Fees
How our fees work
Fixed monthly or annual fees agreed in advance, based on the services you need and the size of your business, with no hourly surprises.
We quote a fixed fee in advance rather than billing by the hour. That means you know the cost before any work starts, you can pick up the phone with a question without watching the clock, and there is no unexpected invoice at the end of the year. Because every business is different, we prepare each quote individually rather than using one-size-fits-all pricing. The sections below explain exactly how we arrive at a figure.
How accountancy fees are calculated
An accountancy fee reflects the amount and complexity of the work involved in keeping you compliant and well advised. Rather than a single headline price, a fair fee is built up from what you actually need: which services are in scope, how much activity your business generates, and the condition of the records we start from.
We assess these factors together, agree the scope with you, and then fix the fee. If your circumstances change during the year, we talk it through and agree any change before doing the extra work, so the number you were quoted is the number you pay for the work in scope.
Fee drivers
What affects your fee
These are the main factors we look at when preparing your quote. Most fees come down to some combination of them:
-
Business structure
A sole trader, a partnership and a limited company each have different filing and reporting obligations, so the work involved differs.
-
Transaction volume
The number of sales, purchases and bank transactions across the year is one of the biggest drivers of how much processing is needed.
-
Quality of your records
Tidy, complete, cloud-based records take less time to work with than incomplete spreadsheets or a folder of loose receipts.
-
Employees
Whether you employ people, and how many, affects payroll and reporting work alongside your accounts.
-
VAT
Being VAT registered adds periodic returns and record-keeping requirements that a non-registered business does not have.
-
Payroll frequency
Running payroll weekly involves more processing across the year than running it monthly, so the frequency matters.
-
Advisory & planning
Some clients want only compliance work; others want regular tax planning, forecasting or management figures, which we scope in.
-
Catch-up work
If there are prior periods to bring up to date or overdue filings to resolve, that one-off work is quoted separately and clearly.
Scope
What is included, and what is quoted separately
Clarity about scope is what keeps a fixed fee genuinely fixed. Whatever service you choose, some things come as standard; other work sits outside the standard fee and is always quoted separately and agreed before we start.
Included as standard
- A fixed fee agreed in writing before any work begins.
- Your filing deadlines tracked, with reminders in good time.
- Preparation, checking and filing of the accounts and returns in scope with HMRC (and Companies House where relevant).
- A named point of contact and plain-English answers to your questions. Calls and emails within the agreed scope are not billed by the minute.
- Support with your cloud accounting records where that is part of the service.
Quoted separately
- Bringing overdue or historic periods up to date (catch-up work).
- One-off projects such as a mortgage reference, a formal tax investigation, or company restructuring.
- New requirements that arise mid-year, for example crossing the VAT threshold or taking on your first employee.
- Ad-hoc advisory work well beyond the agreed scope.
Nothing here is charged as a surprise. Additional work is scoped, quoted and agreed with you before it starts.
Getting a quote
How the quote process works
The clearest way to find out what your accountancy will cost is to ask for a quote. There is no obligation and no hard sell.
- Tell us about your business. Your structure, roughly your turnover, which services you are looking for, and anything unusual about your records.
- We review and, if useful, ask a few questions. This is so the quote reflects the real work involved rather than a rough guess.
- You receive a clear, fixed-fee quote. It sets out what is included, what would be extra, and whether it is a monthly or a one-off fee.
- You decide in your own time. If you go ahead, the fee is fixed and agreed in writing before any work begins.
We do not publish set prices because a genuine fixed fee depends on the factors above. A headline figure that ignored them would not be accurate for your situation. A tailored quote is more useful, and it is free.
Ready for an accountant who keeps things simple?
Tell us what you need and we’ll send a clear, fixed-fee quote, usually within one working day.