Company accounts advice to make you think thrice: top tips!

As a businessowner, producing UK Company accounts and filing them with Companies House can be a long and arduous task that makes you wonder if setting up your own business was even worth it. Okay, perhaps we’re being a tad dramatic here, but the job can feel like a far cry from the glamorous life you pictured for yourself as an Owner, Director, or CEO of a successful business.

It’s this type of chore, however, that’ll aid the victory of your business while keeping you compliant, meaning you must never, ever underestimate its importance. Feeling overwhelmed? Take a deep breath and keep on reading, because we’ve put together some top tips to help you smash the task!

• Understand your reporting responsibilities

A task of this magnitude needs thorough understanding and planning; you can’t just stroll into it with your eyes closed and hope for the best. Before you do anything, you must ensure you realise exactly what your reporting responsibilities are.

What do we mean by the above? Well, you need to know what type of organisation you have (such as a Limited Company), and the Accounting standards you must produce your accounts under (such as IFRS).

• Decide whether or not you want to use software

Using software to help you submit your annual accounts is technically optional, but we do recommend sitting down and giving this a lot of thought where your own business is concerned. Very small companies can get away with maintaining all of their records and producing UK company accounts through Microsoft Excel, whereas bigger businesses tend to lean more towards software such as FreeAgent for help.

If you do own a larger business and you decide to keep everything within Excel – with no help from supporting programs – there’s no shame in that! As long as you’re confident you’re handling the task properly, doing what’s right for you and your business is ultimately all that matters.

• Keep your Accounting updated through the year

We can’t stress enough just how important it is that you properly account for all your business transactions as you move through the year, and not on the day of the submission deadline. Sounds obvious? You’d be surprised at just how many businessowners put it off ‘until tomorrow’ and then, suddenly, ‘tomorrow’ doesn’t exist.

To make the submission of your UK Company accounts much smoother, create a concise log and keep it updated throughout the year.

• Enlist the help of professionals

The biggest tip we can give to you when it comes to preparing and submitting your statutory accounts? Just give the job to the professionals! As experts in SME accounting, we understand that running a business is hard enough without important, complicated tasks like this coming round to bite you on the thumb every single year.

As Relationship Accountants, we think about the people behind the numbers because they’re the most important part in all this. So, when you choose Forbes Young, you can feel confident that your dedicated specialist will do what’s right for you when it comes to your annual accounts – no one else’s.