Express Accounting

De Claron Ltd
Express Accountancy services at affordable prices

Accounting	Property Investment Reporting	Company Secretarial Services

TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT

Financial Records: We require financial records to do your accounts and undertake to confirm receipt of these records whether by e-mail, phone or otherwise. Your financial records can be in "hardcopy" or in electronic format. These financial records will be used solely to do your accounts and, if in hardcopy, then they will be returned to you.

We in no way make your financial records available to third parties except for government inspections and judicial proceedings. Such presentations will be done with your prior knowledge and for the purpose of verifying your accounts.

Statutory Accounts and Management Accounts: Statutory accounts are mandatory submissions to government authorities such as Companies House, HMRC Charity Commission and other government bodies. Management accounts are financial reports requested by clients for their internal purposes and are not necessarily mandatory.

Any financial records required to produce either statutory accounts or management accounts must reach us in time to meet any deadlines. The type of records required and the time in which they must reach us will be detailed below:

1. Hardcopy Financial Records: If you choose to give us these types of records the minimum requirements are:

purchase invoices
sales invoices
bank statements
previous set of accounts (if any)
tax reference number
VAT number (if applicable)
National Insurance number (if applicable)
Memorandum and Articles of Association for company accounts

We may request any additional information if these records are incomplete. The above can be sent to us as scanned copies via e-mail attachments. However, we may still request original records if the scanned copies are too voluminous, are of poor quality or are ordered in a haphazard fashion. Note that we will request original hardcopies if an audit is required. Top

2. Financial Records in Electronic Format: The type of records in this category can include the following:

spreadsheets
CSV (Comma Separated Values) export text files from accountancy programmes
data files exported from word-processors and databases

Note that we may reject the above electronic records if they are incompatible with our existing software packages or when hardcopy records are deemed more appropriate. To ensure compatibility we recommend you save your spreadsheet databases and word-processing files in Microsoft Office 2000 format. Top

3. Statutory Accounts for Trading Companies and Charities: For the following types of accounts the UK government imposes deadlines which must be met to avoid fines and possible prosecution.

Companies House annual accounts must be submitted no later than 9 months from the accounts end date
HMRC annual accounts and corporation tax returns must be submitted no later than 12 months from the accounts end date. However, any corporation tax must be paid no later than 9 months and 1 day from the accounts end date
Charity Commission accounts must be submitted no later than 10 months from the accounts end date

Note that all of the above are submitted electronically by us. With the exception of Charity Commission only electronic submissions are accepted by the government.

If annual accounts have to be submitted to two or more statutory bodies, and they have different deadline dates, then the deadline date for submission is the earlier date. For example, the deadline date for annual accounts submissions to both Companies House and the Charity Commission would be reckoned at 9 months instead of 10 months. In order to submit annual accounts on time we require the complete relevant records no later than:

2 months before the statutory deadline for un-audited annual accounts
4 months before the statutory deadline for audited annual accounts

We do not consider records received until they are deemed complete by us. Incomplete records will result in delays in meeting statutory deadlines.

We cannot submit annual accounts until they have been signed and dated by the client to indicate approval This cannot be no less than 5 working days before the submission deadline. We also cannot submit annual accounts and VAT returns without the proper authentication/authorisations codes required by statutory bodies for on-line submissions. These codes must be in our possession and activated no less then 10 working days before a submission deadline. Top

4. Other Statutory Financial Reporting: In addition to the above there are other statutory deadlines which are:

HMRC VAT returns must be submitted no later than 1 months and 7 days after the VAT quarter end date
HMRC Self Assessment for the period ending 5 April must be submitted no later than 31 Jan the following year
HMRC PAYE annual P35 and P14 returns for the period ending 5 April must be submitted no later than 19 May
Companies House annual returns must be submitted no later than 28 days after the anniversary of the previous return
Charity Commission returns must be submitted no later than 10 months after the anniversary of the previous return

In order to submit the above on time we require the relevant records no later than:

2 weeks before the statutory deadline for quarterly VAT returns
2 months before the statutory deadline for Self Assessment
10 days before the statutory deadline for PAYE
10 days before the statutory deadline for Companies House annual returns
10 days before the statutory deadline for Charity Commission annual returns

The type of records we require are:

the relevant records stipulated under paragraph 1 above for VAT returns
the relevant records stipulated under paragraph 1 above for Self Assessment
payslips or, if available, company accounts for PAYE
written confirmation of any changes to company details from a company officer for a Companies House annual return
written confirmation of any changes to charity details from a charity officer for a Charity Commission annual return Top

5. Other Statutory related services:

provision of tax exempt number from the HMRC for non-profit organisations
Company formation
registered office address provision

In relation to a HMRC tax exemption number we require:

a Charity Commission registration number (if one has been issued)
the charity governing document such as a Deed of Trust
set of accounts (if any)

Note that it can take up to 90 days and sometime longer to obtain a tax exemption number.

In relation to company formation we require:

name, address, occupation, nationality, date of birth of any prospective director
the same information from any prospective shareholder and the amount of shares to be allocated
intended address and trading activity of the proposed company

Companies can normally be formed or bought "off the shelf" within a day. Note that there are no deadlines associated with tax exemption applications or company formation.

There are no deadlines for registered office address provision However, such provision is only available for those companies for whom we do statutory accounts. Top

6. Management Accounts : The services we provide here are internal management accounts and financial reporting. These are done an a bespoke basis to suit client needs. The type of accounts produced under this category may include:

profit and loss summaries
accounts receivable
accounts payable
income breakdowns for such things as Gift Aid claims
nominal history listing

The above are usually done an a monthly or quarterly basis and the relevant reports are e-mailed to the client in electronic format. Graphical representation of data are normally incorporated in the financial reports such as for profit and loss summaries so the client gets an instant picture of the business. Any deadlines here are negotiated with the client. Top

7. Payment Deadlines: We will not make statutory submissions nor produce any further management accounts on behalf of a client until all outstanding invoices have been paid for in full. This condition will only be waived if credit terms have been agreed on in writing between us and the client. Such credit terms must be finalised no less than 30 days before any pending submission deadlines. Payment is made in advance for the other statutory related services in paragraph 5. Top

8. Liability : We at De Claron only admit liability to pay fines and penalties on behalf of clients for the above statutory submissions if the client has met our deadlines for the provision of complete records, signed accounts and payments. Top

9. Prices: Our prices are based on the job and not hourly rates. Since prices can fluctuate between jobs we cannot list any definitive price schedules on our web site. However, we can give price quotes on the basis of information supplied to us by the client. Only if a price is agreed upon between us and the client do we proceed with the job. Note that prices are subject to an annual increase of between 5% - 10% in keeping with inflation. Top

10. Amendments: These terms of engagement may be subject to amendments and will be displayed on our web site. Top