Bookkeeping

Monthly Bookkeeping is a done-for-you bookkeeping service built for UK small businesses.

Monthly: Each month, your dedicated bookkeeper works from the bank feed in your accounting package, categorises your transactions, reconciles your books, and delivers a clean profit and loss account, balance sheet, and cash flow statement as PDFs.

Included: Monthly Bookkeeping also includes 1st Money's Payroll & HR software in full, for unlimited employees and unlimited pay runs, at no extra cost. One price, one invoice.

Monthly Bookkeeping is available to most UK businesses.

It's designed for: Monthly Bookkeeping is designed for small business owners who want professional bookkeeping without having to hire a bookkeeper or learn accounting software. It's especially for those who don't want to spend their weekends catching up on their finances.

Exceptions: We don't take on:

• Businesses in any of the industries on our published list: "What industries don't you serve"
• Registered charities or charitable incorporated orgs (because of Charities SORP fund accounting).
• Businesses without a live bank feed into QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books, because that feed is how the service works.

Payroll: 1st Money's Payroll & HR software is available to every UK business, including charities.

Your bank transactions arrive in your accounting package's bank feed throughout the month, so nothing builds up waiting for month-end.

During the month, AI handles high-confidence categorisation at regular intervals. At month-end, your dedicated bookkeeper reviews everything, reconciles your accounts, and closes the books.

Included: Each month your dedicated bookkeeper:

 Reviews and finalises the categorisation of all transactions and receipts.

 Reconciles your accounts against your bank statements.

 Closes your books for the month.

 Aims to deliver your profit and loss account, balance sheet, and cash flow statement as PDFs by the end of the first working day of the following month (next-day close).

 Answers questions to help you run your payroll (you run payroll yourself through the 1st Money app ... we make sure it's reflected correctly in your books).

 Prepares your annual accounts and your annual tax return at your financial year-end, included in your plan.

Your books are maintained inside QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books, so they're in industry-standard software your chartered accountant already knows. If you already pay for QuickBooks or Xero, we work inside your account. If you don't, we supply Zoho Books at our cost for as long as you're with us.

VAT returns: Preparing VAT returns for you to submit is available as a £19/mth add-on.

Not included: To be clear about scope, the following fall outside what we do:

 Tax advice, financial planning, CFO advisory, and HMRC enquiry representation.

 Accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, and stock control.

Chartered accountant: For anything on the "Not included" list above, a UK chartered accountant is the right person to call. With your books cleaned by 1st Money, they'll have everything they need.

Sole trader, self-employed, partnership, club, or association pricing

Limited company, or LLP pricing

Add-on pricing

VAT: Prices don't include VAT, and you never pay VAT to us. If you're VAT registered, you pay the 20% VAT direct to HMRC on your VAT return (via reverse charge) and usually reclaim it on that return.

You get:

• Payroll for unlimited employees.
• Unlimited pay runs.
• Annual accounts and your annual tax return.
• And a dedicated bookkeeper closing your books every month.

Business use only: Monthly Bookkeeping and Payroll & HR are for businesses only. We don't take on private households, so we can't help with a nanny or other domestic payroll.

A dedicated bookkeeper reviews and closes your books every month. All dedicated bookkeepers work UK business hours, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Message them on any channel, and if you'd rather talk, ask for a call, and they'll call you on the number you gave us.

Experience: Dedicated bookkeepers are hired at mid-level, with 3 to 6 years of professional payroll or accounting experience, then trained on 1st Money's UK procedures before working on any client's books.

Not chartered accountants: Our dedicated bookkeepers aren't chartered accountants, and we don't perform services requiring a chartered accountant, but for clean Monthly Bookkeeping they're well-equipped.

Each month, as part of Monthly Bookkeeping, you'll receive three monthly reports delivered as PDFs to your email inbox:

• Profit and loss account. Your income and expenses for the month.
• Balance sheet. What your business owns and owes at month-end.
• Cash flow statement. How cash moved in and out during the month.

Internal use: These three monthly reports are internal management reports intended for your own use. They're not an accountant's report on unaudited accounts.

