Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: easi-kleen on November 17, 2004, 01:22:33 pm
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I'm sitting here with a headache!
Wading through my books for last year wishing I had kept better records and made them up each month as keep promising myself I'm going to do.
God I hate tax returns
Phil :-\
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Neither myself nor my wife ever fill in Tax Forms. Far too complex for my ageing brain.
Just dump all relevant stuff on the accountant, then pop in and sign on the bottom !
He can sort out in an hour, what would take me a week !
;D
Bryan
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I have a tax advisor
But its the bookwork to make understandable for him
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Fortunately I'm not VAT reg' and I don't employ anyone so my bookwork takes a matter of minutes.
I won't ever get very rich, but it makes for an easier & less stressful life. I like it that way !
Bryan
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I'm the same as that but I barely a list of who I worked for in the last 18 months. So I'm having to piece it tgether.
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I find a simple system is to keep an ongoing list under 2 headings of sales & purchases in a blank A4 book, with the invoices filed in 2 separate folders. Then pass this to accountant. No problems so far.
Richard
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Hi
get yourself a bookeeper, mine just cost me £94.50 for 13 hours work, excellent and stress free
Worth it?
You bet
Regards
Martin 8)
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I keep starting something like that then I cant be bothered..
I like to take booking, survey, clean and get paid, the rest doesnt interest me... Til I have to do it.. like now
Phil
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I do the same as Bryan. I wouldn't expect my accountant to clean his own carpets, he doesn't expect me to be au fait with a tax return.
As for weekly bookeeping, something like the Simplex D that I use is a pre-printed weekly accounts book. You just put the right numbers in the right boxes. Give it to your accountant at the years end. No problems, no worries, no stress. BUT I'd recommend to everyone to always keep their paperwork up to date.
Safe and happy accounting :)
Ken
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hi there
we use the software we get from barclays, and provides a very powerful tracking of differentcost centres, IE vehicles, and provides me with all the profit figures.
we can then forecast forward and decide if we need to spend any money.
on top of that it prepares all the IR paperwork and VAT returns.
and it takes say 3 hours a month, job done
regards
martin
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very easy to do if you use disc on computer list everything coming in and everything going out give disc to accountant
end of story takes five minutes aday if you would like a copy
email me and i will oblige
regards tony
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We have a book keeper at £12.50 per hour 4 hrs a week
Sage line 50 V11 Cost about £750.00
Sage Payroll Cost £350.00
Yearly cost £3500.00
The sage does all the vat runs off the accounts does the invoicing etc
That equates to a saving in my personal work load of 192 hours a year.
even though it equates to an average of £18.22 per hour to run our accounting side of the business at a total cost of £3.500 this frees up 192 hours of my time to get in new business, i dont need to tell you that 192 hours of selling work equates to a lot more than £3500.00
In essence doing the job correctly and efficiently makes me more money!
regards Dave ADL
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dave,
now ive got the guys on the road, it makes a pleasant change to spend a couple of hours away from it all, counting the money.
but i must admit i still like to get on site, got absolutely soaked today 2nd floor up on scaffold
great
regards
martin
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what is your annual turnover dave555.
how long have you been in business.
Lee G
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Thats what I like Lee, get straight to the point ;D ;D
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hi there,
obviously everybody pays a different amount for their accounting costs, which should be in line with turmover. the costs are also variable in line with whether you are a limited company, partnership or soletrader.
my projected first year turnover is in excess of £250k, and we are on course to deliver in excess of that, and we are only a small operation. that will then set us up nicely to expand further. (and that is with vehicles generally on the road an average of four days a week)
next year we will transfer from partnership to a limited company, and based upon my previous business experience, then you get what you pay for with accountants.
we would then be looking at paying about 4k in accountants fees.
regards
martin
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Lee i like a straight to the point approach,
1. ADL carpet cleaners started june 2003.
2. ADL Cleaning Services Ltd was incorporated 15th January 2004
3. Turnover from new tax year 01/05/2004 to date £92750.00
4. Projected turnover for this tax year upto end april 2005 150 000.00
There is no point in me giveing you false projections or figures as like all other limited companies we must forward anual accounts to companies house and for the mere sum of £5.00 anyone can see our accounts by logging onto the companies house website.
