Just been thinking about how much it would cost someone if they didn't bother going to a bookkeeper and took their shoebox full of receipts to an accountant.
So how much would an accountant charge for this....
A cash based business so no sales invoices just daily takings. Not VAT registered. One weekly paid employee. Approximately 50 purchase receipts per month. In addition to these there are say 6 creditors a month to be paid.
They want everything done for them - ie all the PAYE work and the Self assessment Return for the year.
It isn't so much a hypothetical question - it is an approximation of a current client that is done on a bi-monthly basis. I was just curious as to how much it would cost if they went to an accountant and planted the whole lot on their desk once a year. I see prices quoted on accountants websites and think it isn't much - but that probably assumes most of the bookkeeping is done.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
Hi Peasie, I know of a similar situation (actually it's my Dads business) he has 1 member of staff on payroll, mostly cash customers and suppliers and invoices out on Sage. eveything else is done by an external Accountant once a year and the bill is just under £500 p/a. Thats a figure for a business based in North Manchester, i don't know if thats dear or cheap, or whether it's in line with other areas. I was wondering whether i could bring that bill down for him but since i aim to work for someone in an accounts role sometime in the near future i thought it best to leave things alone.
How would the payroll be managed though? If the member of staff is paid weekly then the payroll needs to be run on a weekly basis and the yearly "shoebox" approach would not work...
Peasie - for the type of work you mentioned in your post the pricing I know for accountants is in line with Mad Liz's, about £850 for the year. I'm based in London though, so perhaps a bit more expensive than other areas.
Fabs
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Boomerang Bookkeeping
Fixed-fee Bookkeeping Solutions for Small Businesses from £15 per month.
I posted that in the early hours of this morning. While I lay in bed dreaming of trial balances the thought did occur to me about the weekly wages. I was going to delete that part but didn't want to interrupt the dream about a trial balance. The figures quoted would be more in line with what I would have charged (or will charge) if I had being doing it on a fixed rate based on the number of transactions but I thought that seemed a bit high and the person could have taken them to an accountants at the end of the year. Looks like they are getting a bargain at the moment.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
How much of a bargain? :o) I like refreshing my knowledge around benchmarks every now and then...
Fabs
I most definitely would not call this a benchmark. They got it at that price because they were a relative and at the time I gave the figure I wasn't too qualified (I now have the qualifications). They also get it a bit cheaper because they are paying by standing order each month. All this for the same amount in your signature. I suppose this is an argument for a fixed price rather than hourly rate as even at this low rate it is still better than I would get charging by the hour.
If I was to give a price today to a new client with a similar amount of work I'd probably be looking for £50 a month which would include the SA return as well - but not the PAYE. There would also be a 10% discount if paid by standing order. This may see a large discount but if it saved me the hassle of chasing someone up for payment it would be worth it. If the standing order failed then the discount wouldn't apply.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