Formal statements: Whenever you need formal financial statements for external parties such as investors or lenders, your UK chartered accountant is the right person to engage.

Next-day close: We aim to email you these reports by the end of the first working day after the end of the month.

Not a guarantee: It's a target we work to rather than a guarantee, and it depends on your records and bank feeds being complete. Working days exclude weekends and bank holidays in England and Wales.

One invoice covers your Monthly Bookkeeping and your Payroll & HR software. Your subscription renews automatically each month.

No hidden fees: There's no add-on fees for reports and no charges for connecting your bank account. There's also no fees for giving your chartered accountant, tax agent, or anyone else access to your books, though your own accounting package may charge for extra users.

Sole traders: Your Self Assessment return is included at no extra cost. Your business return and your personal return are the same document, so preparing it is part of what your subscription already covers.

Partnerships, LLPs, and companies:

• A partnership or an LLP gets its partnership return covered, plus one partner's personal Self Assessment is also included. Further partners are available at £9/mth each.
• A limited company director's personal Self Assessment is a different return from the company's, and that's available as a £9/mth add-on too.
• If you forget to add the monthly add-on before your financial year-end, a standalone one-off return is £149/yr.

Paid add-ons: Two more things sit outside your monthly price:

1. VAT returns, prepared for you to submit, are £19/mth if you're VAT registered.
2. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly updates are £19/mth as well.

Catch-up: If any past months of the current accounting period haven't been professionally prepared when you join, catch-up bookkeeping on those is charged separately. We'll quote you clearly before any catch-up work begins.

Yes. Every Monthly Bookkeeping plan includes full Payroll & HR, so your dedicated bookkeeper can answer questions about either. Payroll questions from a bookkeeping client go straight to their own dedicated bookkeeper rather than the general support queue.

Ask us: If something on your books relates to a pay run, or you're trying to understand a PAYE/NI entry, go ahead and ask. You won't be bounced between separate support teams.

No minimum commitment, no cancellation fees, rolling monthly. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time.

Part months: Monthly Bookkeeping is paid in advance on the 1st of each month, and we don't refund part months. The one exception is our 90-day money-back guarantee, which refunds every Monthly Bookkeeping monthly payment you've made.

Mid-cycle cancellation: If you cancel mid-cycle, your dedicated bookkeeper wraps up the current month's work and makes sure everything's in good order before you leave.

Mid-cycle upgrade/downgrade: A change of monthly transaction band takes effect from the following month, because Monthly Bookkeeping is paid in advance.

Your data: Your financial data is always yours. If you've got your own QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books account, you keep full access to it. Nothing changes.

Included Zoho Books: If we provided Zoho Books as part of your plan, you can decide between us handing you full admin access (Zoho Books may charge you monthly fees thereafter), or us exporting everything in a format your next bookkeeper can use.

No lock-in: Either way, you won't be locked in to 1st Money.

Catch-up balance: If you took catch-up bookkeeping and you're paying for it over six months, whatever's left becomes due when you cancel. That isn't a fee for leaving. It's the balance owed on work we've already finished for you.

After you leave: After your account closes you've got 30 days to take over full admin access to your account, or export your data. After that we keep only what our legal obligations require us to keep, and for no longer than they require. VAT records, for instance, are kept six years.

We aim to keep you paired with the same dedicated bookkeeper, so they build real familiarity with your business over time.

Backup: If your dedicated bookkeeper is ever unavailable, we'll assign a second bookkeeper to your account. They'll pick up with your full history in front of them. Nobody reaches your books unless they're assigned to you, and their access is withdrawn the moment the assignment ends.

No, you won't need an accounting firm for your financial year-end:

• With Monthly Bookkeeping, your annual accounts and your annual tax return are included.
• For a limited company that's your Corporation Tax return.
• For a sole trader, a partnership, or an LLP it's your Self Assessment return.
• You may still want a chartered accountant for tax planning, or for anything outside what we prepare.

