A small chartered practice
We keep the books of design studios, trades, consultants and single-director companies tidy, filed on time, and explained in language you can repeat to your bank without notes.
Start here
Pick the line that sounds like you. It tells us which of your filings are urgent and what the first month of work actually involves.
01
You need to register for self-assessment, know which expenses are allowable, and stop keeping receipts in a shoebox. We set up a simple record-keeping routine in week one and tell you what to put aside each month so January is uneventful.
02
Bookkeeping, VAT, payroll for yourself and a small team, year-end accounts and the corporation tax return — handled on one schedule, by one person who knows your business. We also advise on a sensible salary and dividend split before the year closes, not after.
03
Late confirmation statement, unfiled accounts, a VAT quarter you would rather not open. This is ordinary work for us and it is not a conversation you need to be embarrassed about. We start with what is most overdue and give you a dated plan for the rest.
Fees
Indicative monthly and annual fees for a business with straightforward records. Your quote is fixed in writing after the consultation, so the number you agree is the number you pay.
From £95 / month
Your transactions reconciled every month rather than rebuilt in a panic each spring.
From £760 / year
Statutory accounts and the CT600 prepared, explained, then filed once you have approved them.
From £240 / return
For sole traders, directors, landlords and anyone with income from more than one place.
From £22 / month
Run on the same date every month, with payslips out before your people expect them.
From £70 / quarter
Digital returns prepared from reconciled books, with a nudge before each payment date.
From £180 once
Incorporation done properly, so the first year does not start with corrections.
Fees rise with volume and complexity — many transactions, several trades under one company, stock, or a year that needs rebuilding from scratch. We say so at the consultation rather than in a later invoice.
How it works
A retainer should feel like something happening, not something you pay for and hope about. Here is the shape of a normal month and a normal year with us.
Days 1–5
Bank feeds pull through automatically. Anything missing gets one short list — never a scavenger hunt through six months of email.
Days 6–12
Every transaction is categorised and matched. Odd items are queried while you still remember what they were.
Mid-month
Profit for the month, cash position, what is owed to you and what you owe. One page, no dashboard to log into.
Quarterly & year end
VAT quarters, then accounts and tax returns drafted early, reviewed with you, and submitted once you approve.
The practice
Fallow Isle is a two-person practice, and it stays that way on purpose. When you send a question you get an answer from the person who prepared your accounts — not a summary passed through an account manager who has never seen your ledgers.
We work with around forty businesses: joiners and electricians, a handful of design studios, independent consultants, two small letting portfolios. All of them are the size where one bad quarter matters, which is why we would rather flag a problem in month three than explain it in month eleven.
We use cloud bookkeeping software and we will set it up for you, but you are never required to become an expert in it. Send us a photo of a receipt if that is what fits around your day. The point of hiring an accountant is to have less admin, not a new system to keep up with.
Kerris Vale — Principal, Fallow Isle Accountancy
Switching
Most people who contact us already have an accountant and assume leaving is complicated or rude. It is neither, and you do not need to have the awkward conversation yourself.
Questions
Bank and card statements — usually through an automatic feed — plus purchase invoices and receipts for anything you have paid for, and copies of the invoices you have issued. If you take card payments or use a marketplace, we will connect those reports too.
That is the whole list. If something is missing at reconciliation we send one short query list rather than asking you to audit yourself.
Yes, and it is worth doing sooner rather than at the next deadline, because most penalties increase with time rather than arriving as a single fixed charge. Bring whatever you have, even if it is incomplete.
We work in order of exposure: whatever is accruing the most is dealt with first, then we rebuild the rest of the period and give you a dated plan for catching up.
We work with the main cloud packages and will configure whichever suits your business, including the chart of accounts and the bank connections. If you already have a subscription you like, we will keep it.
If you would rather not touch software at all, a shared folder and a monthly photo of your receipts is a perfectly workable arrangement for a small business.
Registration becomes compulsory once your taxable turnover crosses the current threshold on a rolling twelve-month basis, or if you expect to cross it within the next thirty days. Because it is rolling rather than annual, it can arrive earlier than people expect after a strong few months.
If you are on a monthly service we monitor the rolling figure and warn you before it matters. Voluntary registration is sometimes worth it earlier — particularly if most of your customers are VAT-registered businesses — and we will model that with your own numbers.
Yes. Mid-year is often the easiest time, because there is no deadline pressing while records are transferred. We take the position at your last reconciled month and carry on from there.
Your year end does not need to change, and your previous accountant remains responsible for any period they have already completed and filed.
Within one working day, including through January and the weeks before the corporation tax and VAT dates. If an answer needs research we tell you that on the same day and give you a time by which you will have it.
This is the main reason we cap how many new clients we take on each quarter.
It is fixed for the engagement period in the letter you sign, and it covers the work listed there plus ordinary questions by email or phone. We do not bill in six-minute units for a quick call.
If the work genuinely changes shape — you register for VAT, take on staff, add a second company — we agree a new figure with you before starting, never afterwards.
Consultation
A short scoping conversation, free of charge and with nothing to sign. We look at your current position, tell you what we would do first, and send a fixed quote afterwards in writing.