Value Added Tax (VAT) is the tax a company and consumers pay when purchasing goods or services. It is an essential part of any business’ financial plan. There are three main types of VAT, including:

• Standard Rate
• Reduced Rate
• Zero Rate

The standard rate of VAT in the UK is 20% and this charge is applied to most household items. There are often changes or exemptions to this. For example, from 31 March 2021, catering and hot takeaway food that used to be taxable at the standard rate will instead be liable to the reduced rate.

The reduced rate is 5% and goods in this bracket include mobility aids for the elderly and electricity, gas and heating oil for domestic and residential use. Zero rate VAT applies to many products and services relating to charities, such as selling donated items.

Businesses can manage their own finances and accounts but hiring professional accountants can save both time and money for a growing company. Accountants will ensure all tax returns are filed on time and that you have claimed all the expenses you are entitled to.

Tax legislation changes regularly and accountants are kept up to date meaning that you don’t have to. Business owners that hire accountants have more time to focus on growing their brand and increasing sales.

An accountant’s job is to stay up to date with a business’s financial wellbeing. They will detect when money is being spent unnecessarily. While you are seeking new business opportunities, you may miss some costly but subtle expenses.

Your accountant will be watching these expenses to ensure you are not overpaying for resources.

As a source of advice and support, accountants help you and your business grow. Your accountant knows your business almost as much as you do. They are heavily invested in your success and offer reliable financial decisions.

Handling your own finances is daunting. While your accountant works behind the scenes to prepare all the correct documents, you can focus on your business.

Your accountant can help you plan for the future. Financial planning and budgeting are important when it comes to growing your business. It can help you understand many aspects and how to run your business successfully.

Time is money. If you are a small business owner, you need the time to grow and move forward. With so many tasks to carry out, there are sometimes not enough hours in the day. Some of these tasks include bookkeeping, tax returns and more.

Such accounting tasks are what keeps your business successful, but they take up lots of time. By hiring an accountant, you can dedicate your time to your business and rest easy knowing your finances are in safe hands.

One of the most important aspects of any business and a critical component of its success, budgeting plays a big part in ensuring a positive financial position. It is important when creating a budgeting plan that this is done accurately and is tailored to your business. A buget plan with help you to determine how much money you have, how much you need to spend and how much money you need to invest to meet your overall business goals.

Doing your research is paramount when searching for an accountant. Their main role will be managing your businesses finances and essentially working to improve your financial performance. Your accountant will help you through this situation and can create an effective business strategy moving forward. They will know exactly what financial changes should be put in place to support and help grow your business.

We work with all of our clients closely to understand your business and always personalise our services to meet your needs. Through providing a reliable and trust worthy experience, we pay close attention to detail and provide a one-to-one experience like no other. We offer a range of accountancy services to support all small, medium and large businesses and our team are always dependable when you require accountants.

One of the most significant advantages of budgeting is budget evaluation. This is paramount for your business as it allows you to evaluate the performance of your business over a period of time alongside tracking revenue and expenses. You can use this data to then compare them to what was budgeted. By keeping on top and tracking these finances, this will help to ensure you stick to the budget and also help in identifying problems and opportunities.

An accountancy service, Roger Hatherall & co are the number one choice when you require assistance from professional accountants in and around Bath. It is important to always consider what is most important for your business and its finances and our team of professional accountants can help.

Ideal for auditing purposes, accounting software is able to analyse your financial data from stock levels to cashflow profits and will generate detailed reports. This will help in keeping on top of your finances and allow you to clearly highlight any problems that may arise in the future to the revenue or cashflow.

Vital for any business, digital accounting ensures you are collecting accurate financial data for invoicing. Digital accounting software helps by automating the invoicing process and helps to avoid mistakes made, especially in comparison to manual invoicing.

As a sole trader, you are in full control of your business. You have the sole freedom to decide on its operations and its growth, with no other directors, shareholders or partners.

Apart from being compliant with VAT and deducting and paying to HMRC if you have employees, you only need to complete and file an annual Self Assessment Tax Return, something that your accountant can help you with.

While Sole Traders pay the same amount of tax as traditional employees, you will only be taxed on your profits rather than your overall income. Since you are working for yourself, you can claim on items used for business purposes, such as your equipment or office rent.

As long as the necessary paperwork is at hand to prove that your assets are business-related, you can claim, rather than adding these expenses to your taxable profits. It is advised that professional advice is taken from a registered accountant to help you with the understanding of cash flow and tax variables.

You still need to keep records of expenses and invoices for tax returns, but the overall cost of hiring an accountant is significantly lower than those who are part of a limited company. Limited companies have more legal responsibly than someone operating as a Sole Trader. As a Sole Trader, there is less work to undertake, and you only need to complete a profit and loss account.

However, keeping note of your cash flow and balance sheet is worth preparing regularly in order to manage your business efficiently.

If you decide that you no longer benefit from being a Sole Trader, it is relatively simple to close down. To do so, you need to settle any liabilities, collect money that is due and sort out your assets. Lastly, you need to inform HMRC.

However, if your business does not have sufficient funds to pay off any debts, you may want to seek help from Citizens Advice.

For the last 3 months, Coronavirus has hit the headlines. At the beginning of January, cases of pneumonia became common in Wuhan, China. It was soon dubbed Covid-19, and on the 11^th of March, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an international pandemic.