Annual turnover projected for 2005-2006 £250 000.00
Regards Dave ADL
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Lee i was up your way the other day cleaning on Lightburn Rd, i will give you a call next time and we'll meet 4 a brew
regards Dvae ADL
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Dave,
Have you built this up from scratch since June 03, or were you already in a similar field before?
Have you now branched out into other cleaning services in addition to CC, and do you employ staff?
Very impressive turnover....... to my mind anyway. What's your secret? :) :)
Regards.
Martin S
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No i built it up from scratch, before that i was a lorry driver and glyn used to vlean my carpets, (and very well he did it to i might add) yes we have branched out a little to other cleaning works but commercial carperts are our big one. I am not bragging about what we do merley answering a question honestly, however i dont think we are busy enough and i do see potential to dramatically improve our work load, yes i do have 3 full time staff and six part timers, i am already looking at another TM to add to the fleet in the new year, however i have to admit that we have wasted a lot of money advertising in the YP and Thompson as we do more commercial work nationwide than local work, and the work that we do get local out of the yp we could have got the same results from a smaller advert ( i should have mentioned that we have half page in colour).
regards Dave ADL
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Cheers Dave. Best of luck to you.
Regards.
Martin S
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dave
you said you are adding another truckmount to you fleet,how many truckmounts are you running at the moment?????
i must sat i am very impressed with your achevment in the cleaning industry.
many will not break the 50 grand a year mark.
i take my hat of to you
well done
Lee G
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lee,
it all depends how big your operation is regarding turnover, a one vehicle operation could survive on that, its really about what you are looking to achieve.
our turnover is just over £23k for two and a half months, and turnover is doubling up each month, and that is from launch.
i know what i want from the business and that really dictates what needs to be done to achieve that.
the way that things are shaping up for 2005, we will have enough work for two vehicles 2 or 3 crewed full time on site.
regards
martin
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Phil,
I made up a template on excel when I first started, it's split into months with a year end figure. It's broken down into capital spend, salaries, income, marketing, travel/vehicle, chemicals and running costs. All you need to do is put in date, descriptin what it was for and how much, the rest is automatic.
I simply fill it in at the end of each week, which I have just done tonight (10 mins)
I still use an accountant at year end, he loves it and he still saves me much more than he costs me.
I'm not saying its the dogs b*****cks, but it works ok for me, if you want a copy for ideas of your own PM me and I'll email you a blank with some notes.
Ian
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1 Mercedes Sprinter Ultra Long wheel base (what a beast) 494 TM
1 Vauxhall Combo T170s buffing machines for offices
1 X Mitsubishi Shogan LWD 7 Str for the boss to pose in ;)
Looking at an 860 in a sprinter at the moment, just waiting for details of a custom made 860 from steve at chemspec in polished chrome to go in another sprinter.
Will also be buying another small van and putting it on a new hard floor contract that we are getting in the new year.
regards Dave ADL
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lionheart,
youve hit the nail on the head there, it does what you want it to, but also it means that you can tell at a glance whether things are going in the tight direction, and also which way to adjust if needed.
i moved all my excel spreadsheets, over to my accounting package, which makes things even easier, because the next financial year is projected initially from historical data, i just read it and adjust as required..
have a good weekend, just got to go out and do some first floor windows for about an hour in the morning,
nice little contract, grd flr windows, in and out, 1st flr in and out, and then the entrance way, total labour cost for job £60 invoice value £175 plus VAT.
regards
martin
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Hi Dave,
Seems you have done well considering how long you have been operating, well done.
