It’s one of the most challenging times in your life – starting your own business. But while you may have a great idea, its important to look after the basics.

We can help you decide what type of business best suits your line of work, be it a Sole Trader, Partnership or Limited Company, and we will take care of all legal obligations such as HMRC registration and Companies House Incorporation. From there, we can get you off the ground by assisting you with:

• Business plans;
• Cashflow forecasts and accounts projections;
• Use of our office as your registered office;
• Software support, installation and training, and bespoke Excel solutions;

… and our network/partners can help you with financing, banking and wealth management.

We are also proud members of BNI Grimsby and The Business Hive, two successful networking groups within Lincolnshire. This means that we can put you in touch with all the right people, from websites and graphics designers to plumbers, decorators and architects, to help you get off to the right start.

A G Smith & Co have partnered with Sage, an award-winning leader in accounting software, to provide you with an intuitive cloud-accounting solution, allowing you to get real-time insight into how your business is performing.

A cloud solution allows you to access your finances wherever you go, and also allows us to input, assist and manage your records at the click of a button. Gone are the days of historical sets of accounts dealing with outdated figures; A G Smith & Co can provide you with meaningful management/annual accounts, VAT/Tax Returns and forecasts, all while fulfilling your obligations with the government’s upcoming Making Tax Digital legislation.

We can help with:

• Period VAT Returns in-line with Making Tax Digital
• Management Accounts
• Year-End Accounts
• Tax Returns for Individuals, Sole Traders, Partnerships & Trust
• Finding the best VAT accounting system for your sector/size
• Tax Planning & Capital Allowances
• P11D’s / Expenses
• Cloud software implementation, training and support

At A G Smith & Co some of our senior members of staff have worked in industry. They understand how a real business works because they have been on that side of the fence. Being able to offer this commercial expertise helps us stand out from the more traditional accountancy practices. We can offer help and advice in the following areas:

• Business sale/purchase
• Management accounting
• Product costings
• Business plans
• Forecasting

Small companies shouldn’t have to employ an accountant on their payroll to deal with the day-to-day running of their business. Outsourcing bookkeeping and payroll to an experienced team of accountants not only eases your burden as a business owner, but also ensures your records are correct and up-to-date all throughout the year.

Bookkeeping

Our partnership with Sage allows for an innovative bookkeeping solution for all our clients. Due to the flexibility of cloud-based software, we can dip our hand in as much as you’d like:

Payroll

We offer a full payroll package for weekly, fortnightly, 4-weekly and monthly payrolls, including:

• Integrated Sage Employee Payslips portal: we send your employees their payslips/P60s through an online portal, so they can access their information anywhere, at any time, without any employer input.
• An Employer Portal where you can access/download/approve your reports, as well as upload your timesheets to our secure system.
• Calculation of PAYE, pension and other deductions.
• Monitoring of holidays, absences, tax code changes and updates in Tax, National Insurance and Pension contributions
• Payment submissions to HMRC in real-time, and monitoring of your PAYE liabilities.
• Production of all payroll/pension correspondence to your employees.
• Auto-enrolment setup and pension payment processing.

Our extensive client base has given us a breadth of experience when it comes to helping our clients plan for the good, the bad, and the unexpected.

PFP: Protection Against HMRC Inquiries

We have noticed a more aggressive attitude from HMRC in recent years and we are very concerned about this new approach; more and more innocent businesses and individuals are likely to be investigated. HMRC do not need a reason to investigate you and they can investigate anyone at random; this can drag on for a year or more, creating mounting costs and rocketing stress levels.

If HMRC states its intention to investigate your tax payments don’t panic. We consider it our responsibility to translate the many complicated questions the taxman may pose, manage the entire conversation with the taxman, help you submit any required information and minimise the impact on your business or personal life. However, the cost of supporting you throughout an investigation is not covered by our usual accountancy fees.

Because of this, we offer all of our client’s protection against our fees if we are to assist in an HMRC investigation into your business. A one-off yearly cost will ensure that, should you be investigated, our fees will be paid for. (For a summary of the protection afforded by our service, including indemnity limits, please ask for a copy of our ‘Service Summary’).

The Business Hive: Finding the Right Person for Any Job

As a local firm, we aim to use as many like-minded independent businesses as we can. By being a part of successful business networking groups, we can help you find the right person for any job, or you can come along and try it for yourself.