If there is one job small business owners put off more than any other, it is the books. Not because it is hard, but because it is never urgent until it suddenly is: the VAT deadline next week, the accountant asking for a year of receipts, the payroll that has to go out on Friday whatever else is happening.
I run bookkeeping, VAT and payroll for businesses in County Durham and across the North East, and the most useful thing I can do here is explain where the line sits between what you can hand over and what should stay with your accountant.
Bookkeeper or accountant?
I am not an accountant, and I would not want you to think I was. Your accountant prepares your year end accounts, works out your corporation tax or self assessment and gives you tax advice. My job is everything that makes their job quick and cheap: the day to day records kept accurate, so that when year end comes there is nothing to untangle.
A good bookkeeper usually saves more on the accountant's bill than they cost, simply because the accountant is no longer doing clean up work at accountant rates.
What you can hand over
Bank reconciliation: every transaction matched in Xero every week, not every quarter.
Sales invoicing and chasing: invoices out on time, and a polite, persistent follow up on anything overdue.
Supplier bills and receipts: captured, coded and ready, so nothing is lost in a glovebox.
VAT returns: prepared and checked through Making Tax Digital, which every VAT registered business has had to use since April 2022, and ready for your approval before they are filed.
Payroll: pay runs, payslips, submissions to HMRC and pension contributions, done on the same day every month.
Company admin: confirmation statements, director details and the Companies House reminders that are easy to miss.
What changes if you are a sole trader
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax began in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, with the threshold dropping to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. That means quarterly updates through software rather than one return a year. If that is you, or will be soon, it is worth getting your records into Xero now rather than the month before your first deadline.
What it looks like in practice
You keep full access to everything. I work inside your Xero, with my own login, so nothing lives on a spreadsheet only I can open. You get a short monthly summary: money in, money out, what is owed to you, what you owe, and anything that needs a decision. Nothing is filed or paid without your approval.
Finance is one of the five functions I run on a fixed monthly fee, with no timesheet. If your books are the thing you dread most on a Sunday night, let's talk, or see the rest of my services.