When we had the premisses on croston rd about 12 years ago we was then turning over about 100K, with 8 staff + me and a partner (deceased), specialising in off site flood carpet/upholstery work etc and carpet/upholstery cleaning as well as heavy ind cleaning and we pioneered a special method of foundary and corn mill cleaning up & down the country.
How many carpet cleaning staff do you have ? and who trained them ?steve conway never mentioned anything, our company would not send anyone out without a minimum of 3 years experience on their own !.
Glynn.
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Is there a touch of jealousy here at Daves claimed turnover?
Dave and Martin, how do you get your work especially if your on the van all day long cleaning?
Is it just carpet cleaning (commercial or residential)?
thanks
Mark
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Glynn as to your question about carpet cleaning staff. I have 1 full time carpet cleaner and 2 part time that has been carpet cleaning for me part time for 12 months, i have 3 full time staff on the cleaning & maintainence side ( fire damaged properties etc) i have 3 teams of sub-contractors covering milton keynes southwards, as to who trained my CCs, most of their training has been on the job with myself or on the bigger jobs with my sub contractors, as to not sending any one out on their own until they have done 3 years, i think that either the staff are not very quick learners or the method of instruction is not up to scratch, the best form of training for this type of work is on the job, up to date we have about 1000 domestic customers on our database and upto now we have had 2 complaints (which were immediately recterfied) Our reputation after 18 months is unpresedented, after all we are now almost fully booked upto christmas, and a lot of these have used us before. After i had a conversation with Dave Lee the other night i have again put my prices up for the domestics I believe they are more than yours now by far, but then again i suppose its about time that we charged what we are worth.
I had places booked on the NCCA course for this weekend for 2 of my staff, however due to an overstreched work load we have today had to cancel till the new year (thanks again Derek for the information on the course, we have re booked for feb).
It makes me laugh how you see a lot of sly digs and deliberate niggling questions by certain people, the fact is that if people need to spend their day on this forum then they should be spending more of their time marketing their business instead of ridiculing the successfull!
I hope the job that i gave you the other week went ok, if your quiet again then give me a call and i shall see what spare work we have ;)
regards Dave ADL
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Mark
Most days i now spend either in the office or out meeting new clients, i have full time ccs and cleaners to do it for me now, the only time i clean carpets at the mo is when i know the client is someone i can do a lot of business with, i have even not charged certain clients for cleaning caarpets instead i cleaned them for free took them out for dinner and landed a big contract out of it,
Martin look forward to seeing your guys on site in sidiothorpe on friday night,
regards Dave ADL
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hi mark,
i have an advantage because of the way that my business has been created, the main lineof business being build cleans, we have a realtionship with a national corporate property services company and enjoya very tight relationship, so much so that i have access to all of their office and marketing capabilities. Obviously there is a financial contract involved here as well, however it is a tight mutual contract, in respect to the fact that we are now becoming a key a profit centre, to one of their monthly budgetry targets.
our special projects work has come about from talking to some good people on here, and whilst this special project stuff requires a level of organisation and professionalism, we find it is worth the extra effort to deliver profit , and to create very good business relationships with companies that have a lot of of work available.
i spend varying amounts of time on site, but with modern technology these days, i and others have the ability to have info at theor finger tips and be able to organise large jobs without needing to be in an office.
we are considering another transit size vehicle and two more full time, for january, as we are looking at the possibility of at least 6 new developer sites, more than enough work full time for two vehicles.
with regard, to new work, every hint of a job however big or small is fully progressed to acceptance or decline. and not being modest but we generally get most jobs that we quote.
anybody wanting to talk further please pm me.
regards
martin
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mark,
as an addition to that as an example i have 5 guys in bristol on saturday night, overnight, and two guys in sidiothorpe overnight fri and sat. over 250 miles apart.
the point being, management, and a reliable work force is key, i pay good money for a good nights work, the customer then get s the best service, at the time they wanted it, but believe me these clients do pay for the service they get.
regards
martin