Fixed-fee accounting built around your business, not a template.

Because a published figure would be wrong for most of the people reading it. The work behind a set of accounts swings by a factor of three or four depending on transaction volume, whether you are VAT registered and on which scheme, how many people are on payroll, whether there is a director's loan or stock, and — the big one — the state of the records we inherit. Firms that publish a headline price are pricing the tidiest possible version of the job. You get your figure in writing after a 30-minute discovery call: a fixed monthly fee, a scope showing what is in it and what is not, and no hourly charge for asking questions afterwards.

The compliance work that has to happen every year, packaged monthly so it is budgeted rather than a shock. For a limited company that normally means bookkeeping, VAT returns where you are registered, payroll for the agreed headcount, year-end statutory accounts filed at Companies House, the Corporation Tax return, the confirmation statement and the directors' self assessment. For a sole trader or landlord it is the bookkeeping, VAT if applicable and the self assessment return. FreeAgent is included throughout, worth up to £330 a year. Your proposal lists the scope line by line, including what sits outside it, so there is no argument later about what you were paying for.

Genuinely included — you do not pay a separate subscription on top, which is worth up to £330 a year against subscribing directly. It is a full licence, not a cut-down version, and it is HMRC-recognised for Making Tax Digital for both VAT and Income Tax. If you would rather use Xero we can do that too: we are a Xero Gold Partner and offer it on partner pricing bundled into your fee. QuickBooks and Sage are supported as well. The software matters less than the habit — the licence only earns its keep if receipts and bank feeds actually go into it, which is the part we set up with you.

It changes, and we talk to you before it does. The usual triggers are crossing the VAT threshold, taking on staff, adding a second entity or a step change in transaction volume. Plan changes take effect from the next billing cycle, not retrospectively, and a revised scope goes in writing the same way the first one did. The one thing we will not do is quietly let scope creep sit inside the old fee until it becomes a resentment on both sides. If your business shrinks, the fee comes down on the same basis — it is meant to track the work, not ratchet in one direction.

Monthly fees are charged in advance for the plan you are on, and you can cancel at any time — service continues through the billing period you have already paid for. Fees are non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise, which is the honest position rather than a comfortable one: if you cancel in month one having had the setup work done, that month is not coming back. What you take with you is everything you are entitled to — your accounting records, the software file and the underlying data. The full position is in our fees and refund policy and terms.

Say so at the discovery call rather than letting us find out in month two. Late filings and HMRC arrears are common, fixable and priced separately from the ongoing monthly fee, because catch-up work is a one-off project with its own cost. The first job is establishing exactly what is outstanding — which returns, which years, what HMRC has already charged — then agreeing the order to deal with it in, usually oldest first to stop penalties compounding. Nobody is going to be sniffy about it. What does not work is starting the monthly service as though the backlog is not there, because it surfaces the moment we try to prepare a year end.

No. Unlimited support is part of the package, subject to a fair usage policy, and there is no hourly charge for asking. That policy exists for the genuine outlier — the business that needs a daily bookkeeper rather than an accountant — and if you are heading that way we will say so and quote for what you actually need instead of rationing replies. Expect an answer within one working day for most things. Where a question turns into a piece of work with a real cost — a restructure, an enquiry, a valuation — we tell you that up front and price it before starting, rather than after.

Not always, and that is not really the point. A fixed fee is more expensive than hourly in a quiet year and cheaper in a busy one; what it buys reliably is a number you can budget and the removal of the disincentive to pick up the phone. Hourly billing in this trade quietly trains clients to stay silent, and the silence is what costs money — the VAT registration left too late, the vehicle bought in the wrong month, the dividend paid without reserves. If you would prefer to be billed for exactly the hours used, several firms still work that way and it is a legitimate model. It is not ours.