Accounting For Start-ups and Scale-ups

Having an accountant on hand doesn’t just mean your financials are in top shape; it also means you have a source of expert advice, whenever and wherever you need it. Chartered accountants can give you professional, ethical advice to minimise risks and ensure you’re always putting your best foot forward.

Accountants for startups are guardian angels ensuring that, while your business gets off the ground, it’s the smoothest ascent possible.

Without cash, you cannot pay your bills! Not being able to pay your bills will inevitably lead to company failure, even if debts mount up slowly.

Understanding when cash is coming in and consequently required to go out is crucial to keeping your startup alive.

You need to keep track of who owes you money, and who you owe money to. Laying the proper groundwork with the help of startup accountants will prepare you for managing cash flow efficiently and effectively, including systems for:

• Issuing and receipting invoices
• Chasing late payments
• Paying bills

Budgeting is probably the most difficult for startups businesses. But why?

Normally budgets are set with pre-existing knowledge and performance in mind.  So, if you are in your first year of trading, there may be a lot of guess work involved.

However, our advice is to budget realistically, based on what you genuinely believe performance will be. You should consider all revenue and expense accounts including taxes when you budget to make sure you have a clear picture of your business.

Make sure you claim all your allowable expenses, and that you include all relevant information in your annual tax return.

Budgets are great for monitoring your startup’s performance in your management accounts.

If starting up your business requires that you employ staff, then this is another area where you need to stay on top of your accounts.

You’ll have certain obligations regarding payroll and pensions, including National Insurance contributions and auto-enrolment.

This is yet another administrative burden, but it’s one you can easily lighten if you outsource your startup accounting.

The VAT threshold is £85,000, at which point you must register for VAT. But are there tax advantages for startups if they register for VAT anyway?

• Registering for VAT can prepare you for growth and help to create a positive perception of your business – if you’re already VAT-registered, you don’t have to worry about hitting the threshold
• You can reclaim any VAT you’re charged for goods and services, which may amount to more than the VAT you collect from your customers.

It all depends on where your business is at currently, and where you see it going. An accountant can offer you a fresh, impartial perspective to give you the clarity you need.

Unit economics form the business blocks of your business and they cover:

• Your customer acquisition costs, and
• The revenue you get from each customer over their lifetime.

The lifetime value (LTV) of your customer should be more than the customer acquisition cost (CAC) associated with them. This is what makes your business profitable.

Once you start trading, unit economics become your bread and butter – they’re essential to how your run your business and the decisions you make.

A key to successful business growth is knowing when to bring in the help you need. You know your business and what you want to achieve. Let us take care of the numbers and support you in your strategy. Accountants for startups go a long way.

We offer a range of cost-effective, specialist services to startups and SMEs, drawing on years of professional accounting experience applied with dedicated cloud accounting software.