Book-keeping Fears

YORKSHIRELASS

Just wanted to add that there is a huge temptation to ignore it until the letters start arriving asking where your tax return is.

I do my husband's tax return and one year it all just ran away with me - I left it until the year end and became a nightmare to unravel.

Keep on top of it and keep it simple - Pennywises advice is good too, and yes my husband has an old icecream tub in his van for receipts!

Opinion

I use spreadsheets for mine. Nice and colour coded, most cells have comments with extra information. I'm sure others do this too but one really handy thing I do is take a photo/scan of any receipts and invoices, then when inputting to my spreadsheet I hyperlink that cell to the photo. No need to go back and forth between digital folders/physical folders where the originals are kept. Accountant likes it.

They did mentioned Sage and Xero (which they have an offer on) but in the same breath said my spreadsheets were absolutely fine and a software package would take time to learn, so I should stick to my spreadsheet.

Slinky

martindow wrote: »

The other advantage of noting everything down as you go is that you include little items such as odd bits of mileage that are difficult to remember a few months later. These small items can add up to a tidy sum and it is essential to include them to be sure you are operating on a sensible profit margin.

I keep a small diary in the car and note down the opening and closing mileage and destination of any business trips I do which makes this particular record keeping easy.

davel_2

I was (still am!) similar to yourself when dealing with my accounts. I tried lots of different software packages, but couldn't find anything that was simple and did exactly what I wanted it to do.

I then discovered Freeagent; I think it's great and their customer support is great too. Why not take a look and see if it's the sort of thing you need, they have a month free trial also.

my link http://fre.ag/43g6ba53

thistledome

I have been following this thread as I'm the same position as OP. I keep a rudimentary accounts book for my self employed partner that goes to our accountant every year and he does our self assesment tax thingy for us.

The trouble is that as my partner is getting on in years and doing less and less work, the accountant is costing us a lot more in percentage terms. Last year we got a tax rebate, but the accountants fee cost more than half of it.

I find doing the simple cash book records daunting enough, would I have a hope in hell of filling in the online tax return? As OP said, is there a "for dummies" type of thing that will walk you through it?

cheexy

FreeAgent is great!!! I am currently using the free trial and I have PDFed all my online receipts and attached them to my expenses. The software allowed me to see just how much expenses I had made out of pocket because my Business Bank account had not been opened thanks to Lloyds Bank and their issues. I went to a different bank and now my business account is open, all my business expenses go through my business account and all looks well for now.

martindow

thistledome wrote: »

I have been following this thread as I'm the same position as OP. I keep a rudimentary accounts book for my self employed partner that goes to our accountant every year and he does our self assesment tax thingy for us.

The trouble is that as my partner is getting on in years and doing less and less work, the accountant is costing us a lot more in percentage terms. Last year we got a tax rebate, but the accountants fee cost more than half of it.

I find doing the simple cash book records daunting enough, would I have a hope in hell of filling in the online tax return? As OP said, is there a "for dummies" type of thing that will walk you through it?

Having used an accountant you should have sets of books and accounts that you can use to do next year's yourself. Perhaps you could get your accountant to talk you through what they are doing so you are confident to carry on into the future.

I think there is a lot of value using an accountant to make sure everything is set up properly when a business is starting up. Once this is done I feel that the benefits diminish unless there are major changes in the business. For a your business when the turnover is reducing book keeping and tax should be getting simpler.

Get on with it soon so you are nowhere near the deadline for submitting the return and all the pressure that can produce. If you get stuck there is lots of advice available.

mumps

thistledome wrote: »

I have been following this thread as I'm the same position as OP. I keep a rudimentary accounts book for my self employed partner that goes to our accountant every year and he does our self assesment tax thingy for us.

The trouble is that as my partner is getting on in years and doing less and less work, the accountant is costing us a lot more in percentage terms. Last year we got a tax rebate, but the accountants fee cost more than half of it.

I find doing the simple cash book records daunting enough, would I have a hope in hell of filling in the online tax return? As OP said, is there a "for dummies" type of thing that will walk you through it?

I do mine and my husbands, I used to do it on paper but it is much easier on line. It goes through it step by step, if you have your paperwork it isn't difficult. Well I haven't found it hard although I dread it every year, put it off till the last minute and then think, "Why didn't I just do it months ago."

brownbabygirl

mumps wrote: »

I do mine and my husbands, I used to do it on paper but it is much easier on line. It goes through it step by step, if you have your paperwork it isn't difficult. Well I haven't found it hard although I dread it every year, put it off till the last minute and then think, "Why didn't I just do it months ago."

when you say online which site do you use?

charlie-chan

brownbabygirl wrote: »

when you say online which site do you use?

I think they were referring to the online Tax return.