Services for business owners who want more than the basics.

You get a figure in writing after a 30-minute discovery call. There is no number here because the same job varies enormously: a sole trader with one income stream and forty bank transactions a year is not the same work as a VAT-registered company with six on payroll and a director's loan to unpick. Published prices in this trade are usually the cheapest possible version of the job, quietly revised once someone sees the records. What we commit to instead is a fixed monthly fee agreed before anything starts, a written scope showing what is in it and what is not, and no hourly charge for asking a question. FreeAgent, worth up to £330 a year, sits inside the fee. See accountancy packages.

Buzz Accounting is an AAT licensed practice and an ICPA member, registered in England and Wales, company number 15182358 — both are checkable on the AAT and Companies House registers before you speak to us. AAT licensing sets the conditions we work under, including anti-money-laundering supervision, which is why you will be asked for photo ID and proof of address before we can act for you. Worth knowing: "accountant" is not a protected title in the UK, so anyone can use it. Regulated financial advice is a separate regime; Buzz is not authorised to give it and introduces clients to Equity & General Financial Services Limited, FCA No. 474163. Reserved legal work goes to RHF Solicitors.

You tell us to go ahead and we do the rest — you never have to make an awkward phone call. We write to your existing accountant for professional clearance and your records, register as your agent with HMRC, and set up the software while we wait. Most handovers are done within a couple of weeks, and the delay is almost always the other firm's reply rather than anything at our end. We do not wait for clearance to land before starting the bookkeeping or answering your questions. You can move at any point in the year; just after a year end is tidiest. Two things to check yourself: the notice period in your existing engagement letter, and whether work you have already paid for has actually been done.

Anything outside the scope written into your proposal. That scope typically covers bookkeeping, VAT, payroll at an agreed headcount, year-end accounts, the corporation tax or self assessment return and Companies House filings. Outside it, and quoted separately: catching up years of unfiled accounts, an HMRC enquiry, a share reorganisation or restructure, a valuation for a sale, and regulated financial or legal advice. We also do not carry out statutory audits. None of that is a refusal — it is priced when it happens so you are not paying every month for something you might need once. The proposal shows both columns, in and out, before you sign anything.

We take over the correspondence and you stop dealing with HMRC directly. That means reading the opening letter properly — what is actually being asked for is usually narrower than it first reads — agreeing what to send and what to challenge, requesting extra time where the statutory deadline is tight, and keeping a written record of everything that goes out. Most enquiries are aspect enquiries into a single figure rather than a full books-and-records review, and they close without a change to the return. Whether enquiry work sits inside your monthly fee or is quoted separately depends on what your engagement letter covers, so ask us before you need it and get the answer in writing.

Usually within one working day for an email or the contact form. If it is urgent — a deadline this week, an HMRC letter with a date on it — say so or send a WhatsApp and it moves up the queue. There is no hourly charge for asking, which is deliberate: the questions that cost people money are the ones they never asked because the meter was running. What you will not get is an instant answer to a question that deserves a considered one. If something needs the figures checked or a rule read properly, we will tell you when you will have it rather than guess on the phone and correct it a week later.

No. If your current setup works and the records are clean, we work in it. FreeAgent is included in every package at no extra cost, we are a Xero Gold Partner, and we work in QuickBooks and Sage. We only push for a change when the software is costing you time, is not doing what Making Tax Digital requires, or is charging you for a plan you have outgrown. When a move is right, opening balances and open items come across, and prior years stay readable in the old system. Whether to import full transaction history is a judgement we make with you rather than a default. See the software comparison.

Anyone for whom price is the deciding factor. Online-only firms publish a monthly figure and deliver a competent compliance service for less, and if the accounts and the return are genuinely all you want, that is a sensible choice — we would rather say so than win the work and disappoint you. We are also a poor fit for an owner who wants an accountant to sign off whatever they are told to, and we cannot help if you need a statutory audit. Where we earn our keep is with owner-managed businesses that want compliance handled properly and someone to think with about pricing, cash, tax and what to do next. You will get a straight answer on the discovery call either way.