Best way to do accounts and payroll for a very small community-interest company

adam42

Can anyone recommend the best approach for doing the financial administration of a new community-interest company?

I've just completed my first year 2022-2023 and at the start I thought I'd do it all myself initially. Then I found that just the payroll to pay myself a salary required more learning than I had time for, because I'm starting at the very bottom of the learning curve. As a result I didn't manage to pay myself in the tax year just finished and I'm also apprehensive of the amount of learning about tax to do the year's accounts.

I didn't give up my own finance & accounting efforts straight away because I'm not really keen on having an accountant, at least not one who does everything and might not answer emails for days. What I'm hoping is that there's an accountancy firm out there which has a web portal for their clients where the clients are guided automatically through most of the work and the fees are more affordable. Just such a thing exist or is that just a fantasy due to my IT background?

Alternatively, maybe I should stick to my original plan, invest the time and take some focused tax & payroll training - I wouldn't want to search the internet and watch a ton of youtube videos, I'm sure it would leave me frustrated. Is there any recommended training for doing the books yourself?

tightauldgit

If you don't feel you need the services of an accountant but don't have time to do it yourself then finding yourself a book-keeper with a bit of experience might be the half-way house. Or find some bookkeeping course at a local college?

I've done all my own books for my business and getting the basics isn't hard but obviously having someone experienced doing it means you're less likely to make mistakes or miss something important. 

Savvy_Sue

Payroll for a small organisation is reasonably straightforward using HMRC's Basic Tools, or BrightPay is very reasonably priced for up to 3 employees.

I've taught myself both payroll and bookkeeping, and neither comes naturally to me. BUT I had the time, and it was what needed to be done. And I knew what I needed from the books - what we spent money on, when, why, how; what income we received, when, why, how; were we solvent? 

I don't know enough about CICs to be helpful, but you possibly have a local voluntary services Council who could give advice or pointers, or try https://iel.org.uk/