Case Study: Finishing Touch Services Ltd
A painting and decorating company owned and managed by Rob and Lydia Joy. Since engaging Whittaker Plane in 2015 their businesses has doubled its revenue three times and will turnover £300k+ in 2017.
Services provided
- Company formation
- Annual accounting
- Corporation tax
- VAT
- Management accounts
- CIS
- Payroll
- Business advice
- Directors’ tax returns
Story
Rob and Lydia were recommended to us by a friend of theirs, a client of Whittaker Plane. They were experiencing stellar growth with their sole trader business painting and decorating homes for individuals.
They shared our values of honesty and excellence and wanted to ensure they were operating legally and efficiently. They were unsure the correct way to declare business activity by Self-Assessment and which expenses were tax deductible. They also wanted advice on the options of setting up and structuring a new company.
We provided advice on sole trader accounts and filing by Self-Assessment. We advised on the pros and cons of sole trader vs limited company. We handled the formation of the limited company and the transition from their sole trader business.
A key aspect of this transition was setting up and training their team to use the Xero cloud accounting software. Finishing Touch Services use Xero to manage sales invoices, subcontractor invoices and produce management information.
A significant benefit of Xero was the ability to monitor cumulative sales information and assess the correct month to register for VAT. We provided advice for the transition to being VAT registered including quoting to customers, the most appropriate VAT scheme and efficient book-keeping for VAT.
Using information from Xero, Finishing Touch can now collate their Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) monthly returns, send certificates to subcontractors while calculating the CIS deductions to pay to HMRC.
With a robust financial system in place Finishing Touch Services have been able to concentrate on providing “quality without question” and grow their activity to 15 employees and full-time equivalent contractors, and the profitability of their business