What we do: What 1st Money does is keep your books clean and current all year round. Then after the end of your accounting period, we prepare your annual accounts and your annual tax return. 

Chartered accountant access: When they need access, you can grant your chartered accountant, tax agent, or any team member role-based access to your QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books account.  

Direct contact: Your dedicated bookkeeper is also available to be contacted directly by your chartered accountant, if needed.

Yes. Your dedicated bookkeeper contacts you proactively to confirm how you'd like certain transactions categorised. They'll also chase any missing receipts, or flag anything that looks unusual.

Proactive: You shouldn't need to prompt them, they'll come to you when they need something, and aim to keep that to a minimum.

Marketing: Separately from your bookkeeper, the person named as your commercial contact may hear from us about our other services. They can turn off calls, emails, and in-product banners independently, at any time, free, in their settings.

No, on both counts. Monthly Bookkeeping doesn't provide tax advice, tax planning, or HMRC enquiry representation. For those, a UK chartered accountant, or chartered tax adviser is who to engage.

Our role: Your dedicated bookkeeper's role is to keep your books clean and current so that when your chartered accountant needs your financials, they're ready to go. If you receive an enquiry letter, your well-organised 1st Money books make your chartered accountant's job significantly easier.

Disclaimer: It's also worth noting that 1st Money isn't a law firm, a firm of UK chartered accountants, or a financial adviser. So no legal advice privilege or litigation privilege applies to communications with the bookkeeping team. You remain responsible for submitting your own annual returns, VAT returns, and MTD updates, from what we prepare, and you approve. You're also responsible for meeting your deadlines and your compliance obligations.

Not quite. You approve and run payroll yourself through the 1st Money app, and we handle the filings that follow. It only takes a few minutes and can be done from your phone or laptop.

Payroll: Once you approve payroll:

• You pay your employees' wages (we'll show you how much, and when).
• You pay taxes to HMRC (we'll show you how much, and when).
• 1st Money synchronises all your payroll transactions into your QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books.

Automated: You don't prepare or submit any payroll forms yourself, apart from your pension declaration of compliance.

Pensions: Unlimited workplace pension auto-enrolment is included:

• We assess every person on every pay run, and apply postponement where you've selected it.
• We handle opt-ins and opt-outs, and re-enrol eligible employees every three years.
• We prepare your declaration of compliance and your re-declaration, and you submit those to The Pensions Regulator yourself.
• We don't recommend one pension provider over another.

CIS: CIS statements for your subcontractors, any number of them, included.

If you've already got a QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books subscription, we'll connect to it directly and work inside your account. Your bookkeeper gets their own named login, so you never share your login. Same data, same reports, very little changes for you or your chartered accountant.

Feeds: If you've got existing bank feeds inside QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books, we'll review those with you, to make sure we've got a reliable transaction feed.

Accounts: We'll also learn your existing chart of accounts and categorisation patterns before we start, so the handover is seamless.

Included: If you don't have a QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books account yet, we'll include Zoho Books at no extra cost for as long as you're a Monthly Bookkeeping client. It's the one we recommend for a business starting fresh.

Full access: Either way, you can log in at any time to see your books, run reports, or share access with your chartered accountant. If it's your own QuickBooks or Xero, you keep full control of it. If we supply Zoho Books, we hold the subscription while you're with us. If you leave, we hand you full admin access, or export everything for you.

We'll assist you in getting your bank connected. It only takes a few minutes, and we'll walk you through it on a video call.

Where it lives: You connect your bank to your own accounting package, QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books, using the bank feed built into it. We work from that feed.

Required: A live bank feed is how the service works, so we can't take you on without one.

Secure: We won't ask you for any passwords or PINs.

Read-only: The connection is always read-only, so we can't touch your money.

Throughout the month: Your transactions sync regularly with your bookkeeping, so nothing piles up.

Re-approving: Banks expire these connections from time to time, so you'll need to approve it again when they do. When we spot it, we'll tell you.

Your dedicated bookkeeper is available Monday to Friday during standard UK business hours, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, with a lunch break from 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm. Your bookkeeper is unavailable for that half hour, so anything you send lands with them when they're back. Outside these hours, questions on the channel you chose at onboarding get a reply the next working day.

