Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping kept as you go, so the year end isn't a shoebox of receipts.
Every return your company files is a summary of its records. Keep the records in standing.tax and the returns are worked out from them, not from a weekend of sorting.
What the records have to show
The company's money must be kept separate from the owners' and directors' own, because the company is a separate legal entity.(source 1) Accounting records must include all money received and spent, the assets the company owns, the debts it owes or is owed, its stock at the year end, and the goods it bought and sold.(source 2) That includes the receipts, invoices, bank statements and other documents behind the figures.(source 3)
What standing.tax does
- Import a statement downloaded from your bank as a CSV file, or a PayPal export, and say what each line was for.
- Upload a PDF or a photo of a bill or receipt and type in its figures. Nothing reaches your books until the sums add up and you've approved it.
- Every document you upload is checked for viruses before it's kept.
- Raise invoices and credit notes. If your company is registered for VAT, download them as PDF VAT invoices.
- You check and approve every figure. Nothing is filed until you have.
- Download everything in one go: every document, every entry in your books and every filing receipt, in files any other software can open.
From those records come your VAT Return, your annual accounts and the figures for your Company Tax Return. You enter a bill once, and it reaches every one of them.
How long records are kept
Records are kept for 6 years from the end of the last financial year they relate to, and longer in some cases.(source 4) Not keeping accounting records can mean a £3,000 fine from HMRC or disqualification as a director.(source 5)
- Documents you upload are kept in locked storage for seven years from the day you upload them. Nobody can delete them before then: not you, not us, not our storage provider.
standing.tax asks you what each bank line was for; it doesn't decide for you. If you're unsure how a cost should be treated, that's one for an accountant.
Questions people ask
Does standing.tax read my receipts for me?
- Upload a PDF or a photo of a bill or receipt and type in its figures. Nothing reaches your books until the sums add up and you've approved it.
Can I take my books somewhere else?
- Download everything in one go: every document, every entry in your books and every filing receipt, in files any other software can open.
Where these rules come from
Each numbered sentence above is our plain-English version of GOV.UK’s own words, which are below with a link to the page they come from.
- 1.
“There must be a clear division between the company's finances and those of the owners and directors. This is because the company is a separate legal entity.”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities - 2.
“You must keep accounting records that include: all money received and spent by the company, including grants and payments from coronavirus (COVID-19) support schemes details of assets owned by the company debts the company owes or is owed stock the company owns at the end of the financial year the stocktakings you used to work out the stock figure all goods bought and sold”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities - 3.
“all money spent by the company, for example receipts, petty cash books, orders and delivery notes all money received by the company, for example invoices, contracts, sales books and till rolls any other relevant documents, for example bank statements and correspondence”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities - 4.
“You must keep records for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, or longer if:”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities - 5.
“You can be fined £3,000 by HMRC or disqualified as a company director if you do not keep accounting records.”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities
