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Accountant

I could recommend the accountant I use but as I have no idea were you are based in the UK all recommendations would be pointless ?.

What do you mean by understands our industry? . I was talking to an older windy about 8 weeks ago who was asking how I manage my rounds told him about Cleaner Planner and the ease of accounting etc and he asked can we still do what we do though? I said what do you mean and he happily told me he fiddles his books ? 

No you can't do that I said, I put everything through as we all have to pay our taxes and it's the right thing to do he just had a blank look on his face

 
I could recommend the accountant I use but as I have no idea were you are based in the UK all recommendations would be pointless [emoji6].

What do you mean by understands our industry? . I was talking to an older windy about 8 weeks ago who was asking how I manage my rounds told him about Cleaner Planner and the ease of accounting etc and he asked can we still do what we do though? I said what do you mean and he happily told me he fiddles his books [emoji849] 

No you can't do that I said, I put everything through as we all have to pay our taxes and it's the right thing to do he just had a blank look on his face
Does it matter where in the country they are? Electronic mail now let’s you send letters and other information down little pipes to anywhere in the world almost instantly! [emoji15][emoji12]

I use cleaner planner too and agree makes bookkeeping simple.

However as I run my window cleaning separate to an employed job I want the benefit of the experience an accountant can give me.

I pay more than my fair share of taxes and need to ensure I’m squeeky clean in my business also.

I was always led to understand that some accountants have more experience in certain industries, building, construction or a service industry like ours.


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Their are only two main differences in accounting (1) Someone who calls themselves an accountant but is simply a book-keeper and doesn't really have a great deal of training compared to (2) A chartered accountant who have spent years training and are great deal more knowledgeable. But both will know what you can or can't put through the books 

I personally consider a chartered accountant to be far better than a book-keeper and I also prefer to meet my accountant in person after using a book-keeper who called himself an accountant who was recommended to me turned out to be a bit useless at running a business I went and met with a few before deciding who was going to be looking after my tax affairs and some I really didn't get a good feeling about. 

 
I could recommend the accountant I use but as I have no idea were you are based in the UK all recommendations would be pointless [emoji6].

What do you mean by understands our industry? . I was talking to an older windy about 8 weeks ago who was asking how I manage my rounds told him about Cleaner Planner and the ease of accounting etc and he asked can we still do what we do though? I said what do you mean and he happily told me he fiddles his books [emoji849] 

No you can't do that I said, I put everything through as we all have to pay our taxes and it's the right thing to do he just had a blank look on his face
Haha. I think most people think we are all at it big time. On most occasions when I offer payment via bacs I get a reply like” I thought you men would prefer cash” followed by a shady wink.


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Haha. I think most people think we are all at it big time. On most occasions when I offer payment via bacs I get a reply like” I thought you men would prefer cash” followed by a shady wink.


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I've had a similar thing once-over or twice in recent months, I just walk away and shake my head as I I don't like being offended

County Durham Lad

 
Any good chartered accountant will see you right.  Any one of any worth will either give you a 30 min or hour sit down free so you can explain yourself and he can get a feeling for you and what you need. 

When I was a sole trader mine charged £150 per year for the books. Now Ltd I pay a lot more but he also looks after other business interests for us and mine and the wife's personal taxes each year.  

Many will just say 'Oh do it yourself with QuickBooks' or some twaddle like that but I prefer using the professional means I can sleep at night knowing HMRC can't bother me .

 
Any good chartered accountant will see you right.  Any one of any worth will either give you a 30 min or hour sit down free so you can explain yourself and he can get a feeling for you and what you need. 
 
When I was a sole trader mine charged £150 per year for the books. Now Ltd I pay a lot more but he also looks after other business interests for us and mine and the wife's personal taxes each year.  
 
Many will just say 'Oh do it yourself with QuickBooks' or some twaddle like that but I prefer using the professional means I can sleep at night knowing HMRC can't bother me .
What did you get for £150? Been thinking about using an accountant for a while now. Was speaking to a customer about it and he said he pays £50 per month which gets him a monthly accounts check plus end of year finalisation plus his self assessment sorted and filed. I thought it sounded a little pricey and your deal sounds like a steal compared. I understand the reassurance an accountant can give plus the abundance of advise they give but at the min I’ve been using hmrc’s helpline to gather all that for free.


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but I prefer using the professional means I can sleep at night knowing HMRC can't bother me .


This, so much this. You do your books as good as you can, ship it over to a professional (mine has direct access to my bookkeeping software), who gives it a stamp of approval. If you get in trouble with the tax man, you have someone by your side to speak for you.

Sleeping without worries at night is so, so worth the expense.

at the min I’ve been using hmrc’s helpline to gather all that for free.


Sure, it's doable, and it's of course always a good idea to know as much as possible about the inner workings of your business.

But, as is a reoccurring theme on this here forum, how do you value your time? What is most beneficial? If you have more work than you can handle, time is better spent on cleaning than fiddling about with hrmc into the wee hours.

