Basic sole trader spreadsheet/ledger

qw3rt7

Hi, i am in the process going self employed, and just want to check my very basic accountancy is up to requirements.
I have a simple 3 column spreadsheet which acts as a monthly ledger, eg column 1 is discription (eg hosting costs, payement from client etc) coloumn 2 is money in, column 3 is money out.
At the bottom of each month there are totals etc, and each new month carries over last months end balance.
Does this seem enough? i will be keeping all receipts and paper work etc, anf have a seperate bank acount.

My problem arises with expensise that are part business, part personnel. Eg i put £50 petrol in my car, its use will be split 25/75 personel/business. Do i pay for the fuel from the business a/c or my personel a/c? I have heard it is easier to claim per mile, rather than total costs, if so again which a/c do i pay from, and how do i record it?
If i make enough money, i will want to draw some out for personel use, how do i record this in the ledger?

Sorry if this seems like alot of daft questions, i am not going into this blind, and consider myself to be a pretty numerate person, but something about HMRC puts me on edge and makes me doubt everything i do!!
Also i am booked into a business link workshop, but its not untill the end of next month, and i already have 4 prospective clients, so need to get a move on.

EDIT, googleing, i have just found this (not spam i promise!!!) : http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/basic.htm
It doesnt answer my questions above, but does look inviting for the price, especially the automatic tax return bit in addition to my above questions, does this look worthwhile, or should i stick with making my own spreadsheet. I am perfecly happy using advanced excel features, i just dont know where to start!!

fengirl_2

Your spreadsheet is not enough to enable you to easily produce accounts. You need two spreadsheets for each month - one for income and one for expenditure. Both will record all transactions going through your business bank account.
The income sheet will have collumns showing date; source and amount.
The expenditure sheet will have collumns showing date; description (eg Post office, W H Smith); cheque number and a number of collumns which separate out the different type of expenditure, eg stock, postage, travel, stationery, etc.
At the end of each month, you total all these collumns and reconcile them with your bank account.
if you use petty cash, you do a similar expenditure sheet for cash expenses and enter petty cash drawn from the bank in its own collumn on your bank sheet.
Pay for all your mortoring costs through the business and then adjust for personal use when you do your self assessment (or include the 40p/25p pm, whchever is the most beneficial). Drawings you just include in a spearate collumn on your bank expenditure spreadsheet. If you PM me, I can send you a sample spreadsheet.

Pennywise

How will your spreadsheet handle the difference between invoice dates and payment dates? You'll need payment dates to balance against your bank statements, but your annual accounts and tax return figures need to be based on invoice dates, so you'll have to adapt your spreadsheet to deal with two dates per payment/receipt. You also need analysis columns to analyse the in's and out's into the various categories. A simple spreadsheet soon turns into something far more complicated.

I'd advise you buy a spreadsheet (DIY accounting looks good) or use a proper accounting software system which will properly control the difference in dates and make the analysis and reconciliations much simpler.

Why re-invent the wheel and write your own spreadsheet (which is probably not as good) when there are so many solutions already out there for a nominal price.