I was previously employed as an accounts clerk at a firm of chartered accounts where my job was to take the information supplied by clients and produce a set of accounts/financial statements and produce a tax computation in order that the tax department could complete the tax returns. I am now setting up as a self employed bookkeeper and was wanting to know if formal accounts had to be produced by an accountant. Could tax returns be completed using reports produced by computerised accounts softtware and would this be accepted by HMRC should they query the returns? I relise that Limited Companies need to file Financial statements but what is legally required for sole trader/ partnerships ?
I see producing a set of accounts for clients as an extra fee charging item, and since Self-Assessment, rarely get asked for a set of accounts. Maybe once ever couple of years (!!!!!) .
I do and I dont charge for it.... lol I just work it into my costs and give it to them at the end of the year, ST's are normally 4-6 pages long, and Partners are 6-9 pages depending on how much info you want to give the client.
Good sample accounts for all size businesses can be found here : http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/final_accounts/samples.htm Very useful and i normally refer to them to make sure i've not missed anything.
