Outsourced accounting support for small businesses and SMEs

When you start a business, you start it because you have something valuable to offer, a product or service you know will make a difference to your customers. Most SME owners across the UK go into business to do exactly that: deliver great work, not to become experts in finance and compliance.

However, from speaking to our clients, the financial side of running a business is consistently one of the most challenging parts, especially when it’s new territory.

Setting up a limited company: what you need to know

Many SMEs in the UK take the limited company route, and once you do, there’s a lot to get your head around beyond selling your product or service. Some of the key areas to understand are:

Director responsibilities — what does taking on a directorship actually mean?
Filing annual accounts and CT600 — understanding your obligations and the numbers behind them
VAT registration — when do you need to register, and what are your ongoing responsibilities?
Setting up PAYE — if you want to take on employees, how does payroll work?

The list goes on.

If you haven’t worked in finance before, all of this can feel completely new, and that’s entirely normal.

Where to get support:

The good news is there are resources out there to help. HMRC runs a range of free webinars for new business owners covering many of these areas. You can find a full list here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-webinars-email-alerts-and-videos

How DASH can help:

At DASH Accounting Services, we support SMEs to implement and manage the key financial functions that come with running a business. We know that most owners don’t start out thinking about any of this, and that’s exactly where we come in.

One of the biggest challenges for growing SMEs is the cost of building an internal finance team. Hiring a bookkeeper, accountant, payroll specialist, and Finance Director separately represents a significant overhead, one that doesn’t always make sense when your revenue isn’t quite there yet. Working with an outsourced finance partner gives you access to all of those functions at a fraction of the cost.

If you’re an SME owner thinking about outsourcing your payroll, bookkeeping, or VAT, or you want to start getting to grips with cashflow forecasting, get in touch with the team at DASH Accounting Services today.