As my dad used to do it; "I'd rather work an hour with something I'm good at, and use that money to pay someone else to do something for me I'm not good at."

 
What did you get for £150? Been thinking about using an accountant for a while now. Was speaking to a customer about it and he said he pays £50 per month which gets him a monthly accounts check plus end of year finalisation plus his self assessment sorted and filed. I thought it sounded a little pricey and your deal sounds like a steal compared. I understand the reassurance an accountant can give plus the abundance of advise they give but at the min I’ve been using hmrc’s helpline to gather all that for free.


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Thousands (literally) in rebates and deductibles I had no ideas about.... over £2k in N.I. allowances for the Mrs as she's an employee of the company and on and on.  I do nothing but hand him the bank statements and Cleaner Planner reports for the window cleaning and also the reports for the books for the other two business we have. Now we pay £225 per month and this includes absolutely everything including payroll plus accountant insurance.  

What's that? Accountant insurance you ask?  Yep you heard right.  Because our books are managed by a professional if we are ever investigated by HMRC our insurance covers £500k of the accountants time to sit with HMRC till it's sorted.  My accountant bills at £125 per hour so the £500k cover should give him ample time to appease them.  

Even if you pay an accountant and your investigated and found to be in the wrong the fault is yours.  'I paid the accountant to do that' is no excuse as your accountant always makes you sign off before filing the accounts so hence your problem.  That's why I pay the premium.  

Imagine you had a round of hundreds of customers in nice compact runs, collecting £5 here £6 there in cash day in day out, noting it all down in a little A5 note book as you go, cha-ching there's another £5 happy days.  

One day HMRC say Knock Knock.....    Oh you keep them all in a note book do you?  Great let's take a look at that.  So this note book covers this month...... you been cleaning windows for 20 years?  Where's the last 20 years of note books?  Oh? You didn't keep them? No problem, well assess it all based on these numbers in this note book here.  

But I didn't charge those prices 20 years back Mr HMRC.....

Can you prove that Mr Window Cleaner? 

Errmmmm... no. 

Well that's your problem, here's your bill. Will you be paying in cash or assets? 

With all the talk the past several months of window cleaners rivaling drug dealers for cash in hand and how window cleaners contribute vastly to a £150bn cash in hand economy each year do you think we're not on their radar?  For sure we are. 

I would happily wager in the next 24 months max you're going to start seeing a lot of HMRC interest in our industry. 

This is why I always say price properly, use a software pack like Cleaner Planer, collect electronic payment so there's a full paper trail and hire a professional to keep you off HMRCs radar.  

But then again..... I'm probably still doing it all wrong as usual.. right? 

What's the helpline number for HMRC so I can do all this for free myself? ?

 
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Thousands (literally) in rebates and deductibles I had no ideas about.... over £2k in N.I. allowances for the Mrs as she's an employee of the company and on and on.  I do nothing but hand him the bank statements and Cleaner Planner reports for the window cleaning and also the reports for the books for the other two business we have. Now we pay £225 per month and this includes absolutely everything including payroll plus accountant insurance.  
 
What's that? Accountant insurance you ask?  Yep you heard right.  Because our books are managed by a professional if we are ever investigated by HMRC our insurance covers £500k of the accountants time to sit with HMRC till it's sorted.  My accountant bills at £125 per hour so the £500k cover should give him ample time to appease them.  
 
Even if you pay an accountant and your investigated and found to be in the wrong the fault is yours.  'I paid the accountant to do that' is no excuse as your accountant always makes you sign off before filing the accounts so hence your problem.  That's why I pay the premium.  
 
Imagine you had a round of hundreds of customers in nice compact runs, collecting £5 here £6 there in cash day in day out, noting it all down in a little A5 note book as you go, cha-ching there's another £5 happy days.  
 
One day HMRC say Knock Knock.....    Oh you keep them all in a note book do you?  Great let's take a look at that.  So this note book covers this month...... you been cleaning windows for 20 years?  Where's the last 20 years of note books?  Oh? You didn't keep them? No problem, well assess it all based on these numbers in this note book here.  
 
But I didn't charge those prices 20 years back Mr HMRC.....
 
Can you prove that Mr Window Cleaner? 
 
Errmmmm... no. 
 
Well that's your problem, here's your bill. Will you be paying in cash or assets? 
 
With all the talk the past several months of window cleaners rivaling drug dealers for cash in hand and how window cleaners contribute vastly to a £150bn cash in hand economy each year do you think we're not on their radar?  For sure we are. 
 
I would happily wager in the next 24 months max you're going to start seeing a lot of HMRC interest in our industry. 
 
This is why I always say price properly, use a software pack like Cleaner Planer, collect electronic payment so there's a full paper trail and hire a professional to keep you off HMRCs radar.  
 
But then again..... I'm probably still doing it all wrong as usual.. right? 
 
