Accounting

Small Business Accountants · South West

Small business accountants in Exeter

Small business accounting for established businesses in Exeter: the Core package at £65 a month covers accounts, tax and bookkeeping; Complete at £125 adds VAT and payroll for up to five staff; Premium at £185 adds quarterly management accounts. Fixed, published, the same in Exeter as in every part of England.

from £65/mo · fixed, per month

Next deadlines

  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)

Who this is for

Small Business Accountants for Exeter

Established owner-managed businesses in Exeter with turnover roughly between £50,000 and £1 million: shops and cafes, trades and building firms, agencies and consultancies, workshops and small manufacturers, professional practices, franchisees, and family companies with a handful of staff, trading as sole traders, partnerships or limited companies.

What is included

Everything inside the fixed fee

  • Monthly bookkeeping with bank feeds and receipt capture, reconciled and summarised each month
  • Annual accounts and Corporation Tax return, or sole trader accounts and Self Assessment, prepared and filed
  • Quarterly VAT returns and payroll for up to five staff in the Complete package
  • Quarterly management accounts with commentary in the Premium package
  • A named contact who knows your business and answers questions without a clock running
  • Switching health check: a one-off review of your current setup, refunded if you join

How it works

Small Business Accountants from Exeter, 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 Exeter

One fixed fee for small business accountants in Exeter, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.

Nothing for Exeter is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to small business accountants is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.

We serve Exeter remotely by design: records by WhatsApp or email, drafts back for approval, filing electronic. The saving on premises is passed to you in the fee for small business accountants.

A named person handles your small business accountants from Exeter and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.

We explain small business accountants in the words Exeter business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.

Nothing is filed for Exeter until you have reviewed and approved it. You see the draft, you ask questions, you sign off, then we submit and send you the receipt.

Local facts

About Exeter

Exeter is in South West, in the EX4 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 small business accountants
PlaceDistanceDirection
Northernhay, Exeter0.2 miNW
The Close, Exeter0.2 miS
Bedford Precinct0.3 miSE
Barnfield, South West0.4 miSE
Lions Holt0.4 miN
Mount Radford0.4 miSE
Belmont House0.4 miNE
Friars Green0.4 miS

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

Voluntary strike-off is available only to solvent companies. One that owes money it cannot pay needs a creditors' voluntary liquidation through a licensed insolvency practitioner, and directors who dissolve an insolvent company face personal consequences. For a solvent company the process takes three to four months from filing the DS01, with notice to creditors and shareholders within seven days.

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.

The trading and property allowances

The first £1,000 of trading income and, separately, the first £1,000 of property income each year is tax free under the trading and property allowances. Below those figures no return is needed for that income. Above them you can deduct the £1,000 allowance instead of actual expenses if that is better, which suits side businesses and single-room lets with few costs.

Employer National Insurance

Since April 2025 employer National Insurance has been 15% on earnings above a £5,000 secondary threshold, a substantial increase for small employers. The Employment Allowance rose to £10,500 at the same time to soften it for the smallest businesses. Directors deciding their own salary weigh this cost against the Corporation Tax deduction a salary provides.

Workplace pensions and auto-enrolment

Every employer must assess its workers for automatic enrolment from the first employee's start date. Those aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year must be enrolled into a qualifying pension with minimum contributions of 8% of qualifying earnings, at least 3% from the employer, and a declaration of compliance made to the Pensions Regulator within five months.

Record keeping

Record keeping is a legal obligation with a penalty of up to £3,000 for failure, but its real value is in making every other filing cheaper and more defensible. Keep invoices, receipts, bank statements, mileage logs and any HMRC correspondence, digitally if you like, for five years after the relevant filing deadline for individuals and six years for companies and VAT.

Questions

Small Business Accountants questions from Exeter

How does switching from my current accountant work?

You authorise us, we write to your current accountant for professional clearance and your records, and they are obliged to hand over your own documents. Most do within two weeks. We pick up the bookkeeping where they left off and take over the next filing. There is no charge for the switch.

Do you charge for phone calls and questions?

No. The monthly fee covers questions during the year. We would rather you ask before making a decision than pay us to unpick it afterwards. Formal advisory work, such as a tax planning review or a cash-flow forecast, is a separate fixed-fee product and we tell you when something falls into that category.

Can you handle a partnership?

Yes. Partnerships need a partnership tax return showing the profit split and each partner's own Self Assessment. The Core package covers the partnership return and bookkeeping; each partner's personal return is added at the published £129. LLPs follow company-style accounts rules and we handle those too.

What if my transaction volume is higher than the package covers?

We check the volume from your bank statements before quoting and tell you the right band. If the business grows and the volume increases, we review quarterly and adjust from the next month with notice. There is no back-charging for a busy period.

What is in the £65 Core package?

Monthly bookkeeping from your bank feeds with receipts captured by phone, a monthly summary, your annual accounts and tax return (Corporation Tax and CT600 for a company, Self Assessment for a sole trader), the confirmation statement for a company (Companies House £50 fee separate), and deadline tracking with reminders. Transaction volume up to around 150 a month.

When do I need Complete?

When you are VAT registered or employ staff. Complete at £125 adds quarterly VAT returns and payroll for up to five employees including auto-enrolment, so the quarterly and monthly cycles are handled alongside the annual ones. Businesses with more staff or higher transaction volumes are quoted a fixed fee before joining.

Which deadlines matter most for small business accountants?

The next four dates that apply to small business accountants are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Exeter 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 Exeter?

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

One message from Exeter, 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