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Sounding you out: what is your accountancy challenge?
- Are you are an established company and feel you are not getting the most from your accountant?
- Have you just started out and need some straightforward advice on how to set-up legally and compliantly?
- Would you like to be more tax efficient?
- Do you need advice on the financial changes you need to make to fund your business challenges?
- Are you unsure about Making Tax Digital (MTD)?
- Do you need bookkeeping help?
- Are you looking to outsource your payroll / CIS service?
- Would you benefit from the advice of an outsourced Finance Director?
At Octave, we’ve been up and down the scale of accountancy challenges, guiding companies from the size of a one-man band to that of several symphony orchestras, for more than 20 years.
We have the range of services – from accountancy and taxation, through bookkeeping, payroll and CIS services, to our outsourced Finance Director capability – as well as the track record and experience to help you to fulfil your business goals. We always hit the right note.
If we sound like the sort of accountants you could get along with, please call us today for a detailed, confidential and without-obligation discussion of your accountancy challenges and opportunities.
Octave – whatever the scale, we’re in tune with your financial needs.
Accounting
Note perfect: accounting, for your ambitions
Accountants have a reputation for being boring, inflexible and an obstacle to their clients’ business ambitions. That’s music to our ears when it’s about our competitors, because, at Octave, we dance to a different tune.
- Enjoyable: our clients and partners tell us that we are easy and congenial to do business with, that we actually make accountancy interesting;
- Flexible: perhaps this is because we pride ourselves on offering flexible services that you can take, use or turn off as your business needs demand;
- Empowering: it’s because our focus is on empowering your business, enabling your company’s growth or other ambitions;
- Informing: and that certainly makes the numbers interesting to any CEO, MD or FD!
- Qualified: we naturally have the appropriate qualifications,
- Experienced: and the track record of long-term partnership with hundreds of successful organisations,
- Wide-ranging: across all sectors and all facets of the accountancy landscape,
- Unique: but it is our attitude and approach that really sets us apart.
Sound us out! We can’t prove it here, but if you like the idea of actually enjoying your meetings with your accountant, please give us a call today and start to realise the resounding difference that Octave can make to your financial performance, precision and preparedness.
Bookkeeping / Payroll / CIS
Your support act: freeing you to play your greatest hits
It’s your greatest hits, aka your core business, that earns you the money. It’s why you started your business, and it’s what you have a passion for. So, why does so much admin get in the way? Well, it need not. Our services extend well beyond strictly accountancy and taxation; they include many of the administrative tasks that are comparatively straightforward for us to accomplish, but which may be getting in the way of your business focus.
- Accountancy and taxation
- Company set-up
- Bookkeeping
- Budgets, cash flow, credit control
- VAT and CIS returns
- Payroll
- Pensions
- MTD support
We can do your bookkeeping – we specialise in Xero, QuickBooks Online and Sage. We can undertake your payroll, running it weekly or monthly, including your auto enrolment submissions. And we can take care of the completion of CIS monthly returns and the production of CIS monthly certificates.
If these administrative tasks are interfering with your ability to focus on your core business, please give us a call today. We offer a free, detailed, confidential and without-obligation discussion of the ways in which we could be your invaluable support act.
Tax Services
Tone down your tax: year-round advice to minimise tax and support growth
Everyone would like their tax bill scaled down. No one wants to pay more tax than they have to. And no one wants an unpleasant surprise at the end of the year when their tax bill is calculated.
That is why, at Octave, we see our tax service as a continuous partnership: we don’t just appear at the end-of-year concert to tell you the bad news, we work with you through the year, advising on every aspect of tax, so that the final bills are predictable, planned for and minimised.
- Personal tax
- Corporate tax
- VAT
- Inheritance tax
- Compliant
- Comprehensively informed
- Clear
- Confident
Our tax services cover personal tax, corporate tax, VAT and inheritance tax, but we can do as much or as little as you require. Whatever you ask us to do, our aim is always to keep you compliant, keep you comprehensively informed about your financial situation, and keep you clear and confident in your future planning and budgeting.
