Accountants in Aberdeen
Aberdeen's business base is built on energy, and it is in the middle of changing what that means. We work with the supply chain on both sides of that shift.
The business base in Aberdeen
Aberdeen is the centre of the UK's offshore energy industry, and most of the business base is the supply chain rather than the operators themselves — engineering, inspection, subsea, logistics, catering, recruitment and the professional services that sit around all of it. Alongside that sits an energy transition economy in offshore wind and hydrogen that is drawing on the same skills and often the same companies.
Two things shape the accounting here more than anywhere else in Scotland. The work is project-based and lumpy, so a year read as a single figure tells you very little about whether the business is actually healthy. And a great many people are paid at day rates well into the Scottish higher and advanced bands, which makes how they are engaged, and how owners take money out, a much more expensive question than it is further south.
How we work with businesses in Aberdeen
Buzz has no Scottish office, and we would rather say that plainly than put a rented address on a page to look local. Work runs by phone, video call and WhatsApp, with a named accountant rather than a call queue, unlimited questions at no hourly charge, and FreeAgent included.
Aberdeen is the one Scottish market where the day-rate contractor question and the Scottish income tax bands collide hardest, and it is worth having someone who works both at once rather than treating them as separate files.
What we do for Aberdeen businesses
Project-based work with high earnings attached, which is a combination that rewards planning and punishes leaving it to the year end.
- Contract and project accounting — revenue recognised across a project rather than when the invoice happens to land, so a good month and a good project are not confused with each other
- IR35 and how contractors are engaged — the status question worked through properly, because in a day-rate market getting it wrong is expensive and the exposure sits with more than one party
- Owner remuneration on Scottish rates — salary and dividends planned against the 42% higher rate starting at £43,663, not a rule of thumb written for the English thresholds
- Capital allowances on equipment — plant, tooling and vehicles claimed properly, including full expensing where it applies to a capital-heavy supply-chain business
- Concentration risk in the client book — an honest look at what happens to the numbers if one operator cuts its programme, which is the risk this city knows better than most
Questions we get asked in Aberdeen
Most of our work comes from two operators. Should that worry me?
It should be measured rather than worried about. Concentration is normal in this supply chain and it only becomes dangerous when nobody has put a number on it. We look at what the profit and the cash position do if the largest customer halves its programme, and how many months of overhead the business could carry while it replaced that work. That is a forecasting job, and knowing the answer usually changes how you price and who you chase next.
I contract offshore at a day rate. Am I better off through a company?
It depends on the engagement more than the arithmetic. If the contract is genuinely outside IR35 then a company gives you real planning room, and the Scottish angle matters because dividends stay on UK rates while salary meets the Scottish bands. If it is inside, a company adds cost and paperwork for very little. Work out the status first, then the structure — doing it the other way round is how people end up with an expensive company and no benefit.
We are moving work into offshore wind. Does anything change for tax?
The tax treatment of the work does not change simply because the customer changed. What tends to change is the shape of the contracts, the payment terms and often the currency, and those change the cashflow rather than the tax. It is worth modelling the transition before you commit capital, because a business can be profitable on paper through that shift and still run short of cash.
Looking for an accountant in Aberdeen?
Tell us what you need and we will come back to you, usually the same working day. No call centre, no script.
We work right across Scotland
Pick your town for the local detail — what the business base actually looks like there, and the questions that come up most often.
See the full Scotland page for what changes at the border, the guides and the rest of it.
