Reply to: Does anyone do their own accounts, tax, self assessment etc?

[SimonMac]

FA is very good, the part I would be interested in is how much of the required stuff it does for you e.g. RTI, CT returns, SATR? Do you still end up manually doing those using the numbers it tells you into the forms? We tried to follow the process for my wife's business but how the different categories all got mapped to HMRC categories seemed a bit of a faff.

RTI is automatic, as is VAT (well not automatic but is handeld by FA with a few clicks of the button) SATR is manual but it gives you all the information you need so its just a case of entering what it tells you to do (about an hour a year for the wife and I) CT600 was manual along the same lines as SATR where it tells you the figurers and what boxes to enter but they have just announced CT600 will now be in the service, I have a webinar on Wednesday where I am getting a demo so will let you know after

[d000hg]

*wave*

Open an account with Natwest or RBS and you get FreeAgent bundled, for 99% of limited company contractors its very simple and once you get the hang of it will take no more than an hour a month

FA is very good, the part I would be interested in is how much of the required stuff it does for you e.g. RTI, CT returns, SATR? Do you still end up manually doing those using the numbers it tells you into the forms? We tried to follow the process for my wife's business but how the different categories all got mapped to HMRC categories seemed a bit of a faff.

[gizzmo]

Very pleased to have seen Quick File suggested here. I spent a couple of hours migrating my side hustle Ltd company from a spreadsheet on to it yesterday. It looks excellent and I am absolutely certain now that I can complete HMRC and companies house annual reporting requirements using just HMRC's on line tools myself. Later in the year I will be closing down the side hustle company anyway to finally fully retire. Quick File is just perfect for me.

Brilliant - exactly how I felt when I first moved over to it - it makes everything really quick and simple and saved me a lot of time as well as I pay 1/10th of what i used to pay my accountant.

[Fred Bloggs]

Quickfile looks very promising and reasonably priced too. I also found VT as well which looks historic but seems to review well.

Very pleased to have seen Quick File suggested here. I spent a couple of hours migrating my side hustle Ltd company from a spreadsheet on to it yesterday. It looks excellent and I am absolutely certain now that I can complete HMRC and companies house annual reporting requirements using just HMRC's on line tools myself. Later in the year I will be closing down the side hustle company anyway to finally fully retire. Quick File is just perfect for me.

[mookiemoo]

I do! Use FreeAgent but I was a trained accountant before I got into IT. I refuse to pay one to do something I can do myself now that IR35 is not an issue. I used to pay one for the support in case of IR35 investigations - VAT and other enquiries are not an issue

[Abbot]

Quickfile looks very promising and reasonably priced too. I also found VT as well which looks historic but seems to review well.

[gizzmo]

I have had a few offers for work similar to the type I used to do as a contractor. The client would require the work to be done through a Limited company and be VAT. This is only small pieces of work that I'm doing more because I miss contracting than for financial gain so there isn't much money in it. To make it work I would need to do my own accounts and filing (which is fine as I have done this before) as it wouldn't be financially viable to pay a firm. I just wanted to see if anyone here did this for themselves and what software/accounts package would be suitable?

Have a look at Quickfile which also has accountant support if required at reasonable prices, as well as very helpful community boards where you can get assistance without constantly being told to "go ask your accountant...."
You can also pay a reasonable fee to get the Quickfile accountants to review your accounts before you submit. It worked out much cheaper than my accountant was charging.
Basic user is free but even the fully loaded paid package is pretty cheap for providing similar services to FreeAgent.

If you require accountant services they will quote based on what you need, year end accounts service is about £120 for a micro-entity accounts - which is much cheaper than my accountant had been charging for not doing much as I was doing most of it myself (and was correcting his mistakes far too often). I have had no issues since using Quickfile and been using it for several years now.

https://www.quickfile.co.uk/

[Abbot]

Thanks SimonMac. That is perfect.

[SimonMac]

I looked at Freeagent but I still wouldn't be able to the CT600 and iXBRL tagging in there?

You can now

https://support.freeagent.com/hc/en-...ough-FreeAgent

[hobnob]

I do my own self-assessment tax return (SATR), which is pretty straightforward. However, I think it's worth paying an accountant for the rest.

[Lance]

The client would require the work to be done through a Limited company and be VAT registered.

Not sure why any company would require their supplier to be VAT registered. Depending on the business you run it might be wise either way, but it's not really the clients business.

For what it's worth, I think you should use an accountant on the basis that if you don't know whether you are capable of doing it, then you aren't. It'll cost around £1k a year.

[Abbot]

Sorry it is not just a one-off. I have a few pieces of work with the possibility for more. It is just that it wouldn't be anything financially significant to live off.

I suppose I could just use an umbrella and have it paid as pension.

I do have a Limited company but I'm of the opinion that outside IR35 is never happening for me so I'm closing it so that I can finish of any potential risk in that company.

I looked at Freeagent but I still wouldn't be able to the CT600 and iXBRL tagging in there?

[northernladuk]

Very few people on here do their own accounts but that's because most are full time contracting so it's all the bells and whistles. We also recommend accountants as, although they cost money, they do avoid mistakes which can cost more than the price of the accountant.

Might be worth ring round a few on the recommended list to see if they will offer a reduced service and weigh the price up. Maybe just a fixed cost for year end stuff. I'm not a fan of advising people to do their own as we've seen some people make a right balls up of it on here. That said, if it's just not financially viable then its your only option.

Freeagent is definitely the way to go though. It does all of it and I believe they've just released extra functionality for submitting end of year stuff which will certainly help you.

If you do engage an accountant they normally offer it for free but I believe you can get a free copy if you bank with Natwest, RBS and some others. Hopefully someone will post the correct information about this but that is definitely the way to go for you. Great piece of software. Does all the sums for you and can submit most of what you need from within in the software. Might be a pain in the bum swapping bank accounts but it will be worth it in the long run to use freeagent.

[SimonMac]

*wave*

Open an account with Natwest or RBS and you get FreeAgent bundled, for 99% of limited company contractors its very simple and once you get the hang of it will take no more than an hour a month

[ladymuck]

I'm assuming you already have a LtdCo in place? I can't see why you'd set up a new company for a small one-off. Why not use a good umbrella?

FreeAgent is probably the best option if you're adamant that your best option is to stand up a company for this work.