Accounting

Startup Accountants · North West

Startup accountants in Chorley

Startup accounting for new companies in Chorley: the Launch package at £59 a month forms the company, registers it with HMRC and files the first accounts; Grow at £99 adds bookkeeping and VAT; Scale at £149 adds payroll and management accounts. Fixed and published, the same in Chorley as in any part of England.

from £59/mo · fixed, per month

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
  • Confirmation statement due within 14 days of your review date, at least once every 12 months

Who this is for

Startup Accountants for Chorley

New and early-stage companies in Chorley: founders incorporating for the first time, technology and product startups preparing to raise seed investment, service businesses moving from side project to full time, two or three co-founders who need the equity and payroll structured properly, and companies in their first two years who set up alone and want it done properly now.

What is included

Everything inside the fixed fee

  • Company formation and HMRC registrations in the Launch package, or a review of what has already been set up
  • Cloud bookkeeping configured for a growing business, with bank feeds and expense capture from day one
  • Annual accounts and Corporation Tax return, with first-period and long-period rules handled
  • VAT registration timing advised and quarterly returns run in the Grow and Scale packages
  • Payroll for founders and first hires, with auto-enrolment, in the Scale package
  • SEIS and EIS advance assurance applications prepared for founders raising investment

How it works

Startup Accountants from Chorley, step by step

  1. Tell us your situation

    A short message or call about what you do and what needs filing. We ask the questions that determine the right package and nothing more.

  2. Fixed fee in writing

    You receive one price for the work, confirmed by email before anything starts. It does not change if the job takes longer than we expected.

  3. Send records, review the draft

    Records come by WhatsApp or email. We prepare the draft, explain the figures in plain English and answer your questions.

  4. We file, you get the receipts

    Once you approve and the fee is settled, we submit electronically and forward the HMRC or Companies House acknowledgement the same day.

Why IGI

What you get in Chorley

The price for startup accountants is published on this page and is what a client in Chorley pays. We confirm it in writing first, and the invoice matches the quote.

Deadline-first: the dates that matter for startup accountants are shown at the top of this page, diarised for every Chorley client and chased before they arrive.

No appointments, no travel across North West, no parking. Everything for startup accountants in Chorley happens online, with a real person on the other end during UK working hours.

You get one contact for startup accountants, not a queue. Chorley 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 Chorley comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.

You stay in control of startup accountants: drafts go to Chorley clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.

Local facts

About Chorley

Chorley is in North West, in the PR7 postcode district, England. Income tax in England follows the UK rates: 20% basic to £50,270, 40% higher to £125,140 and 45% additional, with the personal allowance of £12,570 tapered away above £100,000. National Insurance, VAT and Corporation Tax are UK-wide, and Stamp Duty Land Tax applies to property purchases.

Nearby places we also serve for startup accountants
PlaceDistanceDirection
Chorley Moor0.5 miS
Cowling0.8 miSE
Botany, North West0.9 miNE
Astley Village0.9 miNW
Hartwood0.9 miN
Weld Bank0.9 miS
Weldbank0.9 miS
Little Knowley1 miNE

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

Switching accountants

The main reasons people switch accountant are surprise invoices, missed deadlines and not understanding what they are being told. Switching involves a clearance letter between the firms, a transfer of records and agent authorisations, and a short handover of the current position. It takes about two weeks and should cost nothing extra.

Closing a company

Striking off a company is cheap but must be done in order: stop trading, file the final accounts and CT600, pay the tax, close VAT and PAYE, distribute the remaining assets, close the bank account, then apply. Anything left in the company at dissolution passes to the Crown. Distributions up to £25,000 are taxed as capital gains; above that a formal liquidation is usually needed to keep capital treatment.

Record keeping

Good records are the difference between a quick enquiry and a long one. For the self-employed, five years after the filing deadline; for companies, six years from the year end; for VAT, six years. Photographs of receipts, PDF statements and software exports all count. The requirement is to keep records, not paper, and a well-organised cloud folder satisfies it.

Allowable expenses

An expense is allowable against trading profit if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Materials, business travel other than ordinary commuting, a proportion of home running costs, software, insurance, professional fees, bank charges and protective clothing qualify. Client entertainment, ordinary clothing, fines and the private share of mixed-use costs do not.

Crypto records and reporting

HMRC treats cryptoassets as property. Swapping one token for another, spending crypto or gifting it are all disposals for Capital Gains Tax, and staking and lending rewards are income. Gains are computed under pooling rules with same-day and 30-day matching. From 2026 HMRC receives data from exchanges worldwide under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, so unreported activity is increasingly visible.

The 60-day property CGT return

Since April 2020 a gain on UK residential property must be reported and the tax paid within 60 days of completion through HMRC's dedicated service, separately from the annual return. Non-residents must report all UK land disposals in the same window whether or not tax is due. Getting the computation right first time matters because the figure is then carried into the Self Assessment.

Dormant companies

A dormant company is one with no significant accounting transactions in the year, where the only permitted entries are the payment for shares on incorporation, Companies House fees and penalties. It still files a confirmation statement and simplified dormant accounts every year. A bank charge or an accountant's fee paid from the company ends dormancy and requires full accounts.

Questions

Startup Accountants questions from Chorley

Do I need a separate business bank account?

Legally the company must have its own account because it is a separate person from you; using a personal account mixes funds and creates director's loan problems. Digital business banks open accounts quickly for new companies, and we connect the feed to your software as part of setup.

What do investors expect to see in the accounts?

Clean, current bookkeeping; a cap table that matches Companies House; founder payments properly documented; VAT and PAYE up to date; and management accounts showing runway. Due diligence on a seed round routinely finds undocumented director's loans and unfiled confirmation statements, both of which cost time at exactly the wrong moment.

What does the £59 Launch package include?

Company formation with the Companies House £100 fee passed on separately, Corporation Tax and PAYE registration, a registered office if you want one, cloud software set up, the first confirmation statement and the first set of accounts and CT600 filed. It is for founders who will keep their own books in the early months.

When do I need Grow or Scale?

Grow at £99 adds monthly bookkeeping and quarterly VAT returns, and suits most startups once transactions and VAT registration arrive. Scale at £149 adds payroll for founders and first hires with auto-enrolment, plus quarterly management accounts for the board or investors. You can move between packages at any month end.

Should I register for VAT before I have to?

If your customers are VAT-registered businesses, early voluntary registration lets you reclaim VAT on setup costs with no real cost to customers. If you sell to consumers, registration adds 20% to your price or cuts your margin, so waiting until the £90,000 threshold is usually better. We model it for your business.

How should co-founders be paid?

Early on, often not at all, with equity as the reward. Once the company can afford it, a modest salary through payroll keeps National Insurance records intact and is deductible. Dividends require distributable profits, which loss-making startups do not have. Director's loans are a trap. We set the structure to suit the cash position.

Which deadlines matter most for startup accountants?

The next four dates that apply to startup accountants are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Chorley 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.

How do I get started from Chorley?

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 startup accountants. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Chorley clients are set up within a day.

One message from Chorley, one fixed price

Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.

WhatsApp for a fixed quote