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Management Accounts
Most businesses prepare regular management accounts in order to monitor and control their finances and trading activities. In fact, directors are required by law to maintain appropriate accounting records to disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of their companies at any time, so it could be argued that management accounts, in the most liberal sense of the word, are a statutory obligation. However, the detail contained within the management accounts and the frequency with which they are produced will depend upon the size and type of business.
A simplest, management accounts may consist of no more than a statement of sales income, an analysis of expenses and a breakdown of trade debtors, plus maybe a calculation of how much tax the business owes. Indeed, for many proprietors this is all the information they really need.
However, most businesses will require more complex accounts than this, including a detailed P&L, a balance sheet, a cash flow statement and a full analysis of fixed assets, stock, debtors and creditors. It is also likely that management accounts will need to be produced monthly or at least quarterly if they are going to be of any use at all in running the business. And of course they must be timely. Out-of-date accounts are nothing more than a history lesson!
At Agor & Co Accounting Services Limited we can help you produce management accounts that are just right for your business, neither too simple nor too elaborate. We can give you an idea of the kind of information that might prove useful to your business, such as a project cost analysis so you can see how much profit each product or project is contributing to the organisation, or a time spent analysis so you can see how many staff hours your clients take up compared to the fees they pay you. Please give us a call if you would like any help with your internal reporting.
Book-Keeping
A good book-keeper should possess the technical knowledge required to produce accounts up to trial balance stage. In addition, book-keepers must have sufficient knowledge of the business they are working for to understand the transactions themselves and how they should be recorded in the books.
It is also important for there to be a proper audit trail so that you can drill down into the accounting records and see exactly what each account consists of and where the items originated.
At Agor & Co Accounting Services Limited we provide book-keeping services on a weekly or monthly basis or train your staff to do it as an on-going daily task so that the accounting records are fit for purpose when you come to prepare your statutory or management accounts. Please give us a call if there is anything we can do to help you with your book-keeping.
Accounting courses
Bookkeeping is one of the fastest growing professions with around 4.8 Million businesses in the UK and only around 3,700 registered Bookkeepers. So whether you are a complete beginner looking for a new career, part qualified or experienced looking to upgrade your skills and qualifications, or a business requiring Sage software, training and support ,our fully qualified and accredited staff have a proven track record in helping individuals and businesses old or new achieve their goals and ambitions.
The standard and quality of the courseware plus fast response support procedures have enabled students and clients to gain the latest skills, knowledge and qualifications quickly whilst still maintaining their busy lifestyles.
Currently we provide SAGE accounting book-keeping training for ready to go into full employment which the results has been overwhelming and satisfactory.
Sage Training
Our Sage Line 50 accounting training for individuals and groups ensures that students and potential accounting staff are ready for accounting working at any stage of their accounting career.
VAT Returns
All business with an annual turnover of £70,000 (2010/11 threshold) or more must register for VAT. That means completing the quarterly (or sometimes monthly) forms sent to you by HM Revenue & Customs and paying your VAT liability within one month. For most businesses this is a fairly simple procedure, but it does mean keeping appropriate records so that your inputs and outputs are readily ascertainable.
At Agor & Co Accounting Services Limited, we can either complete your VAT returns for you or train your staff to do them properly, taking into account any specific issues affecting your particular business. Please give us a call if you require our assistance for anything to do with VAT.
Payroll Services
Payroll is probably the biggest overhead for most businesses and also one of the most problematic given the ever-growing list of rules and regulations affecting how you pay your employees.
Since 1944 all employers have been required by law to operate the PAYE system, whereby you deduct tax and NI contributions from gross pay and hand them over to the Government.
Whilst most payroll systems are fairly easy to administer, you need to be aware of your legal obligations regarding issues such as holiday pay, sick pay, minimum wage, agency workers, maternity and paternity pay, student loans, redundancy and pensions.
Every employee is legally entitled to a payslip showing how much he or she has been paid and all deductions made to arrive at net pay. If you pay your staff weekly, this means having 52 payroll runs a year calculating PAYE deductions each time.
However, this is going to push the cost up considerably as most agencies charge a lot more for weekly payroll than for monthly. Either that or your accountant or payroll department will have to spend 4 times as long on this work. It may therefore be preferable to switch to a monthly payroll and tide your employees over with wage advances until they are weaned off weekly pay packets.
You must be very careful about who you put on your payroll and also who you don’t put on your payroll. Most employers know that you must not hire anyone who is not legally permitted to work in this country, which could be any person who is not an EU citizen and does not have the right visa. It is your responsibility to check this and it is no good just relying on a National Insurance card - you need to verify their identity and nationality too.
At the same time, you must be wary of taking on freelancers who say they are self-employed. You need to be sure that they really are self-employed or you could end up with a very large tax bill for not operating PAYE on their earnings
At Agor & Co Accounting Services Limited we can either prepare your payroll for you or train your staff to prepare it internally. Please give us a call if you require our assistance for anything to do with Payroll
PAYE Returns
It is now compulsory to file your PAYE returns on-line. Manual returns are no longer allowed. Most payroll software now comes with an on-line filing facility so doing your year-end returns should be a fairly simple process. However, you should make sure the software is compliant with the HMRC systems and has been listed by them as an approved product. Alternatively you can use the free software run by Government Gateway although this is not suitable for payrolls with more than 50 employees.
One of the benefits of on-line filing has been the automatic checks that now prevent some of the more common mistakes that always used to cause a high number of submissions to be rejected each year. However, it is still possible for errors to creep into the returns and it is advisable to carry out your own basic checks on the figures or ensure that your software will do this for you.
P60s must be handed out by 31st May each year so make sure your post-submission procedures are adhered to. It is surprising how many bosses put them in a drawer and forget about them.
At Agor & Co Accounting Services Limited we can file your PAYE returns. Please give us a call if you require our assistance for anything to do with PAYE Returns.
Capital gain tax
Capital gains tax was introduced in 1965 to tax profits made on the disposal of personal property. It only applies to individuals – companies pay corporation tax on chargeable gains instead.
There are quite a few exemptions such as private cars, most personal chattels, life assurance policies, foreign currency and, most importantly, your own principal private residence.
In general, capital gains tax is only charged on assets held for their investment potential such as shares, land and property, business assets, antiques and works of art.
There are quite a few tax planning techniques that can be used to reduce or defer your capital gains tax liability. Please give us a call if you would like us to review your assets and advise you on your personal tax strategy. Meanwhile, the information sheets and tax tips below will tell you more.
Corporation Tax
Corporation tax is levied on the profits of companies, clubs and associations. It works in a similar way to income tax for the self-employed but it has its own set of rates and allowances.
There are 2 flat rates of corporation tax – 26% (going down to 23% by April 2014) for large companies with profits of £1.5 million per annum or more and 20% for small companies with profits of up to £300,000 per annum. In between a system of marginal relief operates so that the incremental rate of tax is 27.5% (in 2011/12).
There are lots of things you should and should not do if you want to keep your corporation tax bill as low as possible. You should also watch the interaction with income tax and capital gains tax.
At Agor & Co Accounting Services Limited, we can help you through and make sure your overall tax burden is as low as possible, taking account of your working capital requirements, your personal financial needs and your planned exit strategy. Please give us a call if you would like us to review your corporation tax position.