Channels: You can discuss your bookkeeping with your dedicated bookkeeper through any of the following channels:

Fits you: Use whichever channel fits your working style. Your dedicated bookkeeper can be reached on all of them. For a phone call, ask on any channel, and we'll call the number you gave us.

Meetings:

• All bookkeeping is done from our secure Grade-A offices, so we don't offer in-person meetings.
• Your dedicated bookkeeper isn't available on bank holidays in England and Wales.

Once you've signed up, we'll issue you a dedicated email to forward your receipts to that'll look something like:

"receipts.apexplumbing.56901@1st.money"
Assuming your business name was: "Apex Plumbing"
We generate it when you sign up.

Forward any receipt or photo to that email and you're done.

Matching: We'll read the details from each email, and pass them to your dedicated bookkeeper, who'll match each one to the right transaction. You don't sort, label, or rename anything.

Secure: Your address is unique to you and isn't guessable from your company name. We only accept emails from the addresses you register, which keeps other people's documents out of your books.

Onboarding: Onboarding is quick:

1. We'll start with a brief welcome call (usually 5 to 10 minutes) to answer your questions and confirm your preferences.
2. Connecting your bank account takes a few minutes after that.
3. Then we'll have some additional questions to understand your business better, which takes about 30 minutes.

Connect: If you already have QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books, we'll connect directly to your existing account. If you don't, we'll set up Zoho Books for you as part of your plan, at no extra cost for as long as you're a Monthly Bookkeeping client.

Very little. Your dedicated bookkeeper handles categorisation and reconciliation and only contacts you when something genuinely needs your input. Mostly to clarify an unusual transaction or request a receipt.

No touch: Most months your finished reports arrive without you having been asked to do anything at all.

Financial year-end: The exception is your financial year-end. We'll send you a checklist within 5 working days of your financial year-end, and we need it back complete within 30 days. That's the one point in the year where what you send us sets the timetable.

Review: A quick review of your monthly profit and loss account and balance sheet is always a good habit. You know your business better than anyone, and if something looks wrong, contact your dedicated bookkeeper and we'll investigate and correct it promptly.

By default, yes, in anonymised form only, and you can opt out at any time, free. Your books may be worked on by human dedicated bookkeepers, AI tools, or a combination of both. And that mix may shift over time as systems improve.

Commitment: Either way, the commitment stays the same: your books are closed and your reports are delivered each month, regardless of how the work is produced.

Payroll only: If you use our Payroll & HR without Monthly Bookkeeping, none of your data is ever used to train anything of ours.

Verification: 1st Money uses AI tools to assist with tasks like transaction categorisation. Like any software, AI can occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete outputs. High-confidence suggestions are coded automatically during the month. Anything less certain goes to a review queue, and your dedicated bookkeeper goes over the month's work before closing your books. No month closes without a person having checked it.

What the AI sees: Only transaction data is sent out for categorisation: the date, amount, currency, account name, the bank's own description, and a payment reference. No payslip data, no employee record, and no bank account details.

Opting out: If you'd prefer to opt out of AI training entirely, you can do it by asking your dedicated bookkeeper. It's free, and opting out never changes your price or your service.

The AI provider: That data goes to a U.S.-hosted AI provider under a written contract, and nothing sent for categorisation is ever used to train that provider's models.

Training data: By default, anonymised bookkeeping and payroll records may be used to help improve AI models over time. Identifying info is replaced with a fully imaginary identifier before anything reaches the training data: names, addresses, employee National Insurance numbers, bank account numbers, sort codes, VAT, UTR, and company numbers, geolocation data, counterparties, and the free-text description. We never attempt to re-identify anonymised data, and we contractually bar anyone we share it with from doing so.

If you opt out: We take your contribution out of the training corpus right away. It goes into no further training of any model, new or existing. Models we've already released aren't retrained or withdrawn. Every model is tested for memorisation before release, and one that can be made to emit anything identifiable isn't released.

