So, I have a client that has grown in the past year and had also has opened a business bank account. I am not experienced in dealing with businesses that don't work with accounting software!
In the past he had shown a list of monthly invoices/receipts and a separate tab for sales invoices. Now that he has a bank account covering the full year, I had recommended that he downloaded the bank statement into csv format and label all the transactions creating a cashbook.
Then I thought it would be a simple exercise to figure out the unpaid items and adjust for this. There is no VAT involved.
So the bank statement PLUS unpaid sales invoices LESS unpaid purchase invoices would pretty much square things.
However, he has AGAIN decided to simply list all the purchase and sales invoices in 12 monthly spreadsheet tabs x 2 (sales AND purchases).
Whilst I do see that it is still easy to query unpaid sales and purchases invoices, would he (or me!!) have to go through the bank and invoice list and reconcile them (match the entries in the bank against the invoice list).
Or would the the calculated bank account balance less actual simply be taken to DLA?? Of course in a perfect world with no brought forward balances or cash payments etc., the bank would match the calculated balance if the unpaid invoices were complete and correct!
What is the alternative, do a bad job of his accounts because he doesnt understand fully what you need?Tell him its going to cost extra as his bookkeeping has not been done fully. Does he know what invoices are o/s at year end? How does he monitor it? Maybe he has a system that he has not explained/you have not extracted the correct information out of him. He gets paid cash and keeps it? Then tell him you cannot re-write history by claiming a divi to clear his o/d DLA and he now has S455 charge to pay. You cannot force him to use software, its his choice, but he does need to keep proper accounting records. Explain his duty of care/tell him to stop using his ltd co as his own personal bank account and recommend he tweaks his processes (spreadsheets are fine) to resolve this or pay for a bookkeeper to sort once a month/quarter ready for year end. If you dont want a spreadsheet client, dis-engage.
Have to agree with MAAT there, you have 3 options;
1. Educate him into doing some proper bookkeeping or moving onto a system like QB etc
2. Accept that the data you're going to get is a mess and you'll essentially need to do the bookkeeping from scratch and bill him accordingly. If the bank plus all sales/purchase records are on s/s already then you could import it all into a system and probably automate a lot of work...obviously that doesn't need to be reflected in your quote
3. Decide that he does not fit your client criteria and set him free for someone else to deal with
Whether you go with 1 or 2 the accounts do need to be compiled and completed properly and not cobbled together because neither of you want to do the bookkeeping.
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Jenny
Responses are my opinion based on the information provided. All information should be thoroughly checked before being relied on.
