Fixed fees. So you stop hesitating before you call.
Published pricing by tier, every deadline tracked on your behalf, and a switch handled in about a fortnight while you sign one form.
Every deadline, and who it applies to.
Clients get these tracked and chased. The calendar is published anyway, because somebody without an accountant is exactly who most needs to see it.
| Date | What | Applies to | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jan | Self assessment filing & paymentSole traders, directors | Sole traders, directors | 12d |
| 5 Apr | Tax year endsEveryone | Everyone | 76d |
| 19 Apr | Final payroll submissionEmployers | Employers | 90d |
| 31 May | P60s to employeesEmployers | Employers | 132d |
| 6 Jul | Benefits & expenses returnsEmployers | Employers | 168d |
| 31 Jul | Second payment on accountSole traders | Sole traders | 193d |
Three tiers, and what each leaves out.
Sole trader
$95per month
- Self assessment prepared and filed
- Bookkeeping reviewed quarterly
- Quarterly check-in call
- Unlimited questions by email
- Payroll
- VAT returns
Limited company
Most common$220per month
- Statutory accounts and corporation tax
- Confirmation statement
- One director's self assessment
- Quarterly management figures
- Unlimited questions by email
- Payroll beyond two employees
Company + payroll + VAT
$340per month
- Everything in Limited company
- Payroll up to ten employees
- Quarterly VAT returns
- Pension submissions
- Monthly management figures
You stop hesitating before you call
The single biggest cost of hourly billing is not the rate. It is the question you did not ask because the clock was running.
The price is known in advance
Twelve equal payments rather than an unpredictable invoice after year end, which is when cash is usually tightest anyway.
We are not paid to be slow
Hourly billing quietly rewards inefficiency. A fixed fee means our incentive and yours point the same way.
Switching takes a fortnight and one signature.
Most people who need a better accountant already have one and stay put because they imagine the move is painful, or that it will cause offence. It is neither — it is one of the most routine events in the profession.
You do not have to have the conversation yourself. Most people would rather we wrote, and that is entirely normal.
You tell your current accountant, or we do
Most people would rather we did. A short standard letter, and it is an entirely routine event in the profession.
We request professional clearance
Their side confirms there is no professional reason not to act. It is a formality in almost every case.
Records transfer directly
Accounts, tax returns, ledgers and correspondence come to us. You do not chase anything or forward anything.
Authorisation with the tax authority
Filed by us. Then we are on record and you are done. Start to finish it is about a fortnight.
What actually attracts attention.
Mostly pattern-matching rather than suspicion, and mostly avoidable with better records. Worth saying plainly, because the vagueness around this is what makes people anxious.
Persistent losses
Several years of losses against a lifestyle that clearly costs money is the classic pattern. Not fatal, but it invites a look.
Figures out of line with your sector
Margins, wage ratios and expense levels are benchmarked. Sitting well outside the range for your trade draws attention.
Large round numbers
Expenses at exactly $5,000 look estimated because they usually are. Real figures have pennies in them.
Late filing, repeatedly
One late return is a bad year. Three is a pattern, and patterns are what the systems are built to notice.
All of it is fine.
The last two on this list are there deliberately. Most new clients arrive with one of them and nobody is made to feel bad about it.
Four kinds of client, four sets of traps.
Trades and construction
CIS deductions, subcontractor status and the van-versus-car question that everybody gets wrong.
Consultants and contractors
Employment status, dividend planning and the tests that decide which side of the line you sit.
Shops and hospitality
Stock, tips and till reconciliation, plus the VAT scheme decision that is worth real money.
Landlords
Property income, allowable expenses and the interest relief rules that changed and confused everybody.
The first one is the whole argument.
“I ring them about things I would never have rung the last lot about, because it does not cost me anything to ask.”
R. Ansari
Limited company
“The switch took two weeks and I did nothing except sign one form.”
L. Bergqvist
Sole trader
“They told me the VAT scheme I was on was costing me about two thousand a year. It was.”
P. Nwachukwu
Company + VAT
Including the one about the carrier bag.
Why fixed fees rather than hourly?+
Because hourly billing trains clients not to ring, and the questions people avoid asking are the expensive ones. A fixed fee means a phone call costs you nothing, which is how problems get caught while they are still small.
Is switching accountants difficult?+
No, and the belief that it is keeps a great many people somewhere they are unhappy. We write for professional clearance, collect the records and file the authorisation. It takes roughly a fortnight and you sign one form.
What actually triggers an enquiry?+
Persistent losses, figures that sit oddly against your sector benchmarks, large round-number expenses, and repeated late filing. Most of it is pattern-matching rather than suspicion, and most of it is avoidable with better records.
What if my bookkeeping is a mess?+
Then you are most of our new clients. Bring it as it is — a carrier bag of receipts is a perfectly normal starting point and it is on the software list above quite deliberately.
Will I speak to the same person?+
Yes. You get a named accountant, their direct line and their email, not a general enquiries address and whoever picks it up.
Half an hour, free, no obligation.
You will get a fee quoted at the end of it rather than after a proposal process.