Online Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping describes the processes for recording financial transactions, including:

• Sending out and processing sales and purchase invoices
• Matching bank statements to sales and purchase invoices
• Matching your software bank statements to physical bank statements
• Matching outstanding sales to client statements
• Matching outstanding bills to supplier statements
• Inputting journals for bills paid in advance or arrears
• Keeping records of your company’s transactions

Bookkeeping is one of the most important processes your company will carry out, because all other processes depend on it, including:

• VAT returns
• Statutory accounts
• Corporation tax checks

Most accountancy systems will only produce accurate accounts if there is a solid and reliable bookkeeping process underpinning them.

There are no specific penalties for bookkeeping, but, if you do not keep adequate records for your business, you may end up with a fine of up to £3,000 for poor record-keeping.

If your bookkeeping is inadequate, you could end up with other errors in your records.

For example, if you reclaim 20 per cent for an invoice that is not actually tax allowable, this would show up on your VAT return.

That could then mean you having to pay a fine from HMRC for reporting your VAT inaccurately.

The same applies to other taxes and returns.

This is something you can do yourself, but outsourcing it will save you a vast amount of time. It also ensures items are accurate, while optimising your tax returns.

By doing your bookkeeping for you, we can maximise your tax relief, and make sure you avoid any fines for poor record-keeping.

If HMRC ever did inspect your accounts, you would then have carefully formulated records.

The right bookkeeping software can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to get purchase invoices and receipts into your accountancy system. 

Using software is also a great way of keeping your records safe.

At Venn Accounts, we use Receipt Bank and Hubdoc to streamline bookkeeping processes.

We’ll set you up with the appropriate software, ensuring your accounting is regular, and fed through to us for ongoing analysis and processing.

This way, we keep everything you do clear and up to date.

As a Xero subscriber, you get Hubdoc included free as part of your package.

Our advice is that you should be performing bookkeeping for your small business as regular as possible. If you’re only doing it monthly, quarterly or even annually, it can create several issues and problems, including:

• Too much bookkeeping to do at once; which is both tedious and time-consuming
• Out of date accounting records, which can cause delays with reporting or answering basic financial questions
• Harder to remember what different transactions refer to in your financial statements
• Invoices will be much more difficult to process
• Not having up-to-date data readily available to analyse your performance and plan ahead
• Your accountant will not be able to give you reliable tax estimates – because your accounts will not be up to date

Our online bookkeeping service provides the cornerstone for your business accounting, giving you regular reports on all your transactions and balances when you need them.

This gives you a firm base to operate on financially, and gives you the opportunity to take advantage of our other services, including:

• Statutory Accounts
• Micro Entity Accounts
• Self Assessment
• Corporation Tax Returns
• VAT Returns
• Online Payroll
• Management Accounts

We keep things straightforward, streamlined and simple for you.

Any small business or startup investing in any of the above accounting services will receive Amnual accounts discounted rate after choosing Venn Accounts as your bookkeeping accountant.