Yes. Your bank account is connected using the built-in bank feed feature of QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books. Connections are read-only, and your data is encrypted in transit. We maintain a written information security programme, with a named individual responsible for it, and we review our security controls at least annually.

Access: Access to your books is limited to your dedicated bookkeeper, a second bookkeeper we assign if yours is unavailable, and the named 1st Money experts who supervise the work. They all work from our secure, managed offices. Nobody else is assigned to your books. However, you can always decide to explicitly grant access to your own users, such as your chartered accountant, or team members.

Payroll: Your dedicated bookkeeper also sees your payroll data, including salaries and bank details, because payroll and your books are the same picture. Which means your payroll questions can go straight to your own dedicated bookkeeper.

Never sold: Your financial data is never sold to third parties, and it's never shared for anyone else's marketing.

Suppliers:

• The only outside companies that handle it are the suppliers we need to run the service: your accounting package and the bank feed provider it uses, our hosting provider, our email, in-app live chat, and phone providers, and the AI provider that helps with transaction categorisation. Each supplier we engage works under a written data processing contract with us, and our privacy notice describes them.
• You're welcome to reach us on WhatsApp, Messenger, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom. Those conversations run under that platform's own terms with you, rather than under a contract with us. Please send documents through email or in-app messaging instead.
• Where you use your own QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books, the bank feed sits within your contract with them rather than ours.

Monthly Bookkeeping comes with a 90-day satisfaction guarantee, counting from the first day of your first paid month.

How it works: If you're not completely satisfied at any point during your first 90 days, let us know and we'll refund every monthly subscription payment you've made ... in full.

No hassle: There are no hoops to jump through. If it's not the right fit, we'll return your money.

What's covered: The guarantee covers your Monthly Bookkeeping monthly payments and nothing else, so paid add-ons aren't refunded under it. Your payroll is included in your Monthly Bookkeeping price rather than billed separately, so there's nothing separate to refund.

One claim: The guarantee runs once per business, so it can't be claimed a second time by cancelling and rejoining.

What's outside it: Catch-up bookkeeping on past periods is quoted separately and stays payable, because that work's already done. And once we've delivered your annual accounts and annual tax return, the guarantee no longer covers the accounting period it relates to. That's a finished piece of work you keep. So if you're thinking of claiming, claim before you take those.

We support both cash basis and accruals basis bookkeeping. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships are on cash basis by default, and it's the simpler of the two. A limited company or an LLP can't use it, because its accounts must be on the accruals basis. So we set their books up that way from the start. 

Accruals basis: If your chartered accountant or a lender needs accruals basis financials, let us know during onboarding and we'll set your books up that way.

In plain terms:

• Cash basis records income and expenses when money actually changes hands.
• Accruals basis records them when they're earned or owed, even if the cash hasn't moved yet.

For most sole traders and ordinary partnerships, cash basis is the more straightforward choice.

Cash basis vs. accruals basis: Your chartered accountant can advise which is right for you.

There's only a few things we'll need from you to get started:

 Approving a read-only bank connection inside your accounting package. We can't start without it.

 Giving 1st Money access to your QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books accounting package.

 Signing a short declaration.

 Paying for your first month.

After that we'll ask you a few questions about how your business runs.

Checks: Before your bookkeeping starts:

• We verify your business and the people who own or control it.
• Your authorised person signs a declaration that the business doesn't operate in any industry we don't serve.
• If you're in one of the sectors that needs extra checks, we do those first.

If anything changes later, like registering for VAT or opening another account, let us know.

Why we check: These checks are for our own credit, fraud, and sanctions risk, and we don't carry them out as a supervised business.

We can pick up books a previous bookkeeper started. What we need first is a set of opening balances we both agree on.

Opening balances: Before your first close, we agree on your opening balances with you. That means the closing figures from your last prepared period, your bank and loan balances, anything owed either way, and your fixed assets.

From your chartered accountant: If a chartered accountant prepared your last annual accounts, we'll ask you for them and work from those figures.

