Bookkeeping · North West
Bookkeeping services in Guardhouse
Monthly bookkeeping for businesses in Guardhouse, done in cloud software with live bank feeds and priced by how many transactions you actually have. From £49 a month for up to 50 transactions, fixed and published, the same in Guardhouse as anywhere else in England. No hourly rates and no office to visit.
from £49/mo · fixed, per month
Next deadlines
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- MTD quarterly update deadline (7 August, 7 November, 7 February, 7 May)
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
Who this is for
Bookkeeping for Guardhouse
Sole traders, partnerships and limited companies in Guardhouse with anything from a dozen to a few hundred bank transactions a month: trades, consultants, online sellers, cafes and shops, landlords with several properties, and anyone approaching the VAT threshold or Making Tax Digital for Income Tax who needs digital records kept properly.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Cloud accounting software set up with bank feeds for every business account and card
- Every transaction categorised and reconciled each month, with queries sent to you in one batch
- Receipt and invoice capture by photo or email forwarding, matched to the bank
- Sales invoices, supplier bills and VAT coding kept current and Making Tax Digital-ready
- A monthly position summary: income, costs, cash, what you owe HMRC so far
- Year-end handover to our accounts team or your own accountant with no re-work
How it works
Bookkeeping from Guardhouse, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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
Why Guardhouse businesses file with IGI
One fixed fee for bookkeeping in Guardhouse, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.
Nothing for Guardhouse is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to bookkeeping is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.
We serve Guardhouse 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 bookkeeping.
A named person handles your bookkeeping from Guardhouse and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.
We explain bookkeeping in the words Guardhouse business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
Nothing is filed for Guardhouse 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 Guardhouse
Guardhouse is in North West, 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.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Doddick | 0.5 mi | NW |
| Wallthwaite | 0.8 mi | E |
| Threlkeld | 1 mi | W |
| Redsike | 1 mi | E |
| Hutton Moor End | 2 mi | NE |
| Southerfell | 2 mi | NE |
| Liscow | 2 mi | NE |
| Burns | 2 mi | SW |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Late filing penalties
Lateness is expensive in a way that compounds. For individuals, £100 immediately, then daily penalties, then percentage-based ones at six and twelve months, with interest running on unpaid tax throughout. For companies, Companies House penalties scale with delay and double on repeat, and HMRC adds its own for a late CT600. Filing on time is the cheapest tax planning there is.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
The biggest change to Self Assessment in a generation is Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, now live for higher-earning sole traders and landlords and arriving for the rest in stages. Quarterly updates are due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, built from digital records. The practical consequence is that spreadsheet-and-shoebox bookkeeping is ending for anyone above the threshold.
Confirmation statements and identity verification
Companies House has tightened its requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act: every company needs a registered email address and an appropriate registered office, every statement includes a lawful-purpose declaration, and every director and PSC must verify their identity. The confirmation statement, due annually with a £50 fee, is where most of this is confirmed.
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.
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.
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
Bookkeeping questions from Guardhouse
Can you catch up a backlog?
Yes. Backlogs are quoted as a fixed fee based on the number of months and transactions, agreed before we start. Once caught up, the normal monthly band applies. We tell you honestly if the backlog is small enough to do yourself.
What is the VAT bundle?
Bookkeeping plus quarterly VAT returns for £119 a month, covering up to 150 transactions. Because we already have the coded transactions, the return is prepared and submitted through MTD-compatible software without extra data entry, and you approve it before anything goes to HMRC.
Will I need this for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?
If you are a sole trader or landlord with qualifying income over £50,000 you joined MTD for Income Tax in April 2026, and the £30,000 threshold follows in April 2027. It requires digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC. Our bookkeeping service keeps the records in the required form and submits the updates.
How do you handle cash sales and personal spending from the business account?
Cash takings are recorded from your till or daily summary, and personal spending is coded to drawings or the director's loan account so it does not end up as a business expense. We flag patterns that could cause problems, such as a growing director's loan balance.
How do you count transactions for the fee?
Every line on your business bank and card statements for the month, including payments in and out. Transfers between your own accounts are excluded. Up to 50 lines is £49 a month, up to 150 is £89, up to 300 is £149. We check the count from your statements before quoting so the band is right from the start.
Which software do you use and who pays for it?
We work in the main cloud platforms that are compatible with Making Tax Digital and set up the one that suits your business. The subscription is in your name and billed to you by the software company, typically £15 to £35 a month, so you own the data and can leave at any time with your records intact.
Which deadlines matter most for bookkeeping?
The next four dates that apply to bookkeeping are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Guardhouse 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 Guardhouse?
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 bookkeeping. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Guardhouse clients are set up within a day.
Let us take the deadlines off your plate in Guardhouse
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.