Accounting

Advisory & planning

Management accounts

Management accounts are the periodic internal reports that tell the people running a business how it is actually doing: profit and loss for the month or quarter and year to date, a balance sheet showing what the business owns and owes, cash movement, debtors and creditors, and a commentary explaining what changed and why. Unlike statutory accounts they are not filed anywhere and have no prescribed format; they exist to inform decisions, and their value lies in being timely, accurate and comparable. A business that only sees its numbers in the statutory accounts nine months after the year end is driving by the rear-view mirror.

from £99/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)

Fees

Packages, fixed and published

£99/quarter

Quarterly pack: P&L, balance sheet, commentary

£99/mo

Monthly pack

£149/mo

Monthly pack + KPI dashboard

£199/mo

Monthly pack + review call

Who this is for

Management Accounts

Owner-managed businesses in the UK with turnover from around £250,000 upwards that are making decisions during the year: companies with staff, stock or borrowing, businesses preparing to raise finance or sell, franchisees reporting to a franchisor, companies with external shareholders or a board, and any owner who has decided that once a year is not often enough to know how the business is doing.

What is included

Inside the fixed fee

  • Profit and loss for the period and year to date, against budget or prior year where available
  • Balance sheet with debtors, creditors, cash, stock and loan positions explained
  • Written commentary on the movements that matter and what is driving them
  • KPI dashboard with the measures agreed for your business, in the £149 package
  • A review call each period to go through the pack and the decisions it points to, in the £199 package
  • Accruals, prepayments and depreciation posted so the figures are accurate rather than cash-based

In detail

How management accounts works

The difference between bookkeeping output and management accounts is the adjustments. Cash-basis figures swing with payment timing: a large supplier invoice paid late makes one month look good and the next bad. Management accounts post accruals for costs incurred but not yet invoiced, prepayments for costs paid in advance, depreciation on fixed assets, stock movements for businesses holding inventory and the Corporation Tax charge accruing, so that the profit for the period reflects the trading of the period. The commentary then focuses on what the adjusted figures show, typically a page: revenue against expectation, margin movement, cost lines that have changed, cash position and the one or two things to watch.

Our packages are fixed-fee products delivered on a fixed working day. The quarterly pack at £99 a quarter suits stable businesses wanting a regular check. The monthly pack at £99 a month is for businesses that are growing, employing, borrowing or under margin pressure, where a quarter is too long to wait to see a problem. The £149 monthly package adds a KPI dashboard with the handful of measures that drive your business, agreed at the start and refined over the first quarter, because a dashboard with twenty numbers is one nobody reads. The £199 monthly package adds a review call each period to go through the pack and the decisions it points to, which is the part clients consistently say they value most.

The packs serve purposes beyond the owner's own decisions. Lenders and invoice financiers routinely require monthly management accounts as a condition of facilities, and investors ask for them in due diligence and as ongoing reporting; the pack is in the format they expect and we produce specific covenant calculations where a facility demands them. For companies, seeing profit accrue through the year allows Corporation Tax planning to happen before the year end, with capital expenditure, pension contributions and dividend timing decided on current figures rather than discovered afterwards. Franchisees report to franchisors; multi-site businesses see each site alongside the total.

The service is simplest where we also do the bookkeeping, because the records are current and known to us, but we produce packs from well-kept files maintained by clients or other bookkeepers, provided the records are complete by the agreed cut-off. The pack arrives on its fixed day, typically between the 10th and 15th of the following month for monthly packs, with the commentary and the dashboard; the review call follows in the top package. Everything is online. Fees are fixed, agreed before we start, and do not change if a particular month needs more explanation than usual.

Process

From first message to filed

  1. 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.

  2. Agree the price

    The fee is confirmed in writing. There is no hourly billing and nothing added for questions during the work.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

MTD for Income Tax replaces one annual return with quarterly digital updates and a year-end declaration, submitted from software. The threshold is gross trading and property income, measured two years earlier, and started at £50,000 in April 2026 before falling to £30,000 in April 2027. Anyone affected needs digital record keeping in place before their start date, not after.

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.

Payments on account

If your Self Assessment bill exceeds £1,000 and less than 80% of your tax was collected at source, HMRC asks for two advance payments towards the following year, each half of the current bill, due 31 January and 31 July. The first year this happens the January payment is effectively one and a half times the bill. We model it in advance and show you how to reduce the payments if income is falling.

