agree Its not about removing responsibility. Just saving time. I went with qdos accounting in the end as they offer this style of hands off accountancy. "Simply email expenses and timesheets to us and we will raise your invoices for you, no need for spreadsheets or online software"

Does it take you less time to scan receipts and email them than it does to scan them into FreeAgent?


I upload my receipts, with a value, and my accountant corrects all my errors once a quarter. That sounds like what you want. Doesn't it?

[northernladuk]

Yes I agree Its not about removing responsibility. Just saving time. I went with qdos accounting in the end as they offer this style of hands off accountancy. "Simply email expenses and timesheets to us and we will raise your invoices for you, no need for spreadsheets or online software"

Raising invoices for you? Sounds more like you need an MSCP but you really don't want one.

If you are happy with that service then you've got what you want so all well and good I guess. I'm sure losing that level of control of your business doesn't appeal to most of us but if it works then fair enough.

[hgllgh]

Yes I agree Its not about removing responsibility. Just saving time. I went with qdos accounting in the end as they offer this style of hands off accountancy. "Simply email expenses and timesheets to us and we will raise your invoices for you, no need for spreadsheets or online software"

[Maslins]

Go Umbrella if you don't want the responsibility of running your company properly.

This would be my view. No shame in going via a brolly.

If you want to run your own Ltd Co, then it's vital you have a reasonable understanding of the figures. It's your legal responsibility as director if nothing else. You could potentially get a bookkeeper in as well as an accountant (or as others have suggested find an accountant happy to do both), but be aware this doesn't remove the responsibility from your shoulders.

[VelcroPower]

I agree with NLUK - only maybe if you're insistent on not doing the admin yourself find a FreeAgent accountant and ask what they charge for book-keeping on top of the normal fee?

That way you still get the advantages of FreeAgent (portability, up to date info etc) but you won't have to do the admin bit. You will have to ask them though as I don't think many have it as an advertised service.

Get your VAT on DD and stay under the Primary NIC threshold for your salary also, that way there's a smaller burden on making payments to the relevant authorities as well.

[northernladuk]

Not at all. I was with crunch before and it was pretty time consuming. Freeagent maybe be better but if I can save time not having to learn it then after what i went through with crunch, its tempting.

I tend to spend bench time re-skilling and job searching full time. It worked for me.

Any recommendations for accountants?

I'd never recommend a non FA accountant. I've fallen foul of this personally and got in a right mess, which was incredibly painful to sort out. At the time the SJD spreadsheet was a god send and FA was a breath of fresh air even after the spreadsheet.

Seen far too many people struggling on here as well.

You run a company bringing in around 100k a year. Not unreasonable to have to put a bit of effort in for that amount of money.

You can trial FA for free if you have a look at their website.

[hgllgh]

Complicated? Freeagent? You know these tools are designed to make it easy? If you can't use Freeagent you shouldn't be let loose on email IMO.

IMO it looks like you are trying to avoid some basic responsibilities and do things the old (complicated and messy) way. All that's going away now for a good reason.
Might be easy just mailing your stuff off but just wait until something goes wrong. Try sorting it out with nothing.

Go Umbrella if you don't want the responsibility of running your company properly.

EDIT: - Haven't you been on the bench for a month and a half. Wouldn't that have been a good time to learn these things?

Not at all. I was with crunch before and it was pretty time consuming. Freeagent maybe be better but if I can save time not having to learn it then after what i went through with crunch, its tempting.

I tend to spend bench time re-skilling and job searching full time. It worked for me.

Any recommendations for accountants?

[northernladuk]

Complicated? Freeagent? You know these tools are designed to make it easy? If you can't use Freeagent you shouldn't be let loose on email IMO.

IMO it looks like you are trying to avoid some basic responsibilities and do things the old (complicated and messy) way. All that's going away now for a good reason.
Might be easy just mailing your stuff off but just wait until something goes wrong. Try sorting it out with nothing.

Go Umbrella if you don't want the responsibility of running your company properly.

EDIT: - Haven't you been on the bench for a month and a half. Wouldn't that have been a good time to learn these things?

[saptastic]

I am interested in accountants that do all of the bookkeeping etc rather than learning complicated systems like crunch or even freeagent (which I believe is more user friendly). Just want to email in expenses, timesheets etc

Anyone out there using a good accountancy service that does all of this for you? Who do you use?

Out of interest have you tried freeagent or any other online accounting software ?

[hgllgh]

I am interested in accountants that do all of the bookkeeping etc rather than learning complicated systems like crunch or even freeagent (which I believe is more user friendly). Just want to email in expenses, timesheets etc

Anyone out there using a good accountancy service that does all of this for you? Who do you use?