Business Advisory · South London
Business advisory in Borough, Southwark
Owners in Borough rarely have anyone to think out loud with who understands the numbers. Our advisory sessions are that: a structured conversation about the question you bring, prepared from your figures, with a written summary afterwards saying what we recommend and why. Fixed fee per session, no retainer required, no hourly clock.
from £149 · fixed, per session
Next deadlines
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- Tax year ends: last day for pension, ISA and dividend timing decisions
Who this is for
Business Advisory for Borough
Owner-managers in Borough, Southwark facing a decision or a recurring problem: businesses that are busy but not profitable, owners considering a first or next hire, companies choosing between loan, invoice finance and investment, founders preparing to scale or to sell, franchisees and partnerships needing an independent view, and anyone who wants a quarterly conversation about the numbers with someone who has read them.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- A structured 90-minute session on the question you bring, with preparation from your numbers beforehand
- A written summary within three working days: what we discussed, what we recommend, what to do next
- Pricing and margin review: unit economics, price points, discounting and the gross margin you actually make
- Growth readiness review: hiring plans, funding options, systems, controls and what breaks at the next size
- Quarterly advisory retainer: a session each quarter with your management figures and a standing agenda
- Introductions to lenders, grant bodies and specialists where the question needs them
How it works
Business Advisory from Borough, Southwark, step by step
Scope the job
We find out what you need filed, when it is due and what state the records are in, and tell you which fixed-fee package applies.
Agree the price
The fee is confirmed in writing. There is no hourly billing and nothing added for questions during the work.
Hand over the records
Photographs, PDFs, software access or a spreadsheet, sent however suits you. We confirm what we have and what is missing within two working days.
Approve, then we submit
You review the draft with our explanation, sign off, and we file. Receipts, copies and the next deadlines come back to you immediately.
Why IGI
The IGI way of working, in Borough
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Borough clients know the fee for business advisory before they send a single document, and it stays fixed.
Deadline-first: the dates that matter for business advisory are shown at the top of this page, diarised for every Borough client and chased before they arrive.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in Borough to pay for, which is why the fee is the same here as anywhere in England; the work is done by people in the UK who answer the same day.
You get one contact for business advisory, not a queue. Borough, Southwark clients message the same person throughout and get an answer in working hours, usually within a few hours.
Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for Borough comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.
Approval before filing is a rule, not a courtesy. For business advisory in Borough, Southwark, every submission to HMRC or Companies House follows your written go-ahead.
Local facts
About Borough, Southwark
Borough, Southwark is in South London, within Southwark, in the SE1 postcode district, England. For businesses in England the tax rules are those set by the UK Parliament: the 20/40/45% income tax bands, Class 4 National Insurance for the self-employed at 6% and 2%, Corporation Tax at 19% to 25%, and Stamp Duty Land Tax on property. Business rates are set locally by the council.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Chaucer | 0.2 mi | SE |
| Cathedrals | 0.3 mi | W |
| Borough Market | 0.3 mi | NE |
| Southwark | 0.5 mi | NW |
| Elephant and Castle | 0.5 mi | SW |
| London Bridge | 0.5 mi | NE |
| Bankside, Southwark | 0.6 mi | NW |
| Dowgate | 0.6 mi | N |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
CIS deductions
CIS turns construction subcontractors into advance taxpayers: a fifth of every labour payment goes to HMRC before they see it. Registering keeps the rate at 20% rather than 30%; gross payment status, for established businesses with a clean record, removes deductions altogether. The annual return is where the overpayment comes back, and filing it early brings the refund sooner.
Confirmation statements and identity verification
The confirmation statement is the annual check that the public register is right: officers, registered office, SIC codes, shareholders and the PSC register. It carries a £50 fee and no financial penalty for lateness, but failure to file leads to compulsory strike-off. The identity verification regime introduced in November 2025 has added a further check to every statement.
Corporation Tax rates and marginal relief
Since April 2023 there have been two Corporation Tax rates, 19% small profits and 25% main, with marginal relief smoothing the transition between £50,000 and £250,000 of profit. The band is where planning matters: each pound of profit in it is taxed at an effective 26.5%, so pension contributions and capital expenditure timed to keep profit below £50,000 are worth more than they look.
The VAT registration threshold
Watching the rolling twelve-month turnover figure is one of the quiet jobs of monthly bookkeeping, because the £90,000 VAT threshold arrives silently. Crossing it brings quarterly returns, Making Tax Digital software and a decision about schemes. Crossing it late brings a bill for VAT you could not recover from customers and a penalty for failing to notify.
Director's loan accounts
Money taken from a company has to be something: salary, dividend, expense reimbursement or loan. If it is a loan and remains outstanding nine months after the year end, the company pays tax at the dividend higher rate on it until it is repaid. Clearing the balance with a properly declared dividend before the deadline, where reserves allow, is routine year-end work.
Salary versus dividends
Paying yourself from a company involves two routes with different tax treatment. Salary through payroll is a company expense and builds a National Insurance record; dividends come from post-tax profit at lower personal rates. Undocumented drawings that are neither become director's loans, with a 35.75% section 455 charge if not repaid within nine months of the year end.
Payments on account
A common surprise in Self Assessment is the January payment that is far larger than expected. That is the balancing payment for the year just ended plus the first payment on account for the year ahead, which HMRC sets at half of the bill just calculated. We put the figure in your hands months ahead and tell you how to adjust it legitimately when circumstances change.
Questions
Business Advisory questions from Borough
How does the quarterly retainer work?
For £129 a quarter you get a session each quarter with your management figures, a standing agenda of the things you are tracking, and a written note afterwards. It is for owners who want a regular, structured conversation about the business rather than one-off help, and it works best alongside our management accounts.
What is the growth readiness review?
For £399 we look at what the business would need to operate at the next level: people and roles, funding and cash, systems and controls, pricing capacity and the owner's own role. The report identifies what will break first at the larger size and sets out the fixes in order, with costs. It is often used before a fundraise or a major hire.
What is the pricing and margin review?
For £299 we analyse your sales by product, service or customer against the true cost of delivering each, including the overheads that are usually ignored, to show where the margin is actually made and lost. The report recommends price changes, discount policy and which lines to grow or drop, with the profit effect of each quantified.
What happens in the £149 session?
You tell us the question when you book and send your recent figures. We prepare, then spend 90 minutes by video working through it: the numbers, the options, the trade-offs. Within three working days you receive a written summary of the discussion, our recommendation and the next steps. One session often resolves the question; some lead to a review product.
My business is busy but there is never any money. Can you tell me why?
Usually, yes, and usually within a session. The common causes are margin erosion through discounting or cost creep, slow-paying customers tying up cash, stock or work in progress absorbing it, overheads that grew with turnover, or the owner's drawings exceeding profit. The pricing and margin review goes deeper where margin is the cause.
Can you help with funding?
We help you decide what kind of funding suits the need, debt, invoice finance, asset finance, grant or equity, and prepare the figures lenders or investors want to see. Our cash-flow forecasting service produces the forecast pack. We introduce you to lenders and grant bodies we know but we are not brokers and take no commission.
How do I get started from Borough, Southwark?
Message us on WhatsApp or email with a sentence about your business and what you need. We reply in working hours with any questions and a fixed fee for business advisory. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Borough clients are set up within a day.
Which deadlines matter most for business advisory?
The next four dates that apply to business advisory are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Borough clients we diarise every one of them from the day you join and send reminders before each, so the work is done in good time rather than in the last week before a penalty.
Start the conversation from Borough
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.