Help with self employment records

JamesTg1

Hullo I have just started working for a large home improvement company in the uk as a sales representative.

I will be self employed and was wondering if anyone had an example of a spreadsheet that I could keep my records such as mileage and expenses please.

Also if you have any other tips on what I am able to claim as expenses I would be very grateful.

Astaroth

Your accountant would certainly be the one to advise you on expenses off setting... they may also have a spreadsheet to use to make their and your job easier

shameless-about-money

Whatever you do don't use an accountant - they are far too expensive.

Take a look here, I think this will help -


http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/finance/expenses/fr11assheet/

http://www.iw-chameleon.co.uk/bacs/ss_03.html

and one to buy -

http://www.spreadsheetconverter.com/l_excel.htm

Astaroth

A good accountant will save you more than their fees - normally by far

Mrs_pbradley936

You can claim for accountants fees on your tax form.

shameless-about-money

Well, I was self-employed for 23 and never had any problems in doing it myself and no, accountants don't save you a lot of money unless you can claim household outgoings aswell. Most accountants charge a basic fee of £1000 for the most basic of services and to my way of thinking that is a waste of money.

Astaroth

I paid a lot less than that for them to do my annual returns (obviously did a lot of leg work myself as it is silly paying them their sort of hourly rate to add up receipts etc) and the savings they brought me were about 5-6x their fee

JamesTg1

To clear up a couple of things,
I am not going to use an accountant this year and anyway even if you do don't you have to keep your records?

What I am looking for an idea of a database or a spreadsheet that I can use to keep track of things like mileage, petrol, stationary and other types of expenses? Can anyone help please?

Elaine_Wilson

shameless-about-money wrote:

Most accountants charge a basic fee of £1000 for the most basic of services and to my way of thinking that is a waste of money.

Maybe that's true for central London but for most of the country the situation is a little different.

From the op details I would only expect to charge between £125 and £300 depending on what information I was presented with. And I'm only about 35 miles from London so not exactly in some deprived backwater.

Most of my clients are capable of doing their own return and I don't pretend otherwise. But they prefer to pay me as they don't like dealing with tax forms and they can use my knowledge to ensure they claim for everything they are entitled to.

But to get back to the original query I think there are templates for expenses claims on the Microsoft website which could be used. Although designed for employed persons the principle is the same for the self-employed.

shameless-about-money

Elaine_Wilson wrote:

Maybe that's true for central London but for most of the country the situation is a little different.

From the op details I would only expect to charge between £125 and £300 depending on what information I was presented with. And I'm only about 35 miles from London so not exactly in some deprived backwater.

Most of my clients are capable of doing their own return and I don't pretend otherwise. But they prefer to pay me as they don't like dealing with tax forms and they can use my knowledge to ensure they claim for everything they are entitled to.

But to get back to the original query I think there are templates for expenses claims on the Microsoft website which could be used. Although designed for employed persons the principle is the same for the self-employed.

I am speaking of the North East of England not London. I haven't been in London all that long.

Accountants are incredibly expensive!

JamesTg1

Elaine_Wilson wrote:

But to get back to the original query I think there are templates for expenses claims on the Microsoft website which could be used. Although designed for employed persons the principle is the same for the self-employed.

Yes I have looked on the microsoft website but there are loads of templates, do you have any idea of which one i should be using please?