Give us an audition! If you feel that you are paying too much tax, or you can see the benefit of an accountant who works with you year-round, please give us a call today for a detailed, confidential and without-obligation discussion of taxation challenges and opportunities.
FD Services
Your reliable rhythm section: strategic financial direction you can afford
Every ambitious company needs a Finance Director. They’re not the front-man and they’re not the roadie; they’re the reliable rhythm section that keeps you financially up-to-the-beat and strategically on song.
The Finance Director (FD) sits between the accountancy function and the board of directors, analysing the company’s financial performance from a strategic point of view, in order to advise the board on what money can be spent to encourage growth and to fulfil business goals.
- Sitting between Accounts and Board
- Strategic financial advice
- How to fulfil business plans
- A fraction of the cost of a full-time FD
- Part-time
- Temporary
- Interim
- Ad hoc
But an experienced full-time Finance Director is very expensive, which is why we offer outsourced FD support as part of our range of financial services. Working for you on a part-time, temporary, interim or ad hoc basis, our expert can provide your company with the strategic financial direction you need, whilst only costing your company a fraction of the salary of a full-time FD.
Scale up your performance! If you recognise the vital role that strategic financial advice should play in the fulfilment of your business plans, please call us in complete confidence today, to discuss whether our outsourced Finance Director services could be the enabler you require.
MTD
Your MTD conductor: leading you through the key change
Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a major initiative from HMRC, purporting to make tax administration more automatic and therefore more accurate.
The revenue says that the change will help businesses – with ongoing digital records feeding directly into VAT and Income Tax returns, there is less work. On the other hand, of course, it will dramatically cut the amount of tax that the treasury loses through miscalculation and errors in transposition.
But there are many areas of confusion surrounding MTD........
- “I can’t use spreadsheets for MTD”
- “I can’t adjust VAT data after it’s been exported from bookkeeping software”
- “I can just type in nine boxes of data”
- “I must submit all the transactions that make up the VAT return”
- “I have to upgrade my bookkeeping software to use MTD-enabled cloud software”
- “A CSV data file is not a digital link”
- “I can’t use the bridging software after the soft-landing period”
- “My record keeping package must interact directly with HMRC”
These are all myths!
If you are struggling to hear the right notes through the white noise, and worry that you may be penalised for not harmonising with the revenue in time, please call us today in complete confidence, to discuss the realities of MTD for your business, and the possibility of our helping your ongoing compliance.
Latest Posts
Posted on Wednesday June 10, 2020“What a long, strange trip it’s already been!”
In September 2019, I finally decided to take the huge and nerve-wracking step of branching out on my own, something I had been considering for a while. I agreed a timescale for my departure from the company I had helped form some 17 years before, and which clients I would be taking with me, amongst other things. I then arranged for my new office premises, software, website, insurance and all the other things that are required. My start date was set to be March 2020. I was all prepared. Octave Accountants Limited was ready……
...And then came a pandemic, the like of which had not been seen for over 100 years.
I can honestly say that for the first week of lockdown I hardly slept, probably like many others in the country.
Then the Chancellor started announcing ways in which the government was going to help businesses: VAT liabilities could be deferred; Self-Assessment could be delayed; banks were going to lend money; and, most importantly, the Job Retention Scheme was announced.
All of a sudden, my phone was red hot. Clients wanted to know if they could take advantage of the schemes, and if so, could I assist them in making the claims…….or rather
“You handle everything, Tony. Is that ok?”
New clients popped up. So many of them hadn’t filed their 2019 tax returns and these needed submitting if they were to take advantage of the Self Employment Scheme. Within a few days, my work appeared to have trebled with the additional elements. That’s ok, I thought. I had planned for expanding anyway, with additional staff.
“Oh, what? You live with someone who is vulnerable and is on the 12-week isolation list?”
…..is not something I thought to ask at interview! Several frantic calls to IT Support later, and all staff are suddenly working remotely.
Now, as we enter June, I look back over the first three months or so of Octave Accountants…… with a smile on my face. Clients have received the support they have needed and are slowly returning to trading. Claims have been made to the various Covid schemes, overdue tax returns have been filed and clients have been advised on their tax positions now and going forward.
