Contractors! Who do you use to manage your limited company?

CoolBoardr

Im using CXC at the moment who charge a flat fee of 5% on every invoice you send through.

As they all pretty much do the same thing, is there anyone else cheaper? (And I can't be bothered doing it myself or going through an accountant).

Thanks

ifah

You don't have a ltd company - you are working under an umbrella as a director of a company registered to cxc.
Is that 5% of your gross ? If so that's pretty steep ! My accountant fees for the year will be approx 850, company setup was 300. As a % that will be waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy below your 5%. And there is very little to do in relation to management of the Ltd Company - you do it yourself - just need to be good at filling forms (both paper and on-line) It may be worth your while to setup yourself - even if you can't be bothered.

xabi

I pay an accountant to do it for me, VAT returns are all that i really look after. The costs are way below what 5% per invoice would cost me. I think you are being ripped off.

X.

eth0_

There are other companies a lot better than CXC. CXC don't even do the accounting themselves, they get a third party to do it!

Their rates are very high and I found them very curt and uncooperative.
For instance, when I finished in my last contract it was the first week of the month. I was informed I wouldn't receive my P45 until the end of the month. I sent two polite emails to CXC asking them to provide a letter stating my employment had ceased (so I could go on the dole for a few weeks), but they ignored me.

eth0_

There are other companies a lot better than CXC. CXC don't even do the accounting themselves, they get a third party to do it!

Their rates are very high and I found them very curt and uncooperative.
For instance, when I finished in my last contract it was the first week of the month. I was informed I wouldn't receive my P45 until the end of the month. I sent two polite emails to CXC asking them to provide a letter stating my employment had ceased (so I could go on the dole for a few weeks), but they ignored me.

nesf

5% of gross for that??

Christ. Pick up something like a copy of Sage Instant Accounts, get an accountant to sign things off for you and put in the, oh, 6 hours a month for your average small company in my experience. It's most definitely not that difficult tbh.

Magic_Roundabou

I started contracting around this time last year and decided to handle all that stuff myself, just to see how it went. So far, it's fine. Setting up the company only cost me a 60 quid fee at the CRO office. I do have a mate who's an accountant to keep me on the right track, though so that helps a lot. The CRO and revenue websites are a great help as well. Thing is I think you have to be the kind of person who doesn't fall asleep at the thought of accounting to do it.

MrPudding

I decided I could not be bothered doing the books myself. I use a company called OSK. They are very good & helpful and charge a fixed fee.

Charging a percentage is a complete rip off, they do not have more work to do if you do some overtime or go oncall. Why should they have more money?

MrP

trotter_inc

CoolBoardr wrote:

Im using CXC at the moment who charge a flat fee of 5% on every invoice you send through.

As they all pretty much do the same thing, is there anyone else cheaper? (And I can't be bothered doing it myself or going through an accountant).

Thanks

Ive been using CXC for the past 18+ months and 1 piece of advice Id give you is to check and double-check your payslip every month, they've made a lot of mistakes with mine....

Only reason I use them is that they're easy to use...saves me a lot of hassle...

trotter_inc

xabi wrote:

I pay an accountant to do it for me, VAT returns are all that i really look after. The costs are way below what 5% per invoice would cost me. I think you are being ripped off.

X.

They charge a max of 5%, you dont pay any start-up or close-up costs, plus the VAT (or tax) is taken off every month, so the money you get paid is what you keep, no tax bills or anything at the end of the year...

They are a little pricey alright but it saves a lot of hassle if you havent a clue about tax or vat or anything like that

Flinty

I'm actually looking to set up a LTD Co. and get the accountancy done. A friend of mine has just finished the whole contracting thing and highly recomends this crowd: www.teamwork.ie . I think I'm going to go with them so.