TW Accounting Services

VAT is becoming ever more complex – there are a number of different schemes out there that you can join. Also there is the question – should you be registered for VAT at all?

Do you know which products/services you should be charging VAT on and what records you’re required to produce and keep to complete your VAT return?

Once your sales reach a specific level, if you are selling taxable items you must register for VAT. If you are below this level you have a choice whether or not to register. In some cases voluntary registration may be beneficial as you can reclaim VAT paid on purchases.

We can assist you by advising on your best options regarding VAT and we can complete and file your VAT return accurately and on time. We can also review your sales to ensure you are correctly charging VAT where required and reclaiming VAT where you can.

Once you take on staff and pay them you have a legal requirement to maintain Payroll Records.

There are a lot of allowances and deductions set by the Government that you must be aware of – such as Personal Allowances, Pay As You Earn Rates, National Insurance Rates, Sick Pay Rates, Maternity Pay Rates etc. You also need to be aware of when they will apply and for how long.

In addition there’s the relatively recent requirement for Real Time Submissions which means you need to report Payroll details to HMRC on or before each and every pay day. Failure to report on time can result in sizable fines and penalties.

You must also report to HMRC on any changes in circumstances of your employees such as reaching retirement age, leaving or just starting working with you. There are also annual reporting requirements, such as P60’s and P11d’s etc.

You must prepare payslips for your employees for each payroll and documents for end of year and change of employer (P60’s and P45’s).

If you work within the Construction Industry there’s the additional legal requirement of dealing with payments to sub contractors and how those sub contractors can reclaim tax.

In short there’s a lot involved in running a payroll and we at TW Accounting Services can help you in 2 ways:

We can advise you on the benefits of different Payroll packages helping you to choose the best for your circumstances. We can then work with you to set up the package for your business and train your staff on its operation.
Alternatively we can run a payroll system for you ensuring that all reporting deadlines are met and an accurate Payroll is processed on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis as you require. We will produce all the paperwork for your employees and HMRC.

Every business has a Statutory Obligation to provide Annual Accounts primarily to Companies House and HMRC. There are subtle differences regards the contents of the submissions such as the treatment of Capital Expenditure/depreciation. Generally an Accountant will assist with the preparation of these since there are numerous rules and regulations to what can and can’t be included.

We can prepare and submit your return ensuring it’s compliant with the current legislation, on time and your tax liability is minimised.

There’s a great deal that a good Accountant can learn from a set of Annual Accounts and we will spend time with you reviewing and analysing your results and highlighting any areas of concern that we find.

There are various situations whereby a private individual may be required to complete and submit a Self Assessment Tax Return, some common examples are:

income from renting out property
a Company Director
a Partner in a Partnership
a Sole Trader
a Contractor in any industry
other Complicated tax affairs
The more complicated your tax affairs the more scope for error and that’s where we at TW Accounting Services can assist. We can work with individuals to complete their Self Assessment returns Accurately, On Time and Using all available Deductions and Allowances thereby reducing their Tax Liability.

Pricing your products and services right could be the difference between being successful in business or not. You don’t want to price so high that you scare away all your customers but at the same time you want to ensure adequate prices to provide you with a good profit. The price of your product can also determine the market in which your product will sell. If you price it too low then you will not have access to luxury markets as it will be perceived ‘cheap’, if you price too high budget and cost conscious markets will be excluded.

We at TW Accounting Services can guide you with Pricing; we can calculate the base cost of producing your product/service, which (in most cases) should be the lowest price you would accept. Then we can work with market information to help you to reach a price for your products and services that is acceptable to the market and brings you a good profit.

Once you are happy with your prices, you can’t then assume everything will stay the same. Prices from suppliers will change and your fixed costs will rise. Hopefully your productivity will increase as you learn. You must ensure you review your prices in line with these changes to continue to profit from your products and services.

We can provide a regular monitoring service to ensure the combination of your costs and prices maintain a good profit level. We can highlight any products/services that are not attaining good profits. And we can suggest ways in which you may be able to maximise profits from individual products and services.

You may run your business from several different locations or you may sell to different markets or through different markets (i.e. on-line and through a physical shop). Wouldn’t it be good to know how each of these different business streams is performing? Knowing that each of your different areas of business is contributing to your overall profit can be invaluable.

We can provide a regular monitoring service to review your different business areas – ensuring that you are aware of any problems before they become too problematic.

Budgets and Profit Forecasts are essentially plans for the future for your business. These are often required externally when you are applying for further investment and loans, but are also extremely useful internally for managing the business.