So, we now enter what the media are terming the “new normal.”
Lots of businesses must adapt to new regulations on how they operate. Government support will slowly be withdrawn. And banks will go back to being miserly in their lending!
One constant, though, is that Octave will be on hand to assist and advise. And, in these different times, which demand different business practices and approaches, it may well be that you will want us to assist you in different ways.
Annual information is probably no longer enough – now, monthly accounts and regular cashflow forecasting can help you to keep a constant eye on costs and profitability – and to help you to plan for the future from a more informed position.
Maybe you want to gain yourself more management time by outsourcing your payroll and/or bookkeeping functions to us. Is now the right time to harness all the benefits of a cloud-based bookkeeping system like Xero, Quickbooks or Sage? We can assist you with the transfer, providing training if required. Away from accountancy, we can offer you the help of our trusted HR contacts and the business turnaround experts with whom we work.
If any of the above sounds interesting to you, please just give me a call – obviously, without obligation and in compete confidence.
I would just like to end this blog with a thank you.
Firstly, a huge thank you to my clients who have been fantastic. Yes, it’s been stressful for us all but you have been wonderful, and your kind comments have helped me through these unusual times. Secondly, to my fellow accountants whom I have spoken to during this period: we may work for different companies but the mutual support and the ‘sounding board’ we have provided for each other have been invaluable. And lastly, thank you to my family and my staff who have been understanding, supportive and conscientious in equal measures. Thank you all.
Posted on Thursday March 19, 2020The government has announced that it is delaying the reform of off-payroll working rules (also known as IR35) for one year from 6 April 2020 until 6 April 2021. These rules were going to apply to people outside the public sector, contracting their services to medium to large-sized companies.
The decision was taken as one of a number of measures introduced to give support to businesses and individuals in the light of the economic impact of the Corona Virus (COVID-19.) It means that the existing rules will continue to apply until April 2021.
We would stress that this is a delay and not a cancellation: the government is still determined in the longer term to introduce the new rules to ensure that people who basically work like employees (but through their own limited company) pay roughly the same level of tax as the corresponding individuals who are directly employed by an organisation.
As always, and particularly in these uncertain times, when the Government is liable to change things quickly, if you have any questions at all about this or any other accounting, taxation or general financial matter, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
Octave Accountants: the reliable accompaniment to your continued business performance
Posted on Monday November 18, 2019
I am proud to announce the launch of my new company, Octave Accountants, through which I will be working from now on. Many of you will know me from Thomas Croft Accountants or from SPI, but I now know it is time to deliver the financial services you trust from a new, more eye-catching and more appropriate brand.
More strings to our violin bows!
Octave Accountants also gives me the opportunity to widen my portfolio of services. Now not only can I offer you accountancy and taxation services, but also the equally vital, complementary services of bookkeeping and outsourced Finance Director support.
- Bookkeeping can include functions such as filing your VAT returns, running your payroll and performing your CIS-related administration – freeing your people from these time-consuming administrative tasks to focus on their core roles.
- An outsourced Finance Director can analyse your monetary performance from a strategic point of view, recommending changes, helping to plan for growth, and generally providing expert advice on any business matter – at a much more economic rate than employing a full-time FD.
The benefits of my being able to offer you all of these services from one company are many and varied: they all relieve your staff of administrative or strategic tasks that are not their forte; fulfilling all of your financial needs under one roof obviously minimises duplication of effort, eradicates confusion caused by miscommunication, and streamlines the cost of employing different suppliers for different roles.
For my own part, I too look forward to doing more for you and your company, and thereby more comprehensively supporting your financial goals in particular, and your business objectives in general. Our service is always scaled to the level of your exact needs, remaining sensitive to your precise requirements.
Indeed, your peace of mind and sustained and sustainable business growth are always in the forefront of my mind.
As always, if you have any questions at all about this change, please do not hesitate to contact me – please use the tony@octaveaccountants.co.ukemail from now on.
Octave Accountants: let us accompany you on your virtuoso business performance
