Online Accounting

From April 2019 the business world faced a major change in the form of Making Tax Digital Difficult (MTD). Initially aimed at VAT registered businesses there became a new way to file VAT Returns, including the relevant underlying transactions. Technical and other matters has meant that from 2023 at the earliest existing annual Self Assessment Tax Returns will be replaced by five or in some cases six new reporting obligations made during and after the tax year. Under MTD HMRC aims to join up its internal systems and so create one account for each taxpayer, for all their different taxes within HMRC. Via their ‘digital account’ taxpayers will be able to view all their payments, and offset overpayments in one tax against underpayments in others.

Under MTD it is mandatory to keep digital business records. This means the days of the carrier bag full of records, the Simplex D or other manual record keeping books will be gone. In addition, business owners and property landlords will have to file quarterly returns of income and expenditure to HMRC within 30 days of the quarter end. So for example a trader with a quarter end of 31 March will have to MTD file by 30 April.

Around 80% of all businesses have year ends and VAT Return quarters falling on the two key quarter months of December and March. It will no longer be possible for any accountancy practice to run on anything other than a monthly basis when assisting you with your online accountancy needs, be it simple overview of your work or a full data entry and reporting service. To do so would be impossible as for every eight team members required for just two weeks every quarter, there will only be a need for one for the remaining 44 weeks.

We have invested heavily in our IT capability and team literacy over recent years to improve our efficiency and help our clients to set-up their online accounting systems to be efficient and effective. Whilst we are conversant with a number of accounting software solutions such as

Xero, FreeAgent, Sage and Kashflow, we recommend Quickbooks Online, for which we are proudly Elite ProAdvisors, the highest professional advisor level available.

By using Quickbooks Online, supported by specialist optical recognition software, primarily from Dext, this allows us to take your basic accounting paperwork and input effectively into the software, providing you with the security of knowing your records are legally compliant.

By undertaking your online accounting needs we are able to produce monthly or quarterly management accounts promptly after the period end, allowing you to make informed decisions as to the future of your business and taking advantage of the phrase “you can only manage what you measure”.

We offer a fixed fee quotation providing you with three different levels of service based on your specific circumstances and designed to suit your needs. Contact us now for your quotation or complete the online form below.