Accounting

Business Advisory · East London

Business advisory in Hackney, East London

Business advisory for owners in Hackney, East London: a single 90-minute session with written summary is £149, a pricing and margin review is £299, a growth readiness review is £399, and a quarterly retainer is £129 a quarter. Fixed fees, published, the same in Hackney as in every part of England, delivered by video call.

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 Hackney

Owner-managers in Hackney, East London 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 Hackney, East London, 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

Why Hackney businesses file with IGI

No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Hackney clients know the fee for business advisory before they send a single document, and it stays fixed.

We work to the HMRC and Companies House calendar, not an appointment diary. Clients in Hackney, East London get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to business advisory.

Online only, UK based. There is no office in Hackney 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.

Continuity matters in business advisory: the person who prepared last year's work for your Hackney business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.

Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for Hackney comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.

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

Local facts

About Hackney, East London

Hackney, East London is in East London, in the E9 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 business advisory
PlaceDistanceDirection
Homerton0.4 miNE
London Fields, Hackney0.4 miW
Hackney Central0.4 miNW
South Hackney0.5 miNW
Hackney Downs0.6 miNW
Victoria Park, Hackney0.6 miSE
Queensbridge0.7 miW
Lower Clapton0.8 miN

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

Switching accountants

You can switch accountant at any point in the year. The new firm requests clearance and your records from the old one, which cannot withhold your own documents though it may hold its own working papers until its fees are settled. Agent authorisations with HMRC and Companies House are transferred, and the next deadline is picked up without a gap.

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.

The trading and property allowances

Small side incomes are covered by two £1,000 allowances, one for trading and one for property, which remove the need to register or report income below that level. Once income exceeds £1,000, the allowance can be used in place of expenses, a choice worth making deliberately: a freelancer with £900 of costs is better off with the allowance, one with £3,000 is not.

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

Auto-enrolment duties begin the day you take on your first employee, not when the Pensions Regulator writes to you. Eligible staff must be enrolled, contributions paid every pay period and re-enrolment carried out every three years. Director-only companies without employment contracts are usually exempt. Fines for non-compliance are fixed and escalating.

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.

Questions

Business Advisory questions from Hackney

Is this consultancy or accounting?

It is advice from accountants who read your numbers, which is different from both generic business coaching and from pure compliance. We focus on the decisions the figures inform: pricing, hiring, funding, cost structure, cash. We do not advise on marketing strategy or operations beyond their financial effect.

Can you help me decide whether to hire?

Yes, and it is one of the most common session topics. We model the full cost of the hire including employer National Insurance at 15%, pension, equipment and management time, against the revenue or capacity it releases, and the cash impact month by month. The answer is often yes but later, or yes but part-time first.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Hackney 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 Hackney, East London?

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 Hackney clients are set up within a day.

Let us take the deadlines off your plate in Hackney

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