Thanks Eddas - for Gumtree tip - I've picked up 3 new clients.

[TracyK]

Had never heard of it before - till you mentioned it. I put a couple of free ads on there 2 weeks ago and now have 3 new clients lined up!

One client said he had just googled, bookkeeper and helensburgh and I came up!

ooo a thread with my name in the title

glad to have helped

Hello fellow bookkeepers, how is it going?

I don't know if I've bitten off more than I can chew. One of the new clients is a limited company and wants final accounts for submitting to companies house! eek - do I have to be chartered to do this or is it just if they are getting an audit done? They are under the threshold for this.

Anyone got any software that produces this format - or should I just knock it up in Excel/word and follow last years format??

You don't have to have any qualification to prepare accounts (although you do to audit them) so you could do this, although there are many pitfalls.

Check your PII - bookkeepers usually pay a lower rate than accountants because their scope of services is more limited, so you may find you are not covered.

Are you a member of a professional body (ICB etc.)? They may not allow you to offer services for which you are not qualified.

HMRC will want more information than is provided in the abbreviated accounts: who is going to prepare that information? If your client uses an accountant to do the company's tax return, he really should use the same firm to do the abbreviated accounts otherwise there are going to be arguments (tax accountant: 'we could have claimed for xyz expense if the $%^&* that did the accounts had put it in, we'll have to wait for next year now').

You could do the accounts in Excel (advantage: easier to make sure it adds up) or Word (advantage: easier to get the presentation correct), but how do you know that last year's format is correct? What about changes in the requirements? What about changes in circumstances (for instance there may be a related party transaction year which needs to be described in the notes)?

Have I put you off yet? If not, and you still want something that will at least give you a checklist to follow and produce accounts in the required format, look at this software.

Thanks MrV - I'll have a look at that list. My friend has a copy of Sage accounts which does the layout - so she's passing it on to me.

The clients problem was that he had an accountant who prepared and submitted accounts for them in 2005 and has not returned any phone calls etc in the subsequent years. As you can imagine IR and companies house are screaming at them to file up to date accounts.

They had 3 companies that have now merged into 1 and they just want the previous years submitted - all running at a loss. They are happy with their accounts being up to date on their main 1 ltd company - the MD is just losing sleep over the previous years and he doesn't know how to file them himself. iykwim.

If there are losses in some companies that are being run out your client really needs a decent accountant to look at everything from a tax point of view before anything else.

... and I am not sure how much the Sage print out will help: it is not the format of the P&L and Balance Sheet that will catch you out, it is the notes.

See here for some hints (can't vouch for that information personally though).

... and if it is 2006 accounts, the regime was slightly different then, which may or may not make a difference in your client's case.

3 companies, 2006 and 2007 accounts to do, bit of tax planning, 2006 and 2007 tax returns, that's 12 deliverables: sounds like 2-3 weeks work. More if you don't have the right technical resources (accounting and tax manuals) to hand.

trace, I think if I were you that I wouldn't do it. As MrV says it is alot to ask of you, I don't know your background study wise or work wise, but I have dealt with companies alot and I wouldn't attempt it. I would just tell them that you aren't qualified for that sort of work and they need a proper accountant.

And I agree, it's the notes that are the issue. The legislation changes so quickly it's hard to keep up. I have a client at work who is a qualified accountant but I think she works in industry and she tries to do her husbands LTD accounts. It's a complete PITA, I spend hours matching up what should be there with what she's done. Then when I change things she wants me to point to the exact places in the legislation where it says she's wrong as I said it takes hours and the fee we can charge is rubbish as she thinks we just need to do a quick check and sign it off

Hi malfoy nice to meet another fellow bookkeeper

Thanks guys - I think I might just try and find one of my CA's who have spare capacity. This looks a bit more complicated than I thought. None of the opening balances from the previously submitted accounts are showing in his Quickbooks printouts.

Anyone know Quickbooks?

Hi TracyK and Eddas
Have read this thread with interest, great that you lined up the new clients TracyK!
Am trying to work out how best to advertise my (professional!) services on Gumtree. Can you advise - do you recommend posting in Work Wanted, or is there another category that gains a better response?
Thanks in advance
SP x

sp, i advertised in work wanted.if you search my name on here in freelance you'll find some threads asking for advice on how to word my ad

I accidentally put my ad in the jobs section - didn't realise there was a work wanted till the last week I advertised.

I only used the free ad - but in Glasgow there seemed to be only 1 or 2 accountancy jobs added each day - so mine stayed relatively on the front page most of the time.

But it must be linked to google whichever section you put it in - as my 1st new client just googled for bookkeeper - didn't use Gumtree first -iykwim.