If nothing's been prepared: We'll tell you what catch-up work your books need before we can produce a reliable balance sheet, and quote it separately. "What if my books are behind when I join" covers how that's priced.

Why it matters: Your profit and loss account can be built from a single period alone. A balance sheet can't, because it carries every earlier period forward. If your opening balances are wrong, every month after them is wrong too.

Send us the receipt anyway and we'll figure it out with you.

Your dedicated bookkeeper may record it as an expense claim, as money you've put into the business, or against the director's loan account, so it lands in your books properly.

If something personal goes through the business account, let us know and we'll discuss recording it as drawings, or against the director's loan account for a limited company.

Catch-up bookkeeping is available for any months of your current accounting period that haven't been professionally prepared, as long as they're available in your bank feed.

Catch-up: Before we begin any catch-up work, we'll give you a clear one-off quote so there's no surprises.

Pricing: Catch-up work uses the same monthly transaction bands as ongoing bookkeeping, for each month we work on. Your quote shows the total and the monthly payments, so you can spread it over your first 6 months with us, with nothing added. We don't start until you've agreed to the quote.

Example:

• For a sole trader with up to 50 transactions a month that's 10 months behind.
• For each month that needs to be caught up, it's: £29/mth 
• 10 months behind would be £290 total.
• However, you can spread it over 6 monthly payments.
• So we'll only add £48.33/mth (and only to your first 6 monthly invoices).

If you cancel: The spread is a convenience while you're with us. If you cancel before it's paid off, the rest becomes due at once, because the work's already been done. Catch-up also sits outside the 90-day money-back guarantee, for the same reason.

We don't offer Monthly Bookkeeping to the following:

If a business operates in any of these we don't onboard it for Monthly Bookkeeping, and we end the service if we find out later:

 Adult entertainment, pornography, escort, and adult dating services.

 Gambling and betting, including casino gaming, lotteries, fantasy sports, and sweepstakes.

 Cannabis and CBD where sale is restricted, controlled drugs, and drug paraphernalia.

 Weapons, firearms, ammunition, explosives, and military equipment.

 Unlicensed or unregistered financial services: crypto exchanges and brokers, money service businesses, money transmission, cheque cashing, bureaux de change, and unregulated collective investment schemes.

 High-cost short-term credit: payday lending, logbook loans, and unregulated debt collection or debt advice.

 Multi-level marketing, pyramid, matrix, and Ponzi schemes, and get-rich-quick programmes.

 Counterfeit goods, copyright and DRM circumvention, and spam or bulk-messaging tools.

 Shell entities with no business operations, and businesses whose purpose is to hold assets for others.

 Any business, or any owner, director, or person with significant control, on a sanctions list.

We may offer Monthly Bookkeeping to the following:

The following industries aren't refused for Monthly Bookkeeping, but they don't pass the screen automatically:

 Precious metals, stones, art, and antiquities dealers, which can fall under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.

 Trust or company service providers, and estate or letting agency businesses, for the same reason.

 Tobacco, vaping, and nicotine sold remotely, and alcohol sellers, where we check they hold the licences they need.

 Cash-intensive businesses where most cash sales aren't deposited in a bank.

 Businesses controlled from a country on the UK's high-risk third country list.

We don't offer Monthly Bookkeeping to:

 Registered charities, charitable incorporated orgs, and anything else that must prepare its accounts under the Charities SORP. Charities can still use our payroll on the same plans as anyone else.

These are often assumed to be in the same group, and we do serve them:

 Community interest companies. A CIC is a company and files ordinary company accounts at Companies House, with a CIC34 report alongside them. No fund accounting.

 Unincorporated clubs and associations that aren't registered charities, including community amateur sports clubs. They keep ordinary books.

Verification

Before Monthly Bookkeeping starts:

1. We verify your business and the people who own or control it.
2. Your authorised person signs a declaration that the business doesn't operate in any of the industries above.
3. Where a sector needs extra checks we do those first.

When we stop: We may refuse to start, or stop later, if a check fails or the declaration turns out to be wrong. We may also stop if you stop giving us what a check needs.

