The success rate amongst our start up clients is remarkably high (95%).  We are confident that this is due in some way to our input and support.

Start up businesses require careful attention, support and nurturing.  Strong planning, financial projections and analysis are the cornerstones of our support package fo start ups.

What support do we offer?

• A comprehensive checklist to guide you through starting up
• Strong links to banks in case funding is required
• Templates that businesses can use for planning and analysis
• A simple excel book keeping template that is free to clients which we also provide coaching and training on
• Regular meetings to review progress
• Access to our marketing and PR consultants

Most of this help and support is free.

Whether you are setting up a new Limited Company or running an established business, we are very well placed to help and support you.

• We can advise on all aspects of setting up your company and it’s structure through to the complexities of exiting a company or running a larger business
• We regularly receive the feedback that we explain the process thoroughly and keep things practical and simple
• We have helped clients restructure and save considerable amounts of tax in the past. We have assisted a number of clients in raising significant sums of money from banks and other lenders

Why don’t you contact us to discuss your company? Let us explain the best way for you to extract money from your company and pay the minimum amount of tax.

Having traded as a partnership ourselves for a number of years, we are ideally placed to support and advise sole traders and partnerships.

Planning for tax liabilities is the issue that sole traders and partnerships raise most.  The issue that is linked to this and often secondary is “How can I pay less tax”

There are areas that we will look at to ensure you are placed in the most tax effective position.  We work to try to save each client their accountant’s fees and more by offering good tax planning and advice.

Other services we offer:

• A helpline to discuss issues about the business and tax matters
• Assistance with book keeping and VAT
• Management accounting, cash flow forecasting, budget preparation and review meetings
• Annual accounting and tax work
• A feed of regular information and updates on the latest regulatory issues
• A template for the partnership agreement
• Access to our business partners on issues such as marketing, money lending, human resources and legal services
• Grooming a business for sale or to pass on to another family member
• Buying a business

Our managing director Paul Reid has had experience in the franchising industry and has helped a number of our clients to franchise their businesses in recent years.

We are preferred suppliers for accountancy and tax to two national franchises and offer to franchisees of these businesses an unrivalled accountancy and tax support package.

We understand the issues faced by both franchisors and franchisees and can offer the following support to franchisors:

• Free training for your franchisees on their induction course on the tax and accounting aspects of starting a franchise
• Support and advice on the franchise fee and its treatment by HMRC
• Free assistance to franchisees at the decision making stage to enable them to plan for the opportunity or raise finance
• A helpline for advice and support
• A sounding board form franchisee, tax or accounting related issues
  

We offer the following support to franchisees:

• Support in the decision making process
• Help raising finance
• A comprehensive start up service tailored to the franchise and the industry you are about to enter

Buying a business
Buying a business is a major decision and one that requires good research, planning and an understanding of the numbers and projections.

We have supported a number of clients in acquiring businesses either in an outright purchase, a management buy out, an earn out or a management buy in.

Our role in this process is to educate our client, make them aware of the risks and rewards, steer them through the process and to help them understand the financials.

With these transactions we always offer tax planning advice and support.

Selling a business
Selling a business requires a different approach.  Our role in this process is to assist in preparing the business for sale and in the preparation of information for prospective buyers and their advisors.  We liaise with buyers and their advisors and assist in negotiations and putting the deal together.  Our objective is to get the best deal for our client.

Again, we offer tax planning as part of our service.

On both buying and selling a business we would be happy to work with your solicitors or introduce our trusted solicitors to you to help in the process.

We cover all aspects of tax including VAT.

Yes, we can prepare self assessment tax returns, corporation tax returns, VAT returns and provide end of year tax services, but if this is all you require, then perhaps we are not the right firm for you.

Tax is as an ongoing issue for our clients.  It should be on the agenda every time you meet with us and we should be suggesting ways of saving you tax.  We will commit to filing returns on time and getting answers quickly.  We are not afraid to offer opinions and ideas to our clients.

We can prepare the end of year accounts for a client, regardless of size and whether or not it is a sole trader, limited company or partnership.

We promise to turn accounts quickly and efficiently, however, we like to go one step further.

Every client that wants a meeting to discuss their accounts will get one.  At this meeting, we will:

• explain the process we have followed
• explain the meaning of the numbers
• draw a comparison to previous years
• provide an independent view on what the figures say and what can be done to improve them

Going this extra mile to add in this value is what sets us aside form our competitors.  This turns a routine process that clients felt was just hassle and something that had to be done into a valuable planning exercise.

It is normally more cost effective for a business to perform some or all of its own bookkeeping or to engage an outside contractor to help.

We are happy to support our clients that do this and check their workings prior to submission of VAT returns.

If a client would rather engage us to perform book keeping, we have experienced, qualified staff at different levels to be able to get the right fit for a business.

We can work at a clients site or in our own office and we support and can work with every piece of software on the market.

As members of the Sage accountants club we pass on significant discounts to our clients on all Sage software.

By financial management we mean assisting clients with the following:

• Budgeting
• Management accounting
• Monitoring performance and analysing / explaining results

We essentially act as the financial consultants and finance director to our clients.  This enables us to be closely involved with our clients business and assist in providing information to help directors and managers make better decisions.

We offer our clients that require an audit access to a firm of chartered accounts that can provide an audit opinion.

This sister firm knows exactly how we work and can give an independent view and a cost effective service to our clients.

Our clients should feel completely at ease with our payroll services, payroll should be hassle free, reliable and above all affordable.

We DO NOT CHARGE for the following:

• Setting up a payroll
• Adding new joiners
• Removing leavers and processing P45’s
• End of year processing and filing of returns on line

We do not have minimum contract lengths unlike most of our competitors.

Our pricing structure for payroll processing is straightforward:

• For up to 10 monthly paid employees £17.50 plus VAT per month
• For up to 30 monthly paid employees £45 plus VAT per month
• For more than 30 monthly paid employees – price upon enquiry

We can also manage weekly and fortnightly payrolls.

The advantage to us managing our payroll processing in-house is that we can quickly answer any queries our clients or their employees may have

A number of clients with particular issues have engaged us to assist them in increasing their performance, profitability and cash flow.

In these instances we act as a business coach and advisor to our client on a range of areas.

In most scenarios we are so confident in our ability to help our client improve their performance that we will accept fees on a no gain no fee basis.

For more information on this, please contact our office.