Self-employed and accounts

[freddiee]

Hi,

I'm self-employed for less than five years but have never approached an accountant and have just kept a rough record of expenses and what not on a spreadsheet. This is an area that needs urgent attention so I'm looking to pay for someone to handle the returns etc for this year.

But in the meantime I'd like to get things in some sort of order by working through the spreadsheet I have. In terms of accounting software, I'm going to have a route around some of the cloud based options. What's good out there? There may not be a need for me to have such software but to be honest I'm sick of not knowing exactly where I am with regards to income/expenditure and a spreadsheet doesn't seem to give me what I'm looking for.

What I'm wondering is what do I need to have ready for a first sit down with an accountant? Is it worth my time importing a load of data from these spreadsheets into some software? My concern would be that some of this data might not be correct, as in, it's been classified as an asset when it should have been an expense and so on.

Also, typical rate for an accountant for someone with revenue of <100k? I'm thinking it's around to 500 euro mark but I might be way off with that.

Thanks.

 

[Tea and Toast]

Way way off. How many hours do you reckon are required to complete the accounts from what you provide him? Then how long for each tax return and filing etc? How much would you expect an accountant to charge per hour ? Definitely more than EUR500 per return.

 

[Bronte]

The price will depend on the complexity and on how much you supply to the accountant in a well organised fashion. You could end up spending a lot of time on software when your record of expenses and outgoings in Excel is just as good. Did you do your own tax returns prior to this?

 

[myate]

If you have everything in Excel, with all receipts etc aswell, it should be straightforward for the accountant. Mine is delighted when he gets my stuff all organised ready to go nearly! He says he gets stuff from other people thrown in a bag with no dates or anything...nightmare! I deal with my accountant once a year, he charges just under a grand for that year end stuff.

 

[WizardDr]

@Freddie - what is you Income Tax and VAT situation? If you are in business 5 years - what have you filed?
Isn't that the starting point?