Why we check: These checks are for our own credit, fraud, and sanctions risk, and to hold you to your declaration. They aren't customer due diligence under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, and we don't carry them out as a supervised business. Sanctions screening is the exception, because that duty applies to us wherever our clients are.

Why not charities: Charity accounts run on restricted, unrestricted, and endowment funds. They report through a statement of financial activities rather than a profit and loss account, and need a trustees' annual report. Above the statutory income thresholds they also need an independent examination or an audit. We don't do fund accounting and we aren't examiners or auditors, so it's about what we do rather than anything about your business.

Payroll:

• Each time you approve a pay run by the cut-off we show, 1st Money files your RTI submission to HMRC on or before payday.
• We file as the employer on your instructions, never as your agent, so no Agent Services Account is involved.
• Paying HMRC what's owed is down to you.

VAT returns:

• VAT returns are a £19/mth add-on if you're VAT registered.
• We prepare the return in your own software and tell you what's owed and when.
• You press submit yourself, signed in with your own credentials.
• Paying VAT is down to you, the same as your payroll taxes.

MTD for Income Tax:

• Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly updates are a £19/mth add-on if you're a sole trader or landlord who's been brought into it.
• We prepare each quarterly update in your own software and tell you when it's due.
• You press submit yourself, signed in with your own credentials.
• Paying Income Tax is down to you.

Annual accounts:

• Annual accounts and your annual tax return are included in Monthly Bookkeeping.
• For a limited company that's your Corporation Tax return.
• For a sole trader, a partnership, or an LLP it's your Self Assessment return, included at no extra cost.
• We prepare them and show you everything before anything is submitted, and you approve it.

Financial year-end checklist:

• We'll send your financial year-end checklist within 5 working days of your financial year-end.
• Return it complete within 30 days. We'll then deliver your year-end reports at least 3 months before the earliest of your filing and payment deadlines. That leaves time to review them, approve them, and arrange payment.
• For a limited company or LLP that earliest date is your Companies House accounts deadline, 9 months after your financial year-end.
• For a sole trader or a partnership it's your Self Assessment deadline of 31 January.
• It's a target we work to rather than a guarantee, and meeting the deadline stays your responsibility.

Personal returns:

• A sole trader never pays extra, because their business return and their personal return are the same document.
• A partnership gets its partnership return covered and one partner's personal Self Assessment included, and further partners are available at £9/mth each.
• An LLP gets its partnership return covered and one member's personal Self Assessment included, and further members are available at £9/mth each.
• A limited company director's personal Self Assessment is a different return from the company's, so that one's available for £9/mth too.
• Forgot to add the monthly add-on before your financial year-end? A standalone one-off return is £149/yr.

Who submits: We prepare everything and you submit it.

• A limited company submits its Corporation Tax return and its Companies House accounts using commercial filing software. We'll tell you which software to submit with and show you exactly what to do.
• A sole trader submits their Self Assessment return through HMRC.
• A partnership or an LLP submits its SA800 partnership return using commercial filing software, because HMRC's own service doesn't accept it. An LLP also files its accounts at Companies House the same way. We'll tell you which software to submit with.
• Paying what's owed is always down to you.

Where: 1st Money's bookkeeping team works full-time from secure, managed Grade-A offices in Manila, Philippines, during UK business hours, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, so we overlap your own working day.

WFH: There's no work from home, so your financial data is accessed only from secured, managed offices, never from personal devices or home networks.

Every bookkeeper is hired with 3 to 6 years of professional payroll or accounting experience and is trained on 1st Money's UK procedures before working on any client's books.

Offshore access: Our bookkeeping team accesses your data under a written agreement with contractual safeguards. Our privacy notice has the detail.

Because the volume of bookkeeping work grows with monthly transaction volume, we price according to the number of transactions each month.

Businesses with fewer monthly transactions pay a smaller price, and the price scales as the bookkeeping workload grows.

Payroll: Payroll adds no fee of its own, but wage and payroll tax payments are bank transactions too, so a bigger team can move you up a band.