Best way to do my accounts

00ec25 wrote: »

since you are a sole trader (otherwise you'd have said you were a ltd company as those who are know it) it makes no difference whatsoever what you call yourself on your invoices, there is only "you", the sole trader, for accounts and tax purposes

Although if the OP is using a 'trading as' name, they must include the proprietor's name too

martindow wrote: »

It may be simpler, but there is value in having separate accounts so you can see how each business is doing which would be difficult if they are combined. It can help you to decide where to concentrate your efforts to build up the most profitable aspects of your businesses.

Agreed, but that can be done within the book-keeping, i.e. by having cost centres set up or different analysis codes to break down the total figures into each segment. No need to prepare separate formal accounts nor separate supplementary sections of the tax return.

But, with a "one man" business, there's usually little much to be gained other than separating & analysing the income streams for interest only. It's usually a pain in the neck and inaccurate to try to split the common costs, such as the equipment, advertising, office supplies, telephone & internet, etc- you end up making arbitrary splits which negate the point of the exercise. Eg., how do you split the internet costs - do you do it based on proportion of overall income, or 50:50, or some other arbitrary way. You end up wasting a lot of time faffing about and end up with something that isn't accurate or useful anyway. I usually don't bother with anything beyond splitting the sales income into streams unless there are clear and obvious costs against one income stream but not the other, which sounds unlikely in this case.