New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

stevenmiller_2

Ziggy_Stardust wrote: »

Thanks, good to know as there's certainly no profits at the moment. As we are into a new tax year do we wait to be notified to send off our SA or can we just do? I'm sat here with my head about to implode looking at the booking and wondering where to start, fortunately there's only been 6 weeks since starting up. Can anyone recommend any easy to follow website which explain what to do, I've just downloaded an app to my mac called EasyBooks but I don't know where to start lol.

Is it just a basic record of your financial records your trying to do just now?

Bookkeeping for small businesses is fairly simple. Are you a sole trader or ltd company?

Ziggy_Stardust

Sole trader

stevenmiller_2

Ziggy_Stardust wrote: »

Sole trader

Are you just doing financial records for your own use just now or are you completing a self assesment for HMRC?

Ziggy_Stardust

stevenmiller wrote: »

Are you just doing financial records for your own use just now or are you completing a self assesment for HMRC?

Both, I need to get the 'books' in order, there's receipts for bits everywhere so I need to keep a record of them and get them organised. Also do I need to wait to be notified to do the SA or can I do it once my paperwork is in order. This is all for my husband, he's a private tutor so outgoings are not too high, just text books, ink cartridges, business cards and that sort of bits.

stevenmiller_2

Ziggy_Stardust wrote: »

Both, I need to get the 'books' in order, there's receipts for bits everywhere so I need to keep a record of them and get them organised. Also do I need to wait to be notified to do the SA or can I do it once my paperwork is in order. This is all for my husband, he's a private tutor so outgoings are not too high, just text books, ink cartridges, business cards and that sort of bits.

Im guessing his turnover is less than 77k. If it is you should be able to complete a short self assesment form which you can get at your local tax office. www- hmrc-gov-uk /forms/sa103s.pdfthis is a copy of it to look at it is pretty straight forward but any problems let me know. You will have to replace - with .

Dont let it stress you out too much you have until end of October to get it sent in or end of January if doing it online.

Is he planning on registering for VAT anytime soon and has the business going to be having any assets such as vehicle or equipment etc?

Ziggy_Stardust

stevenmiller wrote: »

Im guessing his turnover is less than 77k. If it is you should be able to complete a short self assesment form which you can get at your local tax office. www- hmrc-gov-uk /forms/sa103s.pdfthis is a copy of it to look at it is pretty straight forward but any problems let me know. You will have to replace - with .

Dont let it stress you out too much you have until end of October to get it sent in or end of January if doing it online.

Is he planning on registering for VAT anytime soon and has the business going to be having any assets such as vehicle or equipment etc?

He is going to be earning a lot less than £77K, I don't even think he'll bring enough to have to pay vat, maybe one we'll be rich lol. Thanks for the link to the self assessment form I'll go and have a look at that now

stevenmiller_2

Ziggy_Stardust wrote: »

He is going to be earning a lot less than £77K, I don't even think he'll bring enough to have to pay vat, maybe one we'll be rich lol. Thanks for the link to the self assessment form I'll go and have a look at that now

You should be able to get away with keeping simple accounts as long as you ensure all receipts are kept and a record of all money received from clients. You can do something like this

Opening Balance £100

Income
Subscriptions 50
Refund 40 90
190

Expenditure
Business Cards 15
Text Books 20
Transport 5
telephone 10
Stationery 5 55

Closing Balance £135


This should be done either weekly or monthly, it should not take long at all. If you do it monthly its a matter of sitting at end of year and adding 12 figures for each item or you could also have a spreadsheet set up were as you have a different column for each income/expense, you add the figure for the month into the column and it will tell you the totals pent so far on each particular item so far that year.

Your Profit and Loss for the year is basically tallying up the totals for the year and taking expenses away from income.

You can also do ledger accounts which would allow you to look at your books and see straight away how much has been spent throughout the financial period on travel, telephone etc. It also allows you to see if the money for these items were paid from cash/bank but to be honest I dont feel that you need this.

rosered1963

stevenmiller wrote: »

You should be able to get away with keeping simple accounts as long as you ensure all receipts are kept and a record of all money received from clients. You can do something like this

Opening Balance £100

Income
Subscriptions 50
Refund 40 90
190

Expenditure
Business Cards 15
Text Books 20
Transport 5
telephone 10
Stationery 5 55

Closing Balance £135


This should be done either weekly or monthly, it should not take long at all. If you do it monthly its a matter of sitting at end of year and adding 12 figures for each item or you could also have a spreadsheet set up were as you have a different column for each income/expense, you add the figure for the month into the column and it will tell you the totals pent so far on each particular item so far that year.

Your Profit and Loss for the year is basically tallying up the totals for the year and taking expenses away from income.

You can also do ledger accounts which would allow you to look at your books and see straight away how much has been spent throughout the financial period on travel, telephone etc. It also allows you to see if the money for these items were paid from cash/bank but to be honest I dont feel that you need this.

It is so good of you to help us out on this thread. A big thanks from me.

Ziggy_Stardust

rosered1963 wrote: »

It is so good of you to help us out on this thread. A big thanks from me.

Yes I agree, its very kind of you, thank you so much

TeeKay10

andyscott wrote: »

Welcome TeeKay how did you get on with the meeting with you lone parent advisor?

To be honest I think the ones of us who have been using this topic recently know more about NEA than most of the advisors in the job centres. If you have any questions regarding NEA feel free to ask.

What type of business is it that you have in mind?

Thanks andyscott, apologies for the late reply, my internet was down until today. :mad:

The 'LPA' was lovely and was as helpful as she could be but after reading through all of the bumpf on here before I got there, it was clear that she actually was trying to blag her way through telling me things, as she hadn't much idea about it and told me some really duff info! I politely asked her if there was an advisor who was a bit more knowledgeable about the NEA but she admitted that they all just get given a fact sheet, told a bit of info and are basically left to muddle through it, and the same applied to all the other benefit info too. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her actually - they have that much to try to remember.

Anyway, I've got someone from 'Business in the Community' (based in Nottingham) calling me on Monday so we'll see what happens from then! Haven't a clue what they are going to ask me so I'm a bit nervous! I'd only gone into the JC to enquire and ended up coming out with an appointment, having filled in various forms! (which I confess I can't remember what they were - possibly NEA 1 and something else? I was baffled tbh! )

FYI I'm in Derby and I was on I.S and Carers Allowance but due to a change in circumstances I was put onto JSA in February.

I am starting a domestic cleaning business and already have 7 clients interested, following some word of mouth referrals from when I did this type of work for someone else about a year ago. I have vast experience in this area but am not at all business minded with regards tax, book-keeping etc but my partner (romantic and business!) is more clued up in that bit so that's good. I shouldn't be needing the NEA loan as my only costs are cleaning products which are quite cheap (good ol' Home Bargains and B&M!). I have buckets, mops, a vacuum, a reliable car and elbow grease so hopefully am all set!

This is something I was going to be doing regardless, but to find out that I can get support (financially and otherwise) is really good. I was all set to just stop the JSA and crack on with self emp so I'm really pleased to have done my research and been made aware of NEA! The info on here is fantastic - thanks to the helpful ones on here! :T

I'm sure I'll be asking many more questions as the weeks go on and will be following the thread daily.