The Self Assessment calendar

Four dates govern Self Assessment: 5 October to register, 31 October for paper returns, 31 January to file online and pay, and 31 July for the second payment on account. Missing the January date triggers an automatic £100 penalty before any tax is even considered, so we treat it as the fixed point around which the rest of the year is planned.

Director's loan accounts

The most common tax problem in owner-managed companies is an overdrawn director's loan account: drawings taken during the year that were never declared as dividends or salary. The company faces a 35.75% charge on the balance outstanding nine months after the year end, and the director may have a benefit in kind. We review the account before every year end to clear it properly.

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

Companies pay Corporation Tax at 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% on profits over £250,000. Between those figures marginal relief applies, producing an effective rate that rises gradually and a marginal rate of 26.5% on each pound in the band. The thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies, so a director with two companies has thresholds of £25,000 and £125,000 for each.

Questions

Management Accounts: your questions answered

What is the difference between management accounts and statutory accounts?

Statutory accounts are the annual filing to Companies House, prepared to a legal format and backward-looking. Management accounts are internal, produced monthly or quarterly, in whatever format helps you run the business, with commentary and comparisons. They are not filed anywhere and exist to inform decisions.

What is in the pack?

Profit and loss for the period and year to date against budget or prior year, balance sheet with the main positions explained, cash movement, aged debtors and creditors, and a written commentary of a page or so on what changed and why. The £149 package adds a KPI dashboard; the £199 package adds a review call each period.

Do I need bookkeeping with you to have management accounts?

It is simplest if we do the bookkeeping because the figures are current and we know the file, but we can produce management accounts from a well-kept file maintained by you or another bookkeeper. The pack is only as good as the bookkeeping, so if the records are behind we say so first.

What adjustments do you make to the bookkeeping figures?

Accruals for costs incurred but not yet invoiced, prepayments for costs paid in advance, depreciation on fixed assets, stock movements where you hold inventory, and the Corporation Tax charge accruing. Without these the profit figure swings with payment timing and says little about performance.

When does the pack arrive?

On a fixed working day agreed with you, typically the 10th to 15th of the following month for monthly packs, provided the bookkeeping is complete by the 5th. Quarterly packs follow the quarter end on the same basis. If your records arrive late the date moves and we tell you.

Which KPIs do you report?

Those that drive your business, agreed at the start: gross margin by product or service line, revenue per employee, debtor days, stock turn, cash runway, utilisation for a service firm, average order value for a retailer. We recommend a short list and refine it over the first quarter. A dashboard with twenty numbers is one nobody reads.

Can you compare against a budget?

Yes, if you have one. If you do not, we compare against the same period last year and, if you want one, help you build a simple budget as part of the first quarter. Variance against budget is the most useful single comparison in the pack once a budget exists.

What is the review call?

A 30 to 45 minute video call each period in the £199 package to go through the pack, discuss what it shows and what decisions it points to. It is the part clients value most, because numbers on a page do not ask questions and we do.

Will lenders and investors accept your management accounts?

Yes. Banks, invoice financiers and investors routinely ask for monthly management accounts as a condition of facilities or as part of due diligence, and our packs are in the format they expect. We can also produce the specific covenant calculations a facility requires.

Can management accounts help with Corporation Tax planning?

Yes. Because the pack shows profit accruing through the year, decisions about capital expenditure, pension contributions and dividend timing can be made before the year end rather than discovered after it. We flag these opportunities in the commentary as they arise.

How does quarterly differ from monthly?

Same content, less often. Quarterly at £99 a quarter suits stable businesses that want a regular check rather than close monitoring. Monthly suits businesses that are growing, borrowing, employing or facing margin pressure, where a quarter is too long to wait to see a problem.

Can you provide management accounts for a group or multiple branches?

Yes. Branch or entity-level packs with a consolidated view are quoted as a fixed fee based on the number of units. Many franchisees and multi-site businesses use us for exactly this, with each site's performance visible alongside the total.

Where

Management Accounts across the UK

This service has a local page for the 1,680 larger towns and cities we cover, and is delivered nationally everywhere else. A selection:

England: Central London · East London · East Midlands · East of England · M25 Fringe · North East · North East London · North London · North West · North West London · South East · South East London · South London · South West · South West London · West London · West Midlands · Yorkshire

Scotland: Scotland

Wales: Wales

Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland

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