Accounting

Bookkeeping · East of England

Bookkeeping services in Old Lakenham

Monthly bookkeeping for businesses in Old Lakenham, 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 Old Lakenham 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 Old Lakenham

Sole traders, partnerships and limited companies in Old Lakenham 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 Old Lakenham, 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

The IGI way of working, in Old Lakenham

One fixed fee for bookkeeping in Old Lakenham, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.

Nothing for Old Lakenham 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 Old Lakenham 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 Old Lakenham and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.

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

Nothing is filed for Old Lakenham 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 Old Lakenham

Old Lakenham is in East of England, 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 bookkeeping
PlaceDistanceDirection
Lakenham, Old0.0 miN
Tuckswood0.5 miW
Long John's Hill0.6 miNE
Lakenham0.8 miN
Lakenham, New0.8 miNE
New Lakenham0.8 miNE
Eaton Rise0.8 miW
Norwich: Town Close1 miNW

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

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

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

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

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

Bookkeeping questions from Old Lakenham

Can my existing accountant still do the year end?

Yes. Many clients use us for bookkeeping and another firm for accounts. At year end we hand over a reconciled file with the trial balance, bank reconciliations and supporting documents, in whatever format your accountant prefers.

How quickly are the books up to date?

Bank feeds update daily. We reconcile within five working days of the month end once your receipts are in, so the monthly summary arrives in the first week of the following month. Queries are sent in one message rather than piecemeal.

Do you do bookkeeping for landlords?

Yes. Rental income, agent statements, mortgage interest, repairs and the split between revenue and capital costs are all coded correctly for the property pages of your return. Portfolio landlords usually sit in the £49 or £89 band, and MTD for Income Tax applies to rental income as it does to trading income.

What if my volume changes?

We review the transaction count each quarter. If you move into a higher or lower band we tell you before the next invoice and adjust from the following month. There is no penalty for moving down and no back-charging for a busy month.

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.

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 Old Lakenham 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 Old Lakenham?

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 Old Lakenham clients are set up within a day.

Let us take the deadlines off your plate in Old Lakenham

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