Get a good accountant to save you time. Are you looking for an accountant? I have been in this situation looking for days and days comparing what is best for my business or not. Today for freelance accountancy I recommend you InniAccounts.
Update March 2022: I have now used them for 8 years and am still happy. They added some new tools for IR35.
InniAccounts, the accountant for UK freelancers and contractors – personal review
There are many of them, different prices, but the same global services, it’s not easy to choose…
To give you a bit of background about my case, I am a freelance web developer. I trade with my limited company and when I started I was looking for someone to set up my limited company and take care of everything for me (create the company with all docs, tax affairs, VAT registration, PAYE stuff, etc). I thought about an umbrella, but it’s better to pay an accountant than to let an umbrella company taking all your money… (unless you only want to freelance for a short time, but in that case being a sole-trader sounds a better option)
I work in London and at the beginning I was keen to find an accountant in central London, just to be able to meet someone face-to-face. I didn’t find anything for a price that I’m happy with. Good for me as, then I realised, emails and phone are good enough.
My researches
I looked at Freeagent (a famous one – 30 days free trial), the problem is you pay for it (it’s not too expensive) but you still need an accountant on the top. You really need the knowledge to manage your business alone with this tool, and even after reading books and buying online training (£20 – accounts.excelwithbusiness.com – never buy this!) I still don’t feel confident with everything… I want to make sure everything is fine, pay on time, don’t get a fine for being late, and be able to ask a question to a professional when I need to. Moreover, not all accountants are familiar with FreeAgent.
Final choice
I chose InniAccounts, they provide a similar online tool (a better one for me) + all accountancy you need in one package. The first package is usually enough.
AND no extra cost to create a limited company with them, which was great!
I also had a quick look at services to create your limited company for cheap, but they all have a few bad reviews and too many “packages” with lots of useless things like a free trial for a website, a free book about the limited company, free cashback when you open a business bank account. You can have all of this anyway. I was really confused about that.
InniAccounts are real accountants with their own software online to allow tracking every incoming or outgoing money.
You can contact them, they know their product. You add your contracts, create your invoices easily, there is the bookkeeping, and they tell you how much money available you have, they tell you when you have to send VAT return on important dates. It’s everything I need basically. Have a look at the website for more info (you can request a demo to discover it).
Personal review
I’m really happy with them, nothing to complain about for now. Claire always answers to my question and respond quickly to emails. As I said, their software is great and I think the price is really ok to compare to others. It’s £77 per month + VAT. (This price went up in April 2021)
They have a great knowledge hub available for everyone and also some pdf books worth checking.
InniAccounts referral code for 10% off on your yearly inniaccounts pricing
AND I have a InniAccounts discount code I can share with you to have 10% off for a year CA3753. You need to add it when you fill in the registration form online. They will contact you by phone to know what you need and explain the process, and then if you are happy to start doing the documents you need. https://secure.inniaccounts.co.uk/signup/apply
Hope this will help you a bit, as it’s not easy when we start freelancing/contracting. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree. Thank you.
Updated – March 29th 2022
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