Over the last year, businesses all around the world have faced a number of challenges as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, throughout the crisis, many businesses have suffered significant losses and some have even failed entirely, having to shut up shop and leaving thousands unemployed.
As we start to emerge from the crisis and restrictions are coming to an end, businesses will now face another great challenge: recovering post-covid. In this guide, we’re going to look at how your business can start to build itself back up and ways in which a chartered accountant can help.
Help with Government Support Schemes
Throughout the pandemic, the government has offered a number of support schemes to businesses. Despite the pandemic coming to an end, many support schemes are still available including9
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
- Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme
- Support with Paying Tax Bills on Time
- Business Rates Relief
- Self-Employment Income Support Scheme
- Recovery Loan Scheme
- Additional Restrictions Grant
These schemes could come in incredibly handy and seriously aid your business in its recovery, however, there are a number of eligibility criteria, terms and requirements in order to apply that can take up lots of time. Fortunately, a chartered accountant can do it all for you, checking which schemes you’re eligible for and making sure you have all the necessary requirements in order to qualify e.g. tax records, records of employment etc.
Bookkeeping and Accounting
As your business starts to recover from the crisis, time is everything which is why you should be putting all of your energy into building your business back up without being weighed down by a mountain of paperwork.
An accountant can take care of your books and accounts by working with advanced, government approved software such as Xero and QuickBooks, ensuring your accounts are kept up-to-date and stored on a system that is easy to manage.
Free up valuable time and resources to use better elsewhere in your business by letting us keep track of what comes in, what goes out, and all those pesky paper receipts.
Recovery Business Planning
Effective business planning is essential for all businesses at all times, however, now it is more important than ever. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to give strategic planning the attention it needs due to all the other daily pressures that take up their time and resources. This results in rushed judgements, over or under-capacity, or missed opportunities- and of course nobody wants that, especially at a time like this.
You need a planning adviser who has the time and space to take the long view and advise on the right courses of action for the future ahead. An accountant can establish your current position and make informed decisions to help your business function at its best, not only helping it to recover, but to thrive post pandemic.
Corporate Tax Planning
Corporation tax represents a large part of your trading costs and making sure you’re compliant can hold a heavy burden, especially with the increase in reporting obligations, robust investigation policies from the tax authorities and harsher penalties for non-compliance. The last thing you want is HMRC to come knocking because you’ve failed to comply and suffer consequences such as hefty fines.
Collecting revenue for the Government can take up lots of company time and resources, which is why you could benefit from an accountant who can help you minimise your corporate tax exposure and relieve you of the administrative burden of complying with tax legislation.
Efficient corporate tax planning can also result in potentially significant improvements in your bottom line, helping your business to thrive.
VAT Support
Value Added Tax (VAT) is one of the most complex and demanding tax regimes imposed on business and it’s not uncommon for businesses to end up overpaying or underpaying VAT.
The ever widening scope of VAT, the constant stream of detailed changes to the regulations, and the ever growing demands of HMRC call for the trained professional eye of a chartered accountant to ensure that you do not fall foul of the regulations and don’t end up paying the Exchequer more than you need to, after all, now is a time to be saving and making money, not losing it.
Let Ryans Help Your Business to Recover and Thrive Post-Covid
At Ryans, we have years of experience advising the local business community and a wealth of expertise for you to draw on. With straightforward and in-depth advice, we can make informed decisions to help your business function at its best for the future whilst helping you recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic.
If your business could use help recovering post-covid, let’s have a chat.