How to reduce your accountancy fees

Here's what you need to do

There’s only one real way to cut your accountancy bill – reduce the amount of time your accountant has to spend on the accounts preparation.
One of the biggest time wasters is missing paperwork. Use this checklist to avoid wasted time.

Your accountant will need:

A complete set of bank and credit card statements sorted in date order.
A reconciliation for each bank account at the year end.
A breakdown of any stock held or work in progress.
All sales invoices in numerical order. These should be noted with details of when paid and by what method. Identify separately any relating to sales of fixed assets.
A list of outstanding sales invoices identifying any which you think should be written off as bad debts.
The first few sales invoices issued after the year end – this is to ensure that all sales are reflected in the correct period.
All paid purchase invoices filed in a way that it is easy to find specific invoices. By supplier and then in date order is a fairly straightforward method.
All unpaid purchase invoice together with year end supplier statements.
Copies of paperwork for any new credit facilities eg bank loans or hire purchase taken out in the year
Details of any new financial committments taken on in the year eg a new lease of premises or hire of equipment or vehicles.
Payroll summaries for the year. Give details of payments made to HMRC with dates and the amount outstanding at the year end.
Copies of VAT returns with workings for the year. Give details of payments made to HMRC with dates and the amount outstanding at the year end.

And if you already do this and your fee is too high consider changing your accountant!