Book keeping problem - info needed

alirob12

Hi, I have recently gone self employed along my full time job, and would like some help starting my book keeping - has anyone got asimple excel spreadsheat with formulas etc, or example to show me what it has to look like- I am a total newbie in that dept. It will only be very simple as I do sales and dont have many costs) just petrol, phone, car costs etc, and income so should b easy... Any advice - will be very appreciated.
Many thanks:D

Jake'sGran

The main thing is to keep a record of what comes in and what goes out. There must be a good explanation on the Internet about simple book-keeping for a small company. One very important thing is to be able to estimate at the beginning whether or not your annual sales will exceed the limit for VAT.
VAT records are very important. I have kept the books for a few small companies but this was quite a long time ago. If you intend to use an accountant you must be sure to keep every piece of paper relating to your business e.g. copies of invoices issued to clients, bank statements, records of payments made to you etc. It does not necessarily have to be set out in a particular way as long as it is easy to follow. I'll see if I can find a link that explains it better.

alirob12

Many thanks... No I will not get to VAT level quite just yet... So yes just very simple money inand expenses out... A sample of excel spreadsheet would be a great thing to show me how it should be done. I have got most of my petrol etc receits, phone bills, internet bills etc, so do I keep these records just for myself or do I need to show them to some1? Many thanks:beer:

frog_bounce

what is the VAT limit as i am thinking of starting up a childrens entertainment (birthday parties etc) for a bit of extra cash at the weekends?

i have another job that i will do during the week?



thanks

Elaine_Wilson

frog_southampton wrote: »

what is the VAT limit as i am thinking of starting up a childrens entertainment (birthday parties etc) for a bit of extra cash at the weekends?

i have another job that i will do during the week?

The current registration limit is £64,000. This applies to any twelve month period. This means you should check at the end of every month by adding up the turnover for the previous twelve months and comparing it to that limit. In practice you will not need to actually do this every month, just when you know you are approaching the limit.

Am I correct in assuming that you are not self-employed in your other job? Just thought I'd mention it buecause it should be remembered that it is the person that is registered, not the business. So someone with two businesses has to combine them to do the calculations.

terryw

alirob12 wrote: »

Many thanks... No I will not get to VAT level quite just yet... So yes just very simple money inand expenses out... A sample of excel spreadsheet would be a great thing to show me how it should be done. I have got most of my petrol etc receits, phone bills, internet bills etc, so do I keep these records just for myself or do I need to show them to some1? Many thanks:beer:

Bung freeware or shareware bookeeping into google and you'll get loads to choose from. Every time you enter an expense, give it a number i.e 1/ 2008, 2/2008, etc and put this number against the item. Keep all the receipts etc as they MAY be asked for by the tax people or more likely by your accountant if you choose to use one for your end of year submissions to HMRC. They tend to only ask for receipts etc when they do an investigation.
]Best tip of the lot? Do the record keeping everyday. Do not put it off...it then becomes a mammoth task.

frog_bounce

i am just an employee in my other job.

dont expect to be making over 64k in the weekend job so no VAT for me then is that right? just cash in hand basicaly? or will i have to pay tax?

ioscorpio

www.vtsoftware.co.uk have a free cash book program you can download

CannyJock

frog_southampton wrote: »

i am just an employee in my other job.

dont expect to be making over 64k in the weekend job so no VAT for me then is that right? just cash in hand basicaly? or will i have to pay tax?

Hmmm, depends if you want the legal answer or not. You should declare your income and expenditure for the self-employed weekend work. Tax man doesn't do tax-free deals for weekend work unfortunately

There's a separate question on the traceability of the weekend cash and the consequences of having undeclared, untaxed income. Wouldn't help if your first customer was a tax inspector and you asked him to pay you cash with a knowing nudge and wink.

Pennywise

ioscorpio wrote: »

www.vtsoftware.co.uk have a free cash book program you can download

There is also a free web-based accounting ledger system www.winweb.com - try to avoid spreadsheets - there is free or cheap proper accounting software available that will be more robust and has built in "sanity" checks. It is far too easy to make mistakes using a spreadsheet and hard to realise you've made them.

chappers

Elaine_Wilson wrote: »

Just thought I'd mention it buecause it should be remembered that it is the person that is registered, not the business. So someone with two businesses has to combine them to do the calculations.

Not if either or both are limited companies or it can be demonstrated that each of your businesses are seperate entities in a non competitive field e.g one in dressmaking and one in demolition