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Compliance Services


Book keeping
We can relieve you and your business of a significant burden by taking care of all your bookkeeping and accounting needs. This ranges from making use of our inhouse bookkeeping bureau to the preparation of your annual accounts. We will treat every business individually so that we can tailor our approach to your requirements. 

Besides the core bookkeeping, we can also maintain your VAT records, prepare your payroll and take on ad hoc projects to free up valuable time for your staff.

We believe that our high level of IT literacy can help improve our efficiency and help our clients to set-up their accounting systems to be efficient and effective. We are Sage Accountants Club Members and can supply software and hardware.

To find out about iCash, our online bookeeping solution, click here


Business planning
Every business must plan ahead in order to ensure success, but it is too easy to succumb to the daily pressures of work and delay or ignore strategic planning. The result of poor planning is often rushed and misinformed decisions, over/under capacity, inefficiency and missed opportunities.

Every business owner needs to invest time in developing a long-term plan, starting with what you want to achieve from your investment and what your reasons for being in business are, and then developing a plan to help achieve these objectives.

We are well placed to help you develop these plans and have a considerable pool of experience and expertise to draw on. The financial aspects are usually the backbone to any business plan and you need to ensure that this aspect has been adequately dealt with in your plan. Contact us today for a strategic planning review.


Business start-up
Most people who start up in business do so because they have a good business proposition, not because they are experts in the financial aspects of running a business. These factors can often be quite daunting to the entrepreneur and this is where we can help by evaluating your ideas and helping you develop them into a feasible business.

We can also help you:

Call us for a free initial consultation to find out how we can help your ideas become reality.


Business valuation
One of our key objectives is to help our clients increase the value of their business. Each year we can carry out a valuation of your business using software developed by the Added Value Network. 

We will produce a detailed report showing the current value of the business and ideas on how you can maximise its worth.


Company secretarial
When running a hectic business you cannot afford to use valuable time making sure you are complying with the Companies Act. However you do need to be aware how this legislation affects your company and its directors. We can help by carrying out the company secretarial duties for you. Our services include:
Financial performance review
We will carry out a financial performance review of your business. This will be in the form of a detailed report which includes:


Management accounts
The most important part of our compliance services is the preparation of periodic management accounts. Monitoring and controlling the financial performance of your business is of paramount importance and regular management information is vital to the continued success of your business. We can either carry out this function for you or help you set-up internal systems to generate the information. 

We will also take this service one step further by interpreting these figures for you and making suggestions to help you improve your profits or to help your business grow.


Payroll
Running your own payroll can be time consuming and complicated, particularly with the ever increasing complexity of taxation and employment legislation. There is an increasing burden on business to comply with these issues and non-compliance can lead to substantial penalties.

We can prepare payrolls for businesses with 2 to 200 staff.

Our service is comprehensive and confidential and includes:

Even if you only have a few employees, you will make savings by engaging us to administer your payroll.


Statutory accounts
If you are a limited company then you are required to prepare accounts that must be filed with Companies House in a statutory format. We can help you by preparing your statutory accounts and filing them with Companies House for you.


Self-assessment
Worried about self-assessment? Don't know where to start with your tax return? Let us help you.

To start with, download our self-assessment checklist by clicking here.

Use the checklist in one of two ways. Either:

a. As an aide memoire to help you complete your return. With the checklist you can be confident that you haven't missed anything from your return. Or

b. Complete the checklist and send it to us by post, fax, e-mail or in person (contact details for each can be found by clicking here). We will immediately supply you with a personalised fixed fee quote for completing your tax return for you.

The price we quote will be fully inclusive of dealing with all routine correspondence with the Inland Revenue on your behalf.

We can also offer you access to our exclusive tax investigation insurance scheme which protects you in the event that you are unlucky enough to be selected for a tax enquiry by the Inland Revenue. To find out more about tax investigation insurance, simply read below.


Tax Investigation Insurance
When the Government introduced Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA), it gave the Inland Revenue new powers. Significantly, the Revenue may now initiate random investigations, known as Full Enquiries, into taxpayers business and personal affairs. Subsequently Self Assessment has been extended to include all companies, whose accounting periods ended on or after 1st July 1999.

Inspectors of Taxes have been set high targets for the initiation of Corporation Tax Self Assessment (CTSA) Full Enquiries. During 2001 the total number of Full Enquiries increased by 50%.

The Inland Revenue is also extending its reach into new areas. They recently became responsible for the collection and compliance of National Insurance Contributions, and they now administer compliance with the minimum wage legislation and the Working Family Tax Credit. The Revenue has every cause to inspect an employer's PAYE records. If they find errors, they may have reason to dig deeper.

Not to be outdone, HM Customs & Excise are making their contribution to the pressures faced by business-people; their officers have been ordered to spend more time doing audits. In 1999/2000, the extra duties generated by these audits jumped to £2,047 million!

Businesses and individuals have a right to defend their position if the authorities decide to investigate their affairs. But to present their case in a professional and persuasive way they need the services of an accountant. By covering the cost of these bills, tax protection insurance takes the sting out of tax investigations.

It is our policy to recommend this option to our clients but it is NOT compulsory. We will continue to act in your best interests in the event of an enquiry with or without fee protection insurance. Prices start from as little as £110 per year.


Corporation tax
Corporation tax will represent a substantial cost to any profitable business, not only in terms of the tax itself but also in compliance with reporting obligations, investigations with tax authorities and penalties for non-compliance.

We can help you minimise your corporation tax payments and relieve you of any administrative burden of complying with tax legislation. We will deal with all business tax matters, including preparing income and /or corporation tax computations and preparing and submitting your partnership tax return or corporation tax self-assessment return.