Small business · North London
Small Business Accountant in North London
For businesses small enough that the owner still does everything. We take the compliance off you and tell you what the numbers mean while there is still time to act on them.
A small business does not need a finance department. It needs the filings done on time, a bookkeeping system that does not fall behind, and someone who will say plainly whether the business is making money and where it is leaking. Most of the value is in the second half of that, and most accountants only deliver the first.
We act for owner-managed businesses across North London — Finchley, Barnet, Enfield, Haringey and the surrounding areas — from first-year sole traders to companies with a dozen staff.
All the filings, handled
Accounts, corporation tax, VAT, payroll and confirmation statement.
Books that stay current
Xero or QuickBooks, set up properly and kept up.
Numbers you can act on
Told to you in the year, not nine months after it ended.
One fixed fee
Agreed before we start, so asking a question costs nothing.
What a small business actually needs
The compliance list is the same for everyone and it is not the interesting part: annual accounts, a corporation tax return, VAT returns if you are registered, payroll if you have staff, and a confirmation statement. We do all of that as a matter of course. What changes the business is the layer above it.
- Whether your gross margin is holding, and what moved it
- Which customers or products actually make money after the work involved
- What the tax bill will be, before the money has been spent
- Whether to take profit as salary, dividend or pension contribution this year
- When registering for VAT stops being optional, and what it does to your prices
Growing past yourself
The two points where small businesses most often come unstuck are the first employee and the VAT threshold. The first brings PAYE, auto-enrolment, employer National Insurance and employment law obligations that arrive all at once. The second can cost you a fifth of your prices overnight if your customers are consumers who cannot recover the VAT. Both are much easier handled a month early than a month late.
Working with us
You get a named accountant, a fixed fee agreed in advance, and replies within a working day. We are in Finchley, so meeting in person is practical if that is what you want — but most of our small business clients deal with us entirely by email and phone, and we would rather be quick than formal.
Taking on your first employee
The first hire brings a set of obligations that arrive all at once and mostly before the first payday: a PAYE scheme, real-time reporting to HMRC on or before each payment, a workplace pension with automatic enrolment, employer's liability insurance, and a written statement of terms on day one.
The employment allowance reduces the employer's National Insurance bill for most smaller employers, and it has to be claimed rather than applied — a surprising number of first-time employers never do.
Auto-enrolment is the one that catches people, because it is assessed every pay period rather than once. Someone who was not eligible last month can become eligible this month through a pay rise or extra hours, and the duty starts then.
Choosing bookkeeping software
Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent all do the job for a small business, and the differences that matter are not the ones in the marketing. What decides it is usually whether it connects cleanly to your bank, whether it handles the thing your trade actually does — CIS, stock, projects, multi-currency — and whether you will genuinely use it.
The most expensive choice is the one that gets abandoned in month three, leaving a year to rebuild. If you are not going to keep it up, it is better to say so and have us do the bookkeeping than to pay for software that is used once.
Whether you are actually making money
Small businesses very often know their turnover and their bank balance and nothing in between, and those two figures can both look reassuring while the business is losing money. Three ideas fix most of it, and none of them requires an accounting qualification.
Your own drawings are not a cost
If you are a sole trader, what you take out of the business is not an expense — it is a share of the profit, and you are taxed on the profit whether you took it or left it in. This is the single most common misunderstanding we correct, and it matters because a business that treats the owner’s pay as a cost concludes it is breaking even when it is in fact making a profit it will owe tax on.
Gross margin tells you more than turnover
The number that governs whether a business works is what is left after the direct cost of what you sold — materials, stock, subcontractors, the things that rise when you sell more. Overheads are largely fixed; gross margin is the part you can act on. A business chasing turnover with a margin too thin to cover its overheads simply loses money faster as it grows.
Know your break-even
Overheads divided by gross margin percentage gives the turnover you need before you earn anything. It takes ten minutes to calculate and most owners have never seen it for their own business. It converts vague questions — can I afford to hire someone, should I take that unit — into arithmetic, because you can see exactly how much extra trade the commitment demands.
Then price deliberately
Most small businesses under-price, and put the difficulty down to competition when the actual problem is that the price never covered the work. Once you know your margin and your break-even you can tell the difference between a competitor who is cheaper and a competitor who is losing money. It is a much better position from which to decide anything.
Frequently asked
How much does a small business accountant cost?+
It depends on what the business does and how tidy the records are, not on how many hours we spend. A sole trader with clean records costs considerably less than a VAT-registered company with payroll. We quote a fixed annual fee up front and it does not change unless the work does.
Do I have to use particular software?+
We work with Xero and QuickBooks and will set either up. If you are currently on spreadsheets we will tell you honestly whether moving is worth it — for a very small business it sometimes is not, though Making Tax Digital is progressively removing that choice.
Can you fix a year of records that were never kept?+
Yes, though it is the most expensive way to buy bookkeeping. We can reconstruct a year from bank statements and invoices, and then set up something that stops it happening again.
What if I only need help occasionally?+
That is fine. Some clients want everything handled; others do their own books and want the year-end and someone to call when a decision comes up. We will scope it to what you need rather than selling a package.
What do I need before my first employee starts?+
A PAYE scheme, payroll that reports to HMRC on or before each payment, a workplace pension with auto-enrolment, employer's liability insurance, and a written statement of terms on day one. Claim the employment allowance too — it reduces employer's NI for most small employers and it is not applied automatically.
Which bookkeeping software should I use?+
Whichever you will actually keep up with. Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent all work; what matters is the bank feed, whether it handles what your trade does, and your own habits. Software abandoned in month three costs more than no software, because the year still has to be rebuilt.
I take £2,000 a month out of the business. Is that a cost?+
Not if you are a sole trader or partner — it is drawings, which is you taking your share of the profit, and you are taxed on the profit whether you drew it or not. This matters because treating it as a cost makes a profitable business look like it breaks even, and the tax bill then arrives as a genuine shock. In a limited company the position is different: salary is a company cost, dividends are not.
How do I know if I am charging enough?+
Work out your gross margin — what is left after the direct costs of delivering the work — and your annual overheads. Overheads divided by margin percentage gives the turnover you need to break even. If your current pricing cannot get you past that at a realistic volume, the price is wrong, not the market. It is a ten-minute calculation and it usually settles an argument people have been having with themselves for years.
Can I afford to take someone on?+
Turn it into arithmetic: the true cost is not the salary but the salary plus employer’s National Insurance, pension and the time you will spend managing them. Divide that by your gross margin percentage and you have the additional turnover required to stand still. Then ask whether that increase is realistic. Most people find the answer clarifies quickly once they can see the number.
Local to you
Chartered accountants, just up the road.
We are based in Finchley and work across North London. Come in, call, or do the whole thing by email — whichever suits you.
Or call 07480 281548