What's the helpline number for HMRC so I can do all this for free myself? [emoji57]
 
0300 200 3300[emoji6]
Don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight now after that thinking hmrc are gonna come knocking.[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
But seriously I’m quite aware of the risks involved in doing your own accounts hence the enquiry’s about using an accountant etc. I’m confident that the records I keep ensure a fine free future as I’ve played by the rules and done everything that they require. An accountant would be purely for time and money saving purposes.
Good insight into what could happen should the sh1t hit the fan though[emoji106]


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Good stuff @Green Pro Clean Ltd my mate and his friends work on the oil rigs and changed to a nice cheap accountant. Taxman came chapping his door because their nice accountant bumped him for all their tax. They all had to pay the back tax that he supposedly paid the taxman and then chase the accountant for the money. Don't think they ever got their money back but alarm bells should have sounded when they heard about a cheap accountant. lessons learned

 
Thousands (literally) in rebates and deductibles I had no ideas about.... over £2k in N.I. allowances for the Mrs as she's an employee of the company and on and on.  I do nothing but hand him the bank statements and Cleaner Planner reports for the window cleaning and also the reports for the books for the other two business we have. Now we pay £225 per month and this includes absolutely everything including payroll plus accountant insurance.  
 
What's that? Accountant insurance you ask?  Yep you heard right.  Because our books are managed by a professional if we are ever investigated by HMRC our insurance covers £500k of the accountants time to sit with HMRC till it's sorted.  My accountant bills at £125 per hour so the £500k cover should give him ample time to appease them.  
 
Even if you pay an accountant and your investigated and found to be in the wrong the fault is yours.  'I paid the accountant to do that' is no excuse as your accountant always makes you sign off before filing the accounts so hence your problem.  That's why I pay the premium.  
 
Imagine you had a round of hundreds of customers in nice compact runs, collecting £5 here £6 there in cash day in day out, noting it all down in a little A5 note book as you go, cha-ching there's another £5 happy days.  
 
One day HMRC say Knock Knock.....    Oh you keep them all in a note book do you?  Great let's take a look at that.  So this note book covers this month...... you been cleaning windows for 20 years?  Where's the last 20 years of note books?  Oh? You didn't keep them? No problem, well assess it all based on these numbers in this note book here.  
 
But I didn't charge those prices 20 years back Mr HMRC.....
 
Can you prove that Mr Window Cleaner? 
 
Errmmmm... no. 
 
Well that's your problem, here's your bill. Will you be paying in cash or assets? 
 
With all the talk the past several months of window cleaners rivaling drug dealers for cash in hand and how window cleaners contribute vastly to a £150bn cash in hand economy each year do you think we're not on their radar?  For sure we are. 
 
I would happily wager in the next 24 months max you're going to start seeing a lot of HMRC interest in our industry. 
 
This is why I always say price properly, use a software pack like Cleaner Planer, collect electronic payment so there's a full paper trail and hire a professional to keep you off HMRCs radar.  
 
But then again..... I'm probably still doing it all wrong as usual.. right? 
 
What's the helpline number for HMRC so I can do all this for free myself? [emoji57]
 
Just had a lengthy chat with a very nice lady on the hmrc helpline. She was very helpful and informative about records and bookkeeping and things you need to keep in the event of an investigation. Having a digital paper trail is foolproof but what’s to say youve not been taking cash payments on the side? Most of what you said was very true but some was nonsense. They CANNOT just guestimate an amount they think you may owe based on one years books. What they can do is search your home, trawl through all of yours and any immediate family’s bank accounts and finances to see if there is any discrepancy’s between them and what you have declared. Then and only then will they work out an exact figure for which you are liable to pay. Even in the event of that happening they won’t just seize assets as long as your being helpfully and they don’t think your hiding anything. Alls they want is their money and will go out of their way to help you. After all that though she did advise on using an accountant to avoid any future mishaps so thanks for the heads up on that one but also my old school accounting methods are still being used by many businesses and are perfectly acceptable by hmrc’s standards. There’s nothing wrong in dealing with cash, you just need to bank it all so it’s all provable.


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I haven't banked recorded cash takings, Reason been why pay to put cash in my business account just to move it to my personal account to pay utility bills etc.



County Durham Lad

 
Fair do's all mine is recorded via Cleaner Planner so their is a trail. [emoji6]

County Durham Lad
Well due to greens scaremongering I spoke to an accountant this morning and as it turns out I should be thanking green pro cos it looks like he will be saving me some money. Also any cash payments are took as your word and can’t be proven even with cleaner planner etc as they can still be doctored so hand written documents are just as good.
So thanks again Darren for your very informative but useless rant. Maybe next time I’ll ask someone else for advice as you just can’t let old dogs lie can you[emoji106]


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Is now a good time you let you all know im a tax inspector....... only joking.

You cant get anywhere in this world keeping a stock pile of cash and not paying tax. So just be straight you will get further in life

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