First time as self-employed!

unblinkered optimist

Hi all, I'm looking for advice. I am about to be self employed for the first time in a couple of weeks as a service provider. It will be a role where I have to invoice at months end, which is something new to me as previously I was on payroll. Does anyone know how to draft an invoice and what information should be on it? What should I be doing right now to ensure that I successfully transition to this new role? Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

2011

I have been self employed for several years now. I have my own limited company (don't know if you are a sloe trader or not).

I have been instructed that my invoices should include the following:

● Company name
● Invoice no. & date
● My VAT number
● Breakdown of invoice, subtotal, VAT charged and total amount
● Bank account number (inc. IBAN)
● Customer name & address

Stheno

You need to check the contract you have and see what sort of insurance you need and if you need to be a limited company.

If you do, then it would probably be easiest to use one of the contracting services who do all the paperwork for you

Gloomtastic!

If you are not registered for VAT then quote your pps no. on your invoice.

Mrs OBumble

Get an accountant, or use one of the contracting companies. At least for the first year.

And make sure you get good advice about provisional tax. Year Two can be quite hard on the cashflow if you don't plan for it.

Red Nissan

Get an accounting package, Sage or Quickbooks [or better if you've a spare bob] these are ideal, but are not very intuitive, so you'll need a little help to start right.

Both will print nice invoices with your logo and all the relevant information and will calculate the VAT or Not Registered.

Newer versions allow electronic invoicing with automatically generated PDF documents that can be printed or stored or electronically inputted into the clients accounts system.

At end of year, assuming you have filed in all the appropriate information it will calculate due TAX and TAX returns and after a while you can generate automatic cheques [or payments], like VAT, Wages, Expenses ect.

Takes a little time and as you grow most trained staff will already be familiar with and you can usually add on a payroll.

unblinkered optimist

Thanks everyone for your advice. Its really appreciated!

Aacon

Hi my husband has just been made redundant and has not worked as a electrician for the past 4 years. He is now looking for a job and every company wants him to sub contract. What rates do we charge or what do we need to consider?? Will prob get van insurance tax from redundancy pay but I just feel we are going to loose out. Thinking €20-25 an hour is this too low ? Also some of d companies are fire alarms. Do the rates change? Clueless what are the companies that you are talking about ?? As this sounds like a good idea for us

Mrs OBumble

Aacon wrote: »

...Thinking €20-25 an hour is this too low?

Most probably - unless they're guaranteeing a lot of hours per week.

If he was an employee on 20-25 per hour, that would be a rough salary equivalent of 40-50k.

Very rough rule of thumb: If he'self-employed then he should be making twice what he would as an employee, to cover all the costs that the employer isn't. Actually it probably needs to be higher if he's providing the van and tools.

Does he know any other subbing electricians, ideally ones not in direct competition? Can he have a quiet chat to the, to find out about market rates?

Aacon

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Most probably - unless they're guaranteeing a lot of hours per week.

If he was an employee on 20-25 per hour, that would be a rough salary equivalent of 40-50k.

Very rough rule of thumb: If he'self-employed then he should be making twice what he would as an employee, to cover all the costs that the employer isn't. Actually it probably needs to be higher if he's providing the van and tools.

Does he know any other subbing electricians, ideally ones not in direct competition? Can he have a quiet chat to the, to find out about market rates?

Hi thanks for reply. No don't no anybody really in d same situation.. I wish there was somewhere that gives guidelines on this.. We were thinking double his wage already but are com panties prepared to pay that these days ? Also need to find soneone to help us with all the tax end if things as haven't a clue.

bassey

Well an industrial spark rate working direct is (should be) around €21.50/hour, so I'd imagine subbing yourself out you'd need to be charging close to €50/hour to cover all costs, but I've zero experience with being or working for subbies so I could be way off

DublinDilbert

Quick books is very good and the simple start edition is free up to 25 customers, so if your working for the same companies over and over you might never need to upgrade.

Definitely get an accountant, €40 / month is what it will cost you well worth it. You'll still have to pay your own vat and keep basic accounts but they look after the rest. If you ever need a loan / mortgage the lender will look for you income from your accountant and your notice of assessments.

Talk to some accountants that offer the above service also see if they have any recommendations for accounts packages or online packages they use. I'm currently changing over to sage one, which is cloud based, so not tied to a pc and can access from smart phone/tablet. The advantage of cloud based is you can give your accountant a log in, so he can calculate your taxes etc.... Sage one is €10/month