Do you know where you want to be with the business in the next 5 years, how do you intend to get there? How will you know if you are on track or not if you don’t measure the business performance against your goal?

Drawing up plans for the future can be hugely beneficial, not only does it give you somewhere to aim, but it also gives you something to evaluate against if you are on target to attain your goals. If achieving your goals is looking unlikely you can take early action and change your activities or plans.

We can help you by building (with you) achievable goals (Budgets) for the future and with our Management Accounting service we can monitor your activity against these goals giving you early warning of any deviations or problems that are likely to occur.

Management Accounts are the regular (usually monthly or quarterly) reviews of business activity against plan (Budgets). These reviews are invaluable to a business as they can help to predict problems before they occur. Trends can be identified in growing costs or reducing sales levels and actions can be taken to reverse those trends before they become detrimental to the business.

Management Accounts and Budgets can be prepared down to department or branch level, showing performance against plan for individual areas of your business. This can be of benefit as an individual area of the business may be performing badly but it is hidden within an overall business performing well.

We at TW Accounting Services can prepare regular Management Accounting reports for your business and meet with you and explain our findings, this allows you to take action early when a problem is identified.

Like Budgets and Profit Forecasts, Cash Flow Forecasts are part of your business plans for the future, and likewise they are generally required externally when you are trying to secure further investment or finance.

They are also extremely beneficial internally as they assist in the management of cash. With good Cash Flow Forecasts you can determine when in the future you could possibly run out of cash, which allows you to secure additional funds in advance of this. This could be essential to the survival of your business. Even the most profitable business, if it runs out of cash, could be forced to close its doors. If you have plans for a large investment, a Cash Flow forecast can help you determine if there’s a requirement for additional finance.

We can prepare and update your Cash Flow Forecasts for you on a regular basis ensuring that you will have sufficient warning of any potential cash shortfalls. In addition we can give you advice on how to manage cash shortfalls.

Over the lifetime of your business you will be faced with numerous decisions where financial advice and modelling can be hugely beneficial.

You may wonder what the financial impact would be of increasing your prices by 5% or allowing customers an extra 5 days credit? What about the financial implication of taking on another 2 members of staff? We can help with these and many more business decisions by preparing financial models.

We can show you the impact on your cash flow of negotiating an additional 15 days credit from your suppliers and work with you to negate Cash Flow and Working Capital issues by way of financial modelling.

If you take any of our service packages as an added extra we will monitor your current Financial Obligations and advise you of any changes that will affect your business (such as the current Pension changes).

If you are thinking of starting out in business now is the best time to engage with an Accountant. We can review your circumstances and advise on the best business structure (Limited Company/Sole Trader/Partnership/Other) for your business. We can also advise on your requirements for Companies House and HMRC registrations and whether or not you should be registered for VAT and other taxes.

If you require help with Finance we may be able to direct you to funds that are available such as Grants and Business Loans and we have a number of handy fact sheets to help with your early days in business. We can also help prepare you for meetings with investors and loan providers by preparing and helping you to understand your Forecasts.

We would be happy to discuss any questions or fears you may have.

Setting up a new Company is a busy time with a lot to remember. You are required to register with Companies House and HMRC for all the different taxes you may be due to pay.

We at TW Accounting Services can take the work out of your Company Formation by completing and submitting all the relevant paperwork to Companies House and HMRC on your behalf. We can even help you with the opening of a business bank account.

Many people who are starting out in business are new to the Financial and record keeping requirements imposed by the Government. Very few would have any idea how to manage Financial Systems to help run the business and keep it compliant with current legislation. However, if correct records are not kept, how will you know who you owe money to or who owes you money, and how would you know if your business is profitable?

Even if you intend to employ an Accountant or Book Keeper you as the Business Owner are still responsible for maintaining the basic records and the better these are kept – the lower your Accounting Fees will be, and the less likely you are to receive fines & penalties.

We at TW Accounting Services can spend time with you early in the life your Business helping to set up systems and processes to enable you to better manage your Accounting Records. This could vary from setting up paper records and folders to keep receipts and invoices for passing to your book keeper – to setting up Payroll and Accounting Computer systems for you or your staff to maintain.

Getting this right in the early days can make a huge difference to the time and costs required to produce Tax Returns and Companies House Submissions. It can also greatly help with the management of the business since better information is available for analysis.

As your Accountant we are here whenever you need us to ask for advice and ‘bounce’ ideas of off.