For those who provide a bookeeping service.....

theaffordableaccountant

Hi MIPs

For those that provide a bookeeping service, do you do it yourself or get someone else to do it? If you do get someone else to do it, are you employing them or subcontracting work to them and how much roughly do you pay them for it?

Would appreciate the advice

Thanks

Bracken

Hi, Im not an MIP but I am employed as a bookkeeper for a small accountantcy. Originally I was self employed and they sub contracted me but a few clients were a little shall we say unsure of their work being sub contracted out to a third party, even though I worked in the office. This resulted in them taking me on as an employee but on a nil hours contract, so basically its like being self employed. They only guarentee me work if they have it and I can have a little flexibility too so if my daughter is off school ill I am under no obligation to have to be at work. It works really well for us and they pay me £9.00 an hour. Hope that helps

Tiger

Bracken wrote: »

Hi, Im not an MIP but I am employed as a bookkeeper for a small accountantcy. Originally I was self employed and they sub contracted me but a few clients were a little shall we say unsure of their work being sub contracted out to a third party, even though I worked in the office. This resulted in them taking me on as an employee but on a nil hours contract, so basically its like being self employed. They only guarentee me work if they have it and I can have a little flexibility too so if my daughter is off school ill I am under no obligation to have to be at work. It works really well for us and they pay me £9.00 an hour. Hope that helps

I have a similar arrangement and I'm exempt from MIP. I have subcontracts with four different accountants who each pay me £16 p.h for work on their premises. I have three regular days work between them and extra days as and when workload demands it.

HTH
T

mc25

I would say for the rate it depend on the area you are based.

wildgoose1uk

Monsoon did a survey not so long ago. The results are on her blog (for which I don't have the url right now!)

Monsoon

Blog in my sig, thanks WG

Did I put the results on my blog? I don't remember. If I didn't, I will. When I have time. Ha. At the very least I've discussed in detail my thoughts on offering bookkeeping services on my "how to charge" post.

We offer a comprehensive range of services. We originally employed bookkeepers on zero hours contracts (as Bracken says). Why? More control over employees than subbies, and also wanted to build a proper team. Overall, we thought it would be more cost effective as well.

Now, I've got one bookkeeper/ accountant (MAAT) and one accountant (who also does some bookkeeping) who are both on flexible part time contracts (no longer zero hours as we have enough work, though zero hours was brilliant at the beginning when we were building up the amount of work available). Both employees typically work more than their contracted hours. My administrator also does some basic bookkeeping (data entry parts) as well. Having a flexible, part time team really is fantastic for me and I think it works well for them too (they are all mums who are returning to work - I didn't deliberately recruit like that, it just happened that way).

If your MIP business is bookkeeping, fine. If it's accountancy, I think getting someone else to do any bookkeeping work is essential if you want to maximise your earnings, as bookkeeping is both time consuming and lower value than accounts and tax.

theaffordableaccountant

Thanks all. Very insightful.
Monsoon - I'm planning to have accountancy as my main business so will look into the nil hours contract further.

KaelaH

I started my business last year offering bookkeeping services and, at the beginning of this year, started offering accountancy services too. I have been growing my business really slowly as I gradually free up more time. My youngest has just started nursery so next year will be at school full time. At the moment I do all the bookkeeping, payroll & accountancy work myself with a view to employing somebody in the future. All my clients so far have been through word of mouth and the slow growth is working for me although the earnings could be better lol! I am very keen to walk before I run but am also aware that come next September I will need to start looking at the possibility of having to advertise more efficiently and start to sub out some of the payroll & bookkeeping. Daunting prospect though!!
Out of interest, Those that do employ people, dO you work from an office or home?

Monsoon

N

KaelaH wrote: »

Daunting prospect though!!
Out of interest, Those that do employ people, dO you work from an office or home?

It's scary, but if you get the right people, it's very rewarding.

I've got a high street office.

For all that I had a nightmare time with my ex business partner, I have to grudgingly admit I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to expand to a high street office with staff without him. Much happier now the business is just me and my fabulous employees though

wildgoose1uk

Monsoon - You are right .... I was thinking of the 'How to charge' post. The scales are very similar.