In recent days, the country has been forced to declare a national lockdown to help reduce the spread of the virus, following in the footsteps of the rest of the world. Employers and their staff have been thrown into the unknown. One strain is the crash in the global stock market, which is causing fears of the destruction of economic growth. Companies such as Bank of England have already slashed their interest rates to make borrowing cheaper in order to encourage spending which will then boost the economy.

The government have set a list of measures to guide you and your employees in these difficult times. As an employer, it is difficult to know whether or not you are making the right decisions. In order to keep your employees safe, please take a look at the government website for guidance.

Not every accountant will have experience with every single type of business, but it is good to find someone who has experience in a similar industry. This should give them the knowledge needed to understand your business and the market you are competing in.

If you choose an accountant who has no understanding of your current industry, it could be detrimental and mean that the accountancy services you receive aren t of the right standard. Accountants may not be an expert, however, with a good basic understanding and experience helping other businesses in the industry with their finances, you can build a lot more trust and have peace of mind with the accountants you choose.

Communication with your accountant is absolutely vital to improving your financial performance and making sure you receive as much data, information and advice as possible. Without this, there is no point in actually hiring an accountant if you are not going to utilise their skills and make sure you have regular communication with them.

Communication is commonly over emails, phone and in-person so it is important you know the easiest way to contact your accountant. This ensures if you have any urgent queries or problems, they can be dealt with effectively and without delay. In addition to this, you should also find out what times and dates your accountant is available. Some accountants will be open for longer times and for more days of the year, making it easier for you to contact them.

You may choose an accountant just assuming they will do all the services you require of them. However, this is not the case and before hiring, you should ask what accountancy services are actually available, ensuring the accountant you choose is perfect for your business and the exact requirements you have.

There are a huge range of services that different accountants will and will not offer. This includes everything from tax returns and cash flow forecasts to creating end of year reports and completing payroll. Not everything they offer will be needed but you have to make sure the features you need are available.

The best accountants typically use the best accounting software. It is important to know which software is the best to use and therefore you know your accountant has the right tools to effectively manage your finances and improve financial performance.

You also want an accountant who is proactive, rather than reactive. If an accountant has the right systems and software available, they are much more likely to give you insightful data regarding your finances, rather than only providing information when it is essential.

This should also make managing multiple or larger businesses much easier. If an accountant is not using the right industry software, it could be a big sign to look elsewhere.

You may not realise the benefits and potential of using actual accounting software. However, this is something every business should use to make sure finances and transactions are recorded correctly and you can also utilise a number of other features to help with your finances.

Not using the right software is a very common mistake and will often lead to more blunders when it comes to record-keeping. The best accounting software will cut out a lot of the errors you make day to day and makes managing your finances much easier.

Mixing business and personal finances seems to be the easy option. This is yet another mistake that business owners are prone to, allowing them to take money out of business finances for personal errands, which will only harm your business in the long-term.

By making sure all business and personal finances are kept separate, finances become easier to manage. It will also make sure your profits are easier to record and that you pay yourself a proper salary, rather than sharing the business money as your own. When it comes to growing the business, there should be no problems between separating your own finances.

Bookkeeping is a vital element of every business. Failing to record keep effectively could mean that end of year accountants are not created accurately and therefore you don t know what your cash flow and profit is or you could end up falling into trouble with the HMRC.

Bookkeeping is something you should take very seriously and if you can t dedicate time to it, you should outsource it. This will make sure your finances are always prepared for deadlines such as tax returns and end of year accounts. Additionally, it is important to have records of your finances to plan for the future and identify why mistakes are made and what improvements to implement using previous figures.

No matter how small a payment may have been, it should always be recorded in the business books. From selling your most expensive product or service, to purchasing milk for staff, every transaction must be recorded.

Although the smaller payments may not seem like a massive deal, they will build up throughout a year which can have serious implications to your final finances. Tax records must always be submitted accurately and if you have failed to record many of your transactions, it could make a big difference come the end of the tax year.

Without an accounting system in place, it is common that you are not prepared to effectively manage your finances once the business is launched. By setting up a system before the business begins, this makes sure all your transactions are recorded immediately, as well as having your initial revenue and expenditure accounted for.

Many start-up businesses will have loans to begin their business or will have assets and equipment they have paid for. Even though this may have taken place before the business began trading, it might be best to keep this within your business finances, helping you set targets to break-even.

You want your revenue to be as high as possible and regardless of the industry you work in, you want to maximise the payment options you have available. By doing this, it will ensure you can take payments at any time from any clients. You should never be left requiring payments from your customers.

By sending invoices straight away and making sure payments are made as soon as possible, this will keep revenue high. You don t want to miss out on payments simply because you couldnt take a payment from a customer. Maximising the payable systems you have available will always be beneficial.

Most start-up businesses want to keep costs as low as possible so when looking into recruitment, only hire staff for the job roles that are actually needed. There is no point wasting money in areas of your business that are not needed. If you decide to hire staff where you don t need them, your profit could be seriously reduced each month.

Bringing more staff in can be done over time but once your business has been established, this shouldnt be a priority. As you continue to grow, recruiting staff can be much easier and will not have such a negative impact on your cash flow.

Even as a start-up business, your business and personal finances should never be combined. This will only make accounting and the legal side of your business much more difficult to manage.

Keeping personal and business finances separate makes finances much easier to manage and record. It will also mean you don t end up using business money to make your own purchases and buy things for yourself when it is meant for the business.