Hi Amy

I can only really talk about the company registration element + registered office elements and would say these are expensive

There are lots of company formation agents that will complete these processes for a lot less - one I have used in the past is the national business register

Hi Amy

Please, please, please shop around

It's important to find an accountant you like and who treats you like a paying client. I was always terrible at the accounting side so found a good local acountant to do my payroll (for my first employee) and the year end returns.

You can form your own company for less than £100, probably less than £50 just look at a site like businesslink.gov.uk first and look at their "starting a business" guide.

As for book keeping, until you have a significant amount of receipts going through the business and/or sales then you can find a good bookeeper from the newspaper for less than £40 per month ( a few hours work)....now I know this is more than £250 but the hidden cost of your time in learning the new accounting system you are depriving your business of it's most important asset.,,You. (The other pragmatic benefit is that if your business doesn't quite take off as fast as hoped, you don't have a fixed cost overhead)

Year end is quite high but hard to say wthout knowing the amount of business you'll be doing and the various complications and quirks

Best of luck and what a wnderfully exciting time....welcome to the joys of running a new business!

Lee

www.snowflakemedia.co.uk

Hi Amy

I must say this looks like quite a lot - have a good look around...

Unless your business is particularly large or complex you don't need a "fully qualified" accountant (and they are almost always more expensive), but I would look for someone who has completed AAT or similar. Ask them about their other clients and get a feel for the size of business they are used to dealing with - someone who regularly deals with smaller business and startups will be more use to you and likely to be more flexible!

Good Luck
------------------------
Sara Parr

Virtually Everything Done For You
www.aboveparr.co.uk
www.stiltonrecruitment.co.uk

Thank you Longey, Lee and Sara for your replies.
I think the fees are too expensive for me too and I will shop around as you advised.

Hi Amy,

To give you an idea we would typically charge about £1,200 per year plus VAT for everything you list. We'd charge £200 to set up the company and nothing to help get the book-keeping set up. I would suggest you make sure whoever you go with is qualified - any one can call themselves an accountant so check out their qualifications. Agree a fixed fee too so that if you get a really low quote you can be confident that you won't then get a great big bill every time you call or meet up.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Regards
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Jonathan Ford BSc (Hons) FCA
Jonathan Ford & Co Limited
Chartered Accountants
www.jonathanford.co.uk

Hi Amy,

I think I'm going to be echo'ing other people in here, but please please please shop around!!!

I know of getting registration documents and being VAT registered etc for under £30 so to charge £500 is daylight robbery! I'm sure this kind of mark up on services happens throughout every type of business, and usually the more you pay the better the service you get, but for £30 you can get a pdf of the details the same day, and thats normally enough for most people.

Anyway, check out www.touchlocal.com and look for businesses in your local area etc - or if you are based in london, and don't want to pay london prices, go further afield - dont be scared, you could save £200 on every call.

Also, try ecademy for something like this, there is always lots of people offering people start up bargains and offers.

Hope that helps.

Tom

www.behigher.co.uk
http://www.behigher.co.uk
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Thank you all for your replies and valuable advice.
I think may be I should set up the company first and then find an accountant when needed...

Hiya (again)

I've just set up a limited company using www.thecompanymerchant.co.uk

It was stupidly easy - do the e-mail option and pay an extra £3.99 for a printed certificate

It's cost me £45.80 - enough said!!!
------------------------
Sara Parr

Virtually Everything Done For You
www.aboveparr.co.uk
www.stiltonrecruitment.co.uk

You could use the company who I have just used and they were really fast

http://www.companiesmadesimple.com/index.html

Hope it goes well,

Dave
The Stand People Ltd

Thank you Sara and Dave.
I will go have a look.

See our add in the offers page we are a Chartered Accountants and charge £399.99 plus vat for a limited company set of accounts.


regards
David
P & L Chartered Accountants 01246 233108