If you are anything like us, you probably spend a significant amount of time bemoaning the fact that the years seem to be passing quicker and quicker.

We have also reached that time of the year where your accountants will be in the process of requesting the necessary records to prepare your accounts & tax returns for another year. You may even be collating information as I write this (and if not – I would strongly urge you to start looking at this, see our blog on the benefits of keeping your bookkeeping up to date).

That being said, what do your accountants actually need?

If we asked our clients this question, we would probably get a wide variety of answers, ranging from “every scrap of paper I can get my hands on” to “a few details on an Excel spreadsheet”. Now, obviously every business is different and so every business will need to provide their accountant with different specific information.

To try and clear some of this up, I have provided three key tips below:

1. 1. Make sure that your bookkeeping is up to date: Whether you complete this yourself or get an external business to do this for you, this is the first thing that we need.We talk a lot about Xero here at Hive in this respect – if you complete your bookkeeping on the cloud, your accountant should be able to access this instantly, and even provide quick feedback.
   2. Use your accountant’s handy summary: Your accountant may have particular methods for collecting records (we tend to send out surveys to ensure that clients send through all relevant information). Engaging with this will inevitably speed up the process of completing your accounts & tax return (there will be specific reasons for their requests).
   3. Electronic records are your friend: Gone are the days that accountants need to receive boxes and boxes of physical records. With the rise of cloud accounting and online banking, there is now very little in the way of physical records that accountants actually require – in fact, physical records may actually slow the process down (as these records will just have to be either uploaded or copied onto computer software).If you continue to gather records into a physical file, maybe it’s time to look into solutions for gathering records in an online format?

These are my top tips. If you have never thought about this before, and just boxed up records the way you always have then maybe it’s time to start a conversation with your accountant – you may be surprised by how much time (and postage cost!) you could save. Call us on 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.