[easi-kleen]

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

[Bryan H]

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 !
 

Bryan

[easi-kleen]

I have a tax advisor

But its the bookwork to make understandable for him

[Bryan H]

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

[easi-kleen]

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.

[Richard Edwards]

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

[The Great One]

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

[easi-kleen]

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

[Ken Wainwright]

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

[martin19842]

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

[englum]

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

[adl]

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

[martin19842]

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

[lee_gundry]

what is your annual turnover dave555.

how long have you been in business.


Lee G

[woodman]

Thats what I like Lee, get straight to the point

[martin19842]

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

[adl]

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

[adl]

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

[Martin S]

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

[adl]

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