Every time a business spends or receives money, a document is created, and these documents (Invoices, receipts, credit notes and statements) are all an essential part of the bookkeeping and accounting process.
Keeping accurate records is fundamental to us as your Bookkeepers and for you as a business owner. It means that we can carry out the best service possible, providing you with reliable financial information to base your business decisions on, and ultimately ensuring your business is as successful as it can be.
Without the relevant documents, we’re unable to do some of the most fundamental accounting tasks, like claim VAT back on your purchases – a very important task if you’re VAT registered.
Thankfully, these days providing us with the paperwork we need doesn’t have to involve any paperwork at all.
We are incredibly proud to be paperless, with processes that enable us to find the right apps for you and your business, so there’s no need to faff around with physical paper.
Providing us with your documents means no longer having to trawl through paperwork
Instead of having to keep lots of copies of all your paperwork (who wants that?) there are a number of benefits to simply handing your documents over to us.
- It provides a trail for an audit: Documents exist to show physical evidence of all transactions that have occurred in order to provide an audit trail. If your business is required to undergo an audit at any point, a clear and accurate record of all transactions will better prepare you because all of the necessary paperwork will be readily available. This means you won’t have to spend hours trawling through paperwork and can rest assured that it will all be under control.
- We’re eliminating the risk of inconsistencies – Having all of your paperwork means that we are more likely to pick up any discrepancies that may occur and therefore prevent problems arising unnecessarily.
- Bookkeeping can be more efficient – We can implement a streamlined system for collecting and managing the documents to improve the accuracy, speed and quality of our bookkeeping.
- We can maximise any VAT reclaimable if we have the source document to show evidence of any VAT paid. If there are transactions that we do not have paperwork for, we are unable to claim any VAT incurred which will increase the VAT liability incorrectly.
- You won’t be at risk for a penalty from HMRC – Although there are no rules on how you must keep records, HMRC can charge you a penalty if your records are inaccurate or incomplete, so another benefit of us having the paperwork is that you won’t be liable for any such penalties.
Overall, the benefit of having peace of mind that everything is being kept in order is priceless.
It’s easier than ever to provide us with your ‘paperwork’
Paperless software now means it’s a much simpler process to send us your documents. There is no longer any need to incur costs related to physical document storage, or any need for internal filing systems, as we will safely store digital copies received in one place.
We can all save on printing costs, plus we will receive a digital copy of your document instantly (no more having to make regular deliveries to your bookkeeper!)
All our clients use an app called Receipt Bank, as we have found this to be the best and easiest way of managing, storing and processing all receipts, invoices and other documents. All you have to do is simply take a photo of your invoice/receipt and upload into Receipt Bank, Email or Dropbox. Here’s a little bit more about how Receipt Bank saves you time.
Integrating Receipt Bank to your Xero Account is easy too, and ensures that all of your invoice information is extracted and formatted in the perfect way for your business in such a simple way. It is also very convenient thanks to the mobile app. Once you’ve uploaded your receipts, you can simply leave the rest to us!
A reminder of where to send your documents
Now you know why sending us your key documents is so mutually beneficial, you’re obviously going to be over-the-moon excited about sending them over, right? Right.
So just as a reminder, should you need it, send us your documents at Receipt Bank, Clients@ or Dropbox. Thank you!