Sole traders · Limited companies · Landlords
Basalt Works is a two-partner practice looking after owner-managed businesses. Fixed monthly fees, a named accountant who answers your email, and every filing date published before you sign.
Bookkeeping · VAT · Payroll · Year-end accounts · Corporation & personal tax
01 — Services
Most clients take bookkeeping and year-end together. Pick the lanes you need and we will tell you honestly which ones you can run yourself for now.
Your ledger reconciled every month rather than rebuilt in a panic at year-end.
For anyone invoicing more than a handful of clients a month.
Scheme selection, quarterly preparation and submission under Making Tax Digital.
For businesses near or over the registration threshold.
Payslips, RTI submissions and auto-enrolment handled on a fixed monthly cycle.
For directors on payroll and teams up to about twenty.
Statutory accounts drafted, reviewed with you, then filed once you have approved them.
For every limited company and partnership we look after.
Corporation tax and self-assessment prepared from the same records, so nothing is counted twice.
For directors, sole traders and landlords with rental pages.
A structured look at salary, dividends, capital purchases and timing before the year closes.
Most useful in the last quarter of your financial year.
02 — Fees
Every quote is confirmed in writing after we have seen a sample of your records. The band below is where most clients of that type land — not a teaser rate that changes in month four.
£95per month, plus VAT
£245per month, plus VAT
£180per month, plus VAT
Added as needed: extra payroll employees, additional self-assessments, catch-up bookkeeping for prior periods, company formation, or representing you on an HMRC enquiry. Each is quoted as a fixed amount before the work starts. Fees are reviewed once a year at your renewal month, never mid-term.
03 — Deadlines
These are the fixed points in a UK tax year. We ask for your records roughly six weeks before each one, which is where most of the stress disappears.
| Date | What falls due |
|---|---|
| 5 April | Personal tax year ends. Last chance for allowance and pension timing decisions. |
| 19 / 22 monthly | PAYE and National Insurance payable to HMRC — the 22nd if you pay electronically. |
| 31 May | P60s must be with every employee on your payroll. |
| 6 July | P11D benefits returns and the Class 1A payment that follows them. |
| 31 July | Second payment on account for self-assessment. |
| 5 October | Register for self-assessment if you had new untaxed income this year. |
| 31 January | Online self-assessment return, balancing payment and first payment on account. |
| Year end + 9 months | Company accounts due at Companies House, and corporation tax payable a day later. |
| Year end + 12 months | Company tax return (CT600) due to HMRC. |
| Quarterly | VAT return and payment, one month and seven days after each quarter ends. |
Your own company dates are set by your incorporation month. We confirm them in writing on day one and diarise the record requests for you.
04 — Working together
Onboarding usually takes two to three weeks, most of which is waiting on authorisation codes rather than on us.
Thirty minutes on video. You describe the business, we say plainly whether we are the right practice and which band you sit in.
A fixed fee, the lanes included, the dates we will hit and what we need from you each month. Nothing starts until you agree it.
Identity checks, agent authorisation with HMRC, a tidy of your ledger and a polite note to your previous accountant if there is one.
Monthly close, quarterly review, and a planning conversation before year-end. You always know which filing is next.
05 — Questions
Mid-year is fine and very common. We take over from the last completed period, agree who is finishing the current VAT quarter or payroll run, and write to your previous accountant for the handover file. You do not pay twice for the same period.
Bank statements or a feed, sales invoices, purchase receipts, and details of anything unusual — a loan, a vehicle, a grant, money moved between businesses. If you already use Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent we work in your file rather than asking you to change.
We send a short monthly list so you are never guessing what is outstanding.
Yes. Late and messy is most of what arrives. We quote the catch-up work as a separate fixed amount, deal with the oldest period first to stop penalties compounding, and tell you honestly what the likely penalty position is rather than leaving you to find out.
A named accountant who knows your file, not a shared inbox. We aim to answer within one working day, and we say so in advance when either partner is away for more than a couple of days.
Send it to us the same day, unopened if you prefer. Routine letters — coding notices, statements, penalty notices we can appeal — are included in your fee. A formal compliance enquiry is quoted separately before we start, because the time involved varies enormously.
We will model it properly: the tax position across a couple of profit levels, the admin that comes with a company, and the cases where staying a sole trader is simply better. That review sits inside Band A and B fees. We do not push incorporation to raise our own fee.
We can prepare the figures a lender or landlord asks for. Regulated investment, mortgage and pension advice is outside what we do, and we will say so immediately rather than giving you a vague answer.
06 — Start here
A few lines is enough. We read every enquiry ourselves and reply by email within one working day with either a fit-call time or a straight answer about why we are not the right practice.