Outsourced bookkeeping for accountants whose bookkeeper is leaving
When your bookkeeper hands in their notice, a Production seat puts one named bookkeeper on your clients' books for 160, 80 or 40 hours a month. They work in your software, run the same routine every month and send exceptions to you as short questions.
The first month, against your bookkeeper's notice
The call and the plan
Half an hour on what your bookkeeper does each week and month. Within two working days you get a one-page plan with the person, the hours and the fee.
The routine is mapped
Every weekly and monthly task, who does it today and what a good result looks like, ideally walked through with your bookkeeper before they go.
First live work
The person on your seat runs the first bank reconciliations and VAT returns in your software, and you check them closely.
The standard settles
You mark up, we correct, and by day 30 the routine runs against a checklist you can see in the portal.
What the seat takes over
- Bank reconciliations, sales and purchase ledgers, supplier statements and month-end close
- VAT returns prepared and submitted under MTD through your software
- Receipts and invoices published and coded in Dext as they arrive
- Chasing clients for missing records, from your firm's own domain if you want
- A Monday summary of what is done, what is due and what is waiting on a client
In your software
A named login for the person on your seat, with the permissions you choose, removed the day you ask.
What it costs
Production seat
One person in one of these roles: bookkeeping and VAT, payroll and admin, or marketing.
Prices exclude VAT. A UK bookkeeper on £27,000 to £32,000 costs £36,000 to £44,000 a year once employer's NI, pension, software, a desk and recruitment are in, against £23,400 for a 160-hour seat; the working is on the pricing page. Published rates from other providers are on our page of outsourced bookkeeping rates in the UK.
Questions
Can the seat start before our bookkeeper leaves?
Yes, and that is the best time. The first month takes about thirty days, with live work from week two, so a seat that starts at the beginning of a one-month notice period overlaps with your bookkeeper's last weeks.
Is payroll part of the same seat?
No. A seat is one person in one role. Bookkeeping and VAT is one role, and payroll and admin is another. Each is priced as a Production seat.
Do you submit VAT returns?
Yes. VAT returns are prepared and submitted under Making Tax Digital through your software, once you have approved them.
What if a client's books are behind?
Catch-up and clean-up bookkeeping is part of the seat's work. If a large clean-up has to happen before the routine can start, we quote it as a one-off first.
Which software do you work in?
Yours: Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent and Dext are in daily use, with a named login for the person on your seat.
Other situations we help with
Year-end accounts outsourcing
Year-ends stacking up against the Companies House deadline.
Outsourcing tax return preparation
Self assessment returns to prepare before 31 January.
Outsourced bookkeeping rates in the UK
Published hourly and monthly rates beside a UK hire.
Outsourced accounting from South Africa
The working day, the qualifications and the paperwork.
Offshore staffing for accounting firms
One named person on your work when a UK hire will not come.
Tell us what your bookkeeper does each month
We reply within one working day with who would take it on, how many hours it needs and the monthly fee.