Paperwork, accounts, spreadsheets. BTL

[rufusgti]

Firstly I'm imagining lots of successful business men and women shaking their heads and tutting at this post but I really could do with some advice on keeping costs, profits, taxable income etc etc.
I have two properties I let out, I'm a tradesman so fantastic at maintenance and the practice side of things but find the paperwork a real nightmare. I can get by with tenancy agreements and deposit bonds as that's all just filling in paperwork and signatures. It's the rest of it that tends to get messy and then my tax returns are a real head ache. I don't have an accountant but feel like I need one but also imagine I'm an accountants worst nightmare.
Are there spreadsheets available that I could update as costs occur that would make accounting and self assessments easier. I'm rubbish on computers but have iPads I can use.
What do others do to keep track on these things.

[developer]

Self assessment is a once a year thing.

I have a "box" for all my receipts and once a year (self assessment time) I trawl through it, listing all my expenditure on an Excel spreadsheet.

Updating the spreadsheet as costs are incurred is too time consuming IMO.

[AnimalMother]

Do you have a business bank account for the properties?


I have a few BTL, I make sure every transaction goes through my property bank account. Then every year I export a years worth into excel from my online banking. Then I go down the excel putting each transaction into categories.

These are the categories I use (HMOs BTL):

Rent Income
Pro Fees
Mortgage
Marketing
Maintenance
Utilities
Fixtures & Fittings
Council Tax
Insurance
Bank Charges
Broadband


If your decent with excel, can use the filters and search the whole thing takes about an 1 hour.

I then email the totals to my accountant to fill out my tax return and sort out the additional things like the 10% deprecation allowance, interest relief, etc

Edited by AnimalMother on Tuesday 20th September 13:01

[AnimalMother]

rufusgti said:

I'm rubbish on computers but have iPads I can use.

oh....my above advice isn't really much use then. :-)

Edited by AnimalMother on Tuesday 20th September 13:04

[Eric Mc]

developer said:

Self assessment is a once a year thing.

Won't be for much longer.