Small Business Accountants · South East London
Small business accountants in Lower Sydenham
Small business accounting for established businesses in Lower Sydenham: 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 Lower Sydenham 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 Lower Sydenham
Established owner-managed businesses in Lower Sydenham 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 Lower Sydenham, 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
The IGI way of working, in Lower Sydenham
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Lower Sydenham clients know the fee for small business accountants 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 Lower Sydenham get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to small business accountants.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in Lower Sydenham 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 small business accountants: the person who prepared last year's work for your Lower Sydenham business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.
Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for Lower Sydenham comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.
You stay in control of small business accountants: drafts go to Lower Sydenham clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.
Local facts
About Lower Sydenham
Lower Sydenham is in South East London, within Bromley, in the SE26 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.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| New Beckenham | 0.3 mi | SW |
| Bell Green, Lewisham | 0.5 mi | NW |
| Bellingham | 0.6 mi | NE |
| Sydenham, Lewisham | 0.8 mi | W |
| Penge and Cator | 0.9 mi | SW |
| Southend, Lewisham | 0.9 mi | E |
| Perry Vale | 0.9 mi | NW |
| Copers Cope | 1 mi | SE |
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
Dormancy is a status that is easy to lose. The strict rule is no accounting transactions other than share capital and Companies House fees, which means no bank account activity at all in practice. Fees should be paid personally by the director. A company that traded and has stopped becomes dormant only after its final trading accounts and tax return are filed and HMRC is told.
The trading and property allowances
Not every small income needs a tax return. The trading allowance exempts the first £1,000 of self-employment or casual income and the property allowance does the same for rental income, each measured on gross receipts. They cannot be combined with rent-a-room relief on the same income, and claiming the allowance means giving up the expense deduction for that source.
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
Workplace pension compliance is part of payroll, not separate from it. Each pay period the payroll assesses who is eligible, calculates employer and employee contributions on qualifying earnings between the lower and upper thresholds, and sends the contribution file to the scheme. The minimum total is 8%, and many employers choose to contribute more as a recruitment advantage.
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
Small Business Accountants questions from Lower Sydenham
What happens if I want to leave?
One month's notice. We complete any filing already in progress at the agreed fee, hand over your records and software access promptly, and provide professional clearance to your new accountant. Your software subscription is in your name so your data goes with you.
How do you work with a business that takes cash?
Cash takings are recorded from your till reports or daily summaries and reconciled to bankings, with the difference explained. HMRC pays particular attention to cash businesses, so clear records matter. We set up a simple daily routine and review it monthly for gaps.
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.
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 Lower Sydenham 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 Lower Sydenham?
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 Lower Sydenham clients are set up within a day.
Ready to fix your fee in Lower Sydenham?
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.