What is accounting and what accounting services are available?
Accounting covers all aspects of running a business, from sales invoicing, cost control and, management of cash flow and to tax reporting. The below resources will give you a thorough grounding in accounting terminology and the different approaches you can take to accounting
The choice of accounting package or accountancy service is dependent on you assessing your needs and how you want to be competitive. It’s wise to also look through our resources covering accountancy software, so you can get to grips with our summary of different accounting requirements, which you can use to help evaluate available online systems or your choice of accountant.
Key: paid for service registration required official
WHEN: You’re starting out and need to understand all the processes involved. Or, when you’ve reached a “tipping point” and the business isn’t coping with its book-keeping needs.
WHY: The longer a business continues with poor accounting administration, the harder it is to put it right historically and going forward – the business may always be playing catch-up.
WHAT: This guide isn’t explicitly tied into the use of the Xero accounting package. Other guides and supporting information from Sage, Kashflow and Quickbooks, while helpful, is quite specific to those vendors.
WHEN: You’re starting out and you’re unsure if you should do all the HMRC registrations yourself or hire an accountant.
WHY: Doing it yourself will help develop your knowledge and skills in tax, which can be important in efficiently and legally running your business, but this may overstretch you.
WHAT: Guidance article on when to choose an accountant and when to do the accountancy and tax yourself.
