Book-keeping, accounts, records etc for small businesses

[llareggub]

I hope some of you lovely lot can help.

DH has set up his own business and is drowning in paperwork, invoices, receipts etc. He is working full-time (employed) but is throwing himself into his own business in his spare(!) time. I'd like to lighten the load by doing his accounts, books etc but this is something I have zero experience in, just like him! Can anyone recommend a book, course or website to get me started?

Ideally I'd like to set up some systems so it is fairly easy for us both to work out, but I feel so sorry for him working so many hours it'll probably be just me. Long term, he'd like to give up work and build up his business so I'd like to get things right from the start.

I know it isn't a good time for business set-ups, but amazingly things seem OK for us at the moment, but obviously we need a good set of records to give us the right information to make decisions as and when. So I think I need a basic education in financial management, as well. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Bumping for you.

Have you been in touch with your local business link office? They can be pedantic at times, but when I started I registered with them and they told me how to access a couple of grants, and they had book-keeping spreadsheets that they gave me (free).

Good luck, and well done you for supporting him so whole-heartedly.

Thanks, notsoclever I've had a good look at the business link site and there is some useful stuff there. All I need now is some spare time, filing and even better, stationery!

I am in NZ and got a man from our IRD (Inland Revenue) to come and talk to me. He has booklet showing how a cash book should be set out to make it as simple as possible to transfer the amounts to the online tax return. He also told me about all the things I could claim as a sole trader.

I just keep my accounts in Xcel (in four books one for each 3 months carrying the balance forward like a chequebook), my receipts in a concertina file under the month and invoice of computer and have a manual receipt book with duplicate copies. It is very simple and works perfectly for me.

Llaregub

Here is my two pennorth, slightly at a tangent to your original post, but may be of use nonetheless.

How super nice of you to offer to do your DH's accounts! There are many domestic services I'm prepared to offer to my own DH - but doing the accounts would definitely not be one of them

Actually I contract out all the accounts work for my own business - I have both an accountant and a book-keeper - because I hate doing them so much.

I see where you're coming from though, trying to ease DH's burden etc, so here are my suggestions (with apologies if you've already got all this sort of thing in hand).

1. If you buy an accounting book or go on a paid-for book-keeping course at the local college, make sure DH pays for this through his company - because then he can write off the cost against his tax bill for the year.

1. And depending on what his business is and how it's organised it may be worth putting you on the payroll as an administrator.

*if he is a ltd co he will already have a payroll or could contract you as a freelancer *if he is self-employed he won't have a payroll - but again could use you as a freelancer

Point 2 is a wee bit more complicated than my brief post might suggest and would require you to do some sums - but it may be the case, when you work it all out that DH's company profits and thus your household earnings (that's the combined earnings of you and DH) are greater because of it. Put another way - DH can write off the cost of contracting out his book-work/admin against the fee income he generates. He would be paying you to do the work however, so the money would still be coming back into your household.

You'd have to submit a tax return for yourself, of course (if you don't already), in your new guise as freelance company administrator - but if you're going to learn how to do it for DH from scratch it won't be a mass of extra work to do your own.

There are a few pitfalls eg IR35 discussed on other threads on this topic - but the broad point is this ...

a) there may be an overall financial advantage to your household of DH paying you and
b) in the longer run you may begin to feel a bit over-worked and under-appreciated doing the books with no formal recognition of your input (I don't say you will, I just say you might).

Other regular posters to this topic may disagree with my maths here - or be able to quote some regs that would prevent you doing - but it's a thought to bear in mind for checking.

In the meantime, I guess you'll be firing up those Excel spreadsheets Good luck!

My accountant told me how to do ours and what info she needed when it came to doing the tax return.

Thanks for all of your help.

I will do a course and DH will pay for it. I'm not sure what to do about payment just yet because I'm due to go onto maternity leave shortly, so don't want to mess up my SMP. I'll probably start billing for hours when I go onto unpaid leave.

All of your advice and comments have been helpful, lots of food for thought. In any case I'm sure it'll be good experience!