Bookkeeping · South West
Bookkeeping services in Shaftesbury
Bookkeeping for Shaftesbury sole traders and limited companies who want their numbers right without doing it themselves. We work entirely online, so you pay for the reconciliation and not for premises. Three volume bands cover almost every small business, and the VAT bundle adds quarterly returns for a fixed extra.
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 Shaftesbury
Sole traders, partnerships and limited companies in Shaftesbury 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 Shaftesbury, step by step
Scope the job
We find out what you need filed, when it is due and what state the records are in, and tell you which fixed-fee package applies.
Agree the price
The fee is confirmed in writing. There is no hourly billing and nothing added for questions during the work.
Hand over the records
Photographs, PDFs, software access or a spreadsheet, sent however suits you. We confirm what we have and what is missing within two working days.
Approve, then we submit
You review the draft with our explanation, sign off, and we file. Receipts, copies and the next deadlines come back to you immediately.
Why IGI
What you get in Shaftesbury
One fixed fee for bookkeeping in Shaftesbury, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.
We work to the HMRC and Companies House calendar, not an appointment diary. Clients in Shaftesbury get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to bookkeeping.
No appointments, no travel across South West, no parking. Everything for bookkeeping in Shaftesbury happens online, with a real person on the other end during UK working hours.
A named person handles your bookkeeping from Shaftesbury and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.
The output for Shaftesbury clients is never just a form. It is the form, a one-page summary of what it says, and a note of the decisions it points to for bookkeeping.
Nothing is filed for Shaftesbury 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 Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is in South West, in the SP7 postcode district, England. For businesses in England the tax rules are those set by the UK Parliament: the 20/40/45% income tax bands, Class 4 National Insurance for the self-employed at 6% and 2%, Corporation Tax at 19% to 25%, and Stamp Duty Land Tax on property. Business rates are set locally by the council.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Ivy Cross | 0.2 mi | N |
| St. James, Dorset | 0.3 mi | SW |
| Alcester, Dorset | 0.6 mi | W |
| Enmore Green | 0.6 mi | W |
| Butt's Knap | 0.6 mi | E |
| Little Down, South West | 0.8 mi | N |
| Long Cross, South West | 0.8 mi | W |
| Cann | 1 mi | SE |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
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.
Confirmation statements and identity verification
Every company must file a confirmation statement at least once a year, within fourteen days of its review date, with a £50 Companies House fee. Since November 2025 directors and people with significant control must also verify their identity with Companies House, and the confirmation statement is where existing officers confirm they have done so during the transition year.
Director's loan accounts
A director's loan account records money moving between a director and the company that is not salary or dividend. If the director owes the company money nine months and one day after the year end, the company pays section 455 tax at 35.75% of the balance, refundable only when the loan is repaid. Loans over £10,000 are also a benefit in kind unless interest is charged at HMRC's official rate.
Salary versus dividends
Paying yourself from a company involves two routes with different tax treatment. Salary through payroll is a company expense and builds a National Insurance record; dividends come from post-tax profit at lower personal rates. Undocumented drawings that are neither become director's loans, with a 35.75% section 455 charge if not repaid within nine months of the year end.
Corporation Tax rates and marginal relief
Corporation Tax is not a flat rate. Profits to £50,000 pay 19%, profits above £250,000 pay 25%, and the band between is taxed at an effective marginal rate of 26.5% through the marginal relief mechanism. Associated companies share the thresholds, which catches directors who own more than one company and is the most common cause of underpaid tax in owner-managed groups.
The VAT registration threshold
The £90,000 VAT threshold is measured over any twelve consecutive months, which is why a strong quarter can tip a business over unexpectedly. Registration must follow within thirty days of the end of the month the threshold was crossed. Below the threshold, voluntary registration is worth considering when customers are VAT-registered businesses and costs carry VAT.
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.
Questions
Bookkeeping questions from Shaftesbury
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Is bookkeeping in Shaftesbury really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Shaftesbury pays and what a client in any other part of England pays. It is confirmed in writing before work starts and the invoice matches the quote. Where a higher package applies because your situation is more complex, we say so at the quote stage, never afterwards.
Do you have an office in Shaftesbury?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Shaftesbury and every other UK postcode remotely, with records sent by WhatsApp or email and everything filed electronically. The absence of local premises is why the fee for bookkeeping is the same in Shaftesbury as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Fixed fees, filed on time, for Shaftesbury
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.