Who does the review
A named reviewer is responsible for your file. Automation proposes matches. The reviewer clears the exception list and sends the pack. You are not writing into a queue that nobody owns.
Home How we work
Method
A sample month first. Then a date we both keep.
We do not begin by “connecting everything” and hoping the opening balances behave. The engagement has a sequence. Skipping a step is how a tidy-looking ledger conceals a hole.
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01
The first conversation
Half an hour, by phone or video. We ask what the entity is, the year end, whether you are VAT registered, how many bank and card accounts exist, whether anyone is paid through a payroll, and who your accountant is. We say immediately if the work you want is tax advice or a filing. Those are not this studio.
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02
A sample month, read only
You send a recent bank statement, a trial balance or a software export if one exists, and a handful of sales and purchase documents. We look at whether the bank is reconciled, whether VAT has a control account, and whether personal and business money are mixed. You get a short note: what is reliable, what is not, and whether we recommend a catch-up before a standing monthly fee.
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03
A written scope
The scope names the entities, the accounts, the close date, what the pack contains, what you will provide, and the fee. Guide prices on the website are not the scope. Nothing is billed for the standing service until you accept the scope in writing. The terms apply to that acceptance.
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04
Access, without your banking password
We take a named user on the ledger, with the rights the work needs and no more. Bank data arrives by a feed you authorise at the bank, or by statements and CSV files you upload. We will not ask for an online banking password, a card PIN, or a Government Gateway password. If a supplier portal needs a login, we prefer a user created for the studio, which you can revoke.
You tell your accountant that we are on the file. We are happy for them to remain a user. Year-end adjustments they post stay visible; we do not overwrite them.
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05
Opening balances
We set opening balances from the last accounts your accountant signed, or from the last VAT period that was actually filed if accounts are older than the ledger. Where those sources disagree with the bank, the difference is an opening exception. We do not spread it into the current year’s profit to make the file look calm.
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06
The first full close, together
The first pack is reviewed on a call. We walk the exception list and the profit figure, including anything that makes the profit misleading — a large prepayment, a director’s personal costs that were in the bank, a payout held back by a card provider. After that, the rhythm is the close date in the scope, with a call only when the list needs one.
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07
Year end, handed over rather than re-performed
At the year end we freeze the period, send the trial balance, the reconciliations, the VAT workings and the exception list to you and, if you ask, to your accountant. Adjustments for accruals, prepayments, depreciation and tax are theirs to propose. We post the journals they approve and we do not reopen a filed VAT period without their instruction.
If you are bringing a backlog
Catch-up is the same standard, applied to old months, and it is quoted separately. We work forwards from the last trustworthy opening balance. We will not start at “today” and leave eighteen months as a single journal.
You should expect us to ask for statements you may have to download from the bank in batches. If a statement cannot be obtained, that month cannot be reconciled, and the pack will say so. A fee for catch-up is based on months and transaction volume, not on a promise that the historical profit will match what you hoped it was.
While catch-up is underway we can still keep the current month moving, so the backlog does not grow. The scope will say whether those two streams are in one fee or two.
How you hear from us
Email for the pack and the questions. Phone when a question is faster spoken. We do not use messaging apps for instructions that change a balance. If you need an instruction to stick, put it in an email.
Leaving
Either side can end the standing engagement on 30 days’ notice, as the terms set out. We finish the month already started if you want it finished, and we remove our user when the handover is done. The ledger subscription remains yours.
Practical questions
Do you visit the premises?
Rarely, and only if the records cannot be understood any other way. The studio address in Humshaugh is for correspondence and for appointments we have agreed. The monthly work is done on the digital file. Travel, if it is ever needed, is quoted before it happens.
Can our accountant instruct you directly?
Yes, if you tell us in writing that they may. Journals they ask for are posted as their journals, labelled, so a later reader can see who originated the entry. We will query an instruction that would break a reconciliation, and we will not post it until that query is answered.
What happens in August and at Christmas?
The close date moves only when we agree a substitute, which we do around bank holidays. We do not skip a month. A month with no trading is a short pack, not a missing one: the bank still has to agree, even if the only lines are fees.