I used to dread bank reconciliation. I’d sit with a cuppa and a growing list of unmatched transactions, wondering how I’d ever stay on top of month‑end without spending hours chasing receipts and coding similar transactions one by one. Then I leaned into Xero bank rules, and the time I spend...
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Tax Tips
When a sole trader incorporates, one of the first and most impactful decisions...
Tax Tips
I’ve helped dozens of small businesses recover VAT repayments stuck in...
Tax Tips
Hiring your spouse or partner can be a smart way for a microbusiness to stay...
Bookkeeping
Closing the books for the year as a sole trader with several income streams can...
Hiring your spouse or partner can be a smart way for a microbusiness to stay compliant while making better use of household income — but it only works if the role is genuine and the paperwork is right. Over the years I’ve helped many...
Closing the books for the year as a sole trader with several income streams can feel like juggling flaming torches while standing on a balance beam. I’ve helped many micro-business owners through this process, and the key is to break it down into...
I use Xero Projects every week to check which clients are profitable and which ones quietly erode margins. If you’re like many small business owners I work with, you want clarity without adding admin — not another spreadsheet that needs...
I used to rely on gut feeling to decide whether my clients were about to hit a cash squeeze. Over the years I realised that the most reliable early‑warning signals live in the accounting data we already have — invoices, bank feeds, payroll and...
I plan tax for my clients all year, not just in the run‑up to Self Assessment. That’s because sensible, legal tax minimisation is mostly about timing, structure and making full use of allowances — not about clever (and risky) schemes. Below I...
Keeping VAT, payroll and invoices under control doesn’t have to be a quarterly scramble. Over the years I’ve seen too many small business owners treat bookkeeping as a fire‑fighting exercise — receipts in a shoebox, bank feeds ignored, VAT...
I still remember the first time a client walked into my kitchen-table office clutching an HMRC penalty notice. Their face said panic; their voice said embarrassment. I’ve seen this reaction enough times to know two things: penalties themselves are...
I work with a lot of small UK businesses—sole traders, micro‑teams and family‑run companies with fewer than ten staff—and one question comes up again and again: “Which bookkeeping tool will save me time, keep my bank transactions tidy and...
Hello — I’m writing from Muressaccounts Co (https://www.muressaccounts.co.uk), where I help UK micro‑businesses and SMEs get their bookkeeping and tax sorted without the panic. Over the years I’ve supported clients through HMRC compliance...
I work with a lot of small agencies and freelancers who operate through personal service companies (PSCs), and one question comes up more than any other: “Will IR35 affect me — and if so, how do I deal with it without losing sleep or all my...