Any contractors using management companies on here?

[offroading.net]

Who is the best? Fed up of the hassle of a limited company, looking for a management company to run one on my behalf, any suggestions?

cheers

[Eric Mc]

What hassle?

[offroading.net]

paperwork, no good at it, got stiffed by my last accountant as he fooked up & I paid for it. Want someone that can handle agency self billing and running the LTD company.
Used to use paystream2000 but heard bad things of them of late.

[UpTheIron]

offroading.net said:

paperwork, no good at it, got stiffed by my last accountant as he fooked up & I paid for it. Want someone that can handle agency self billing and running the LTD company.
Used to use paystream2000 but heard bad things of them of late.

How much are you willing to pay for this though?

[offroading.net]

Depends on the service, but I was paying an accountant £120 a month to fook up my accounts. I don't know the going rate or percentage of you invoice amount you pay these days

[Eric Mc]

Was he qualified?

Where did he go wrong?

Was it due to book-keeping problems or problems with the statutory/Corporation tax side?

Did you follow his advice properly?

[offroading.net]

old stuff but he didn't advise me well on income & expenses. Not into just dragging all the cash out tax free but I was buying equipment for work I never claimed when I could, he didn't do returns correctly etc etc. At the end of the day I am liable as a director bu know fook all about running a company & it cost me. Was a while ago and water under the bridge.

[Eric Mc]

So I assume you now have a decent accountant in tow and who is dealing with all these things properly?

[offroading.net]

I have been using a paye scheme for year before last, just doing first 6-8 months accounts now, have a local book keeper doing my paye at the mo, asking around locally for a decent account to do my first years acconts soon

[Eric Mc]

So you haven't finalised your first set of company accounts yet?

If that is the case, there is still time to ensure all your legitimate business costs can be claimed. Are you up against any iminent filing deadlines at the moment?

[offroading.net]

This year wasn't the cock up with an accountant, was 3-4 years ago. I am not hammering expenses too much this year so accounts will be fairly straight forward, not a huge amount of invoices in and out. But in the future I want someone else to do it all for me.

How much should i be getting charged for an accountant to run all the books for me, to all the due returns and vat, sort out expenses etc? And is an accountant a better option than a managed company?

[Eric Mc]

There really shouldn't be an awful lot for you to do on a day top day basis.

All you need to do is make sure you raise invoices for the work you do and make sure you get paid. If working out the VAT is a problem, use the FLat Rate Scheme which simplifies compiling VAT returns no end.

You accountntn (or a competent book-keeper) should administer your monthly payroll.

All the accountant needs to do is:

prepare the annual accounts in the correct formats

calculate your Corporation Tax position and ensure the right tax return is submitted in time

ensure that the accounts are sent off to Companies House in time

you may task the accountant to handle the PAYE end opf year returns

Depending on the size and complexity of your operation, I would expect an accountant to do all of this for you for under £1,000 per annum.