[Stoots]

Good question.

Just completed my accounts for my last financial year.  My turnover was £45,000 odd, wages and salaries were nearly 25k, i had 1500 in accountancy bills and around £7,800 left in profits which was a nice bonus to enjoy. Been using ot for fun stuff like treating the kids, hobbies and you know stuff that counts.

Here have a look at my profit and loss statement.

Do you prepare this yourself and give it to your accountant Marc as well as giving in your receipts & bank statements?

The bookkeeping is done by us, i have software that does this. If i need advice on what to do for allowable expenses and tax stuff i ask my accountants and they advise me. And yes to receipts and bank statements.

These books are preliminary books before submission, my accountants will go through them to ensure all is good, but as i have been keeping them up to date on a regular basis with the accounts they know exactly what the state of play is with them.

There seems to be some confusion on what is a book keeper and what is an accountant.

Most sole traders who do their self assessment are in fact not using an accountant, but paying for bookkeeping, even though they think its accountancy.

 

 

Cheers - lol I am confused! My accountants  are chartered accountants - do I pay them for book keeping or accountancy?
What’s the difference 

bookeeping is basically keeping records of transactions, income and outcome etc.

accountancy is doing the calculations etc with those details you pass them

so for example you could record all sales, all expenses etc, thats bookeeping.....then you pass your records on to the accountant to do all the calculations etc and check everything balances then submit your return etc.

You can pay an accountant to do both.

[Shrek]

Good question.

Just completed my accounts for my last financial year.  My turnover was £45,000 odd, wages and salaries were nearly 25k, i had 1500 in accountancy bills and around £7,800 left in profits which was a nice bonus to enjoy. Been using ot for fun stuff like treating the kids, hobbies and you know stuff that counts.

Here have a look at my profit and loss statement.

Do you prepare this yourself and give it to your accountant Marc as well as giving in your receipts & bank statements?

The bookkeeping is done by us, i have software that does this. If i need advice on what to do for allowable expenses and tax stuff i ask my accountants and they advise me. And yes to receipts and bank statements.

These books are preliminary books before submission, my accountants will go through them to ensure all is good, but as i have been keeping them up to date on a regular basis with the accounts they know exactly what the state of play is with them.

There seems to be some confusion on what is a book keeper and what is an accountant.

Most sole traders who do their self assessment are in fact not using an accountant, but paying for bookkeeping, even though they think its accountancy.

 

 

Cheers - lol I am confused! My accountants  are chartered accountants - do I pay them for book keeping or accountancy?
What’s the difference 

bookeeping is basically keeping records of transactions, income and outcome etc.

accountancy is doing the calculations etc with those details you pass them

so for example you could record all sales, all expenses etc, thats bookeeping.....then you pass your records on to the accountant to do all the calculations etc and check everything balances then submit your return etc.

You can pay an accountant to do both.

Thanks Adam , yeah my accountant does all the calculations so I guess I’m paying for accountancy lol 👍

[Marc Stock]

hahah yeah...i was about to say the same. and add a little too..

For self employment accounts, the profits are calculated for you by HMRC when you submit your return. So in reality, self employment accounts are super duper simple for a chartered accountant because they actually don't have to do anything at all all they do is check your figures are correct and submit them so in reality its still just a book keeping exercise as HMRC do it for them electronically.

Ltd company accounts is much more complex, because you could be running a directors loan account, or need to add journal entries, there is also tracking things like NI and pension regulation and all this falls on the responsibility of the company to calculate it correctly, HMRC don't do any calculations for you, you have to do it yourself and get it right which is where a chartered accountant comes into play fully.

When pay my corporation tax for example, i don't get a BILL like self assessment. I just pay whats owed to HMRC according to our accounts and calculations which are open to public scrutiny.

[Splash & dash]

hahah yeah...i was about to say the same. and add a little too..

For self employment accounts, the profits are calculated for you by HMRC when you submit your return. So in reality, self employment accounts are super duper simple for a chartered accountant because they actually don't have to do anything at all all they do is check your figures are correct and submit them so in reality its still just a book keeping exercise as HMRC do it for them electronically.

Ltd company accounts is much more complex, because you could be running a directors loan account, or need to add journal entries, there is also tracking things like NI and pension regulation and all this falls on the responsibility of the company to calculate it correctly, HMRC don't do any calculations for you, you have to do it yourself and get it right which is where a chartered accountant comes into play fully.

When pay my corporation tax for example, i don't get a BILL like self assessment. I just pay whats owed to HMRC according to our accounts and calculations which are open to public scrutiny.

Lol I think you are in the wrong job you should be a financial adviser or something it’s all way over my head

[dazmond]

As long as I make at least 30k profit a year after all expenses,taxes and insurances are taken off I'm happy.....I can easily live on this due to low housing costs,no smoking/drinking and no kids....I can even  afford a few luxury holidays here and there and get to drive a nice car around....put a bit aside for when I'm older,healthy emergency fund and a few nights out here and there....