When Your Business Needs a ‘Proper’ Accountant

Most business owners hit a point where doing their own books is a painful exercise. Not because they can’t manage it necessarily, but because the time spent fighting with spreadsheets is time they could be earning money.

There are specific moments when an accountant stops being a luxury and starts being a genuine money-saver. These aren’t always obvious, and they’ve got nothing to do with hitting some objective threshold. 

Here are five situations where an accountant saves you money.

1. You’ve Crossed Around £50,000 in Profit (Or You’re Close)

Once you’re earning above £50,270, you start paying 40% income tax instead of 20% on the income above that line. This is where small decisions start having bigger consequences. 

Taking an extra £5,000 this year versus next year could mean a difference of a couple of grand in tax, because you’re paying double the rate on it.

This is a good signal to tighten up your expenses and locate any relevant reliefs. Pension contributions become genuinely valuable – a £10,000 pension contribution saves you £4,000 in tax if you’re a higher rate taxpayer, versus £2,000 if you’re basic rate. 

A quality accountant will look at your whole situation and spot opportunities you’d miss – allocating income between years, maximising pension contributions, timing when you take dividends, and claiming reliefs you possibly didn’t know existed.

When Becoming a Limited Company Makes Sense

Sole traders often hit a profit level where they wonder, would I be better off as a business?

Companies pay corporation tax at 19-25% on profits, while sole traders pay income tax at 20-45% depending on how much they earn.

The calculation isn’t simple, though. Companies have lower tax rates on retained profits, but you pay tax again when you extract money as dividends. There’s more admin, more compliance, and legal responsibilities as a director. You might also find it more difficult to apply for credit, including mortgages.

Whether it’s worth it depends on numerous factors: how much you’re earning, how much you need to take out to live on, whether you’ve got other income, and what your plans are. 

An accountant can properly model this for your situation rather than just giving you rules of thumb from the internet.

2. You’re Hiring Your First Employee

Taking on your first employee means you become an employer with strict legal obligations.

From day one, you need PAYE set up (assuming you’re using the PAYE system and not employing them as a freelancer or contract, in which case you’ll need to consider IR35).

Even if you’re paying someone a modest salary, you still need to register as an employer, sort out payroll software, and send Real Time Information to HMRC every time you pay them.

Pension Auto-Enrolment

Auto-enrolment catches everyone out. You have to assess every employee to see if they qualify for a workplace pension. In 2025/26, anyone aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 has to be automatically enrolled.

You contribute a minimum 3% of their qualifying earnings (between £6,240 and £50,270), they contribute 5%. This applies even if they’re only with you a few months.

The Pensions Regulator expects you to register, pick a pension scheme, enrol eligible staff, and complete a compliance declaration within five months of your first employee starting. 

Other Responsibilities

Beyond PAYE and pensions:

• Statutory payments: Sick pay, maternity, paternity. You pay it upfront and claim it back from HMRC
• Employer’s National Insurance: 15% on earnings above £5,000 from April 2025
• Employment law: Contracts, holidays, how to actually terminate someone without ending up at tribunal
• Annual returns to Companies House if you’re a limited company

Get any of this wrong, and it’s not just penalties. It damages your relationship with staff and can expose you to employment tribunal claims. It’s an ideal time to engage an accountant. 

3. You’re Claiming R&D Tax Credits or Complex Reliefs

R&D tax credits are one of the few times HMRC actually wants to give you money back, but the claim process is technical enough that DIY attempts either fail completely or leave thousands on the table.

Since April 2024, the rules have changed again. Most companies now get a 20% credit on qualifying R&D spending, which works out to about 15-16% actual cash benefit. 

If you’re spending £100,000 on eligible R&D work, that’s £15,000-16,000 back.

What Counts Is Broader Than You Think

R&D for tax purposes isn’t just scientists in labs. Software development, product design, and manufacturing improvements – they all potentially qualify if you’re overcoming technical uncertainty.

The test is whether someone competent in your field could work out the solution without trial and error. If you’re solving problems that need experimentation because the answer isn’t obvious, you’re probably doing R&D.

Common examples:

• Building new software features where the technical approach isn’t clear from the start
• Developing new manufacturing processes or adapting existing ones to different materials
• Designing products where you need to test multiple approaches to meet the specs
• Solving technical challenges in construction or engineering

R&D claims need detailed technical write-ups explaining what you tried to achieve, what challenges you faced, and how you solved them. HMRC reviews these carefully, and weak claims get rejected. 

Since April 2024, you also have to notify HMRC within six months of your year-end that you’re planning to claim. Miss that window and you can’t claim at all, regardless of how much qualifying work you’ve done.

An accountant with R&D experience (not all have it) will interview your technical people, document everything properly, and make sure the claim meets HMRC’s requirements. They’ll also spot eligible costs you might overlook.

4. HMRC Has Written to You

If HMRC opens an enquiry into your tax return, this is absolutely not the time to dither. The letter gives you 30 days to respond, and what you say matters enormously.

There are two types:

• Aspect enquiries look at specific parts of your return – maybe your expenses look high, or there’s a mismatch with information HMRC has from other sources. These usually wrap up in three to six months if handled properly.
• Full enquiries review everything. HMRC wants complete records, bank statements, invoices, and potentially personal financial information if you’re a company director. 

They’re looking to work out if there’s been a loss of tax. If they find errors, penalties depend on whether HMRC thinks you were careless or deliberate.

Why You Need An Accountant

An accountant who handles HMRC enquiries knows:

• What information HMRC can legally demand 
• How to answer their concerns without creating new problems
• When to negotiate and when to push back
• How to keep penalties down if errors come up

They’ll also manage the timeline, which keeps potential penalties down. Many firms offer specific tax investigation services. Some business insurance covers professional fees (though it won’t pay any tax, interest, or penalties you actually owe).

5. You’re Spending 10+ Hours Monthly on Books

This is the easiest one to miss because the time builds up gradually. An hour updating spreadsheets here, another hour chasing receipts there, a Sunday afternoon sorting VAT returns.

Most business owners don’t track this, but if you added it up, you’d probably find 10-15 hours monthly on financial admin. That’s two full working days you could spend on client work, business development, or anything that moves things forward.

What You’re Buying

DIY accounting costs are invisible because they appear as lost opportunities rather than as money out of the bank. Beyond saving time, professional bookkeeping means:

• Knowing how the business is doing month-to-month
• Records that are up-to-date, so tax returns are straightforward
• Spotting cashflow problems before they become critical
• Time to focus on business growth

Ultimately, accounting has multiple benefits, including saving time, offering peace of mind, and unlocking strategic insights and improvements. You can’t gain those benefits by DIY’ing your accounts in your spare time. 

Professional Accounting From Double Point

Most business owners wait too long to get proper accounting help. They hit one of these trigger points, realise things have got complicated, but still hesitate because they’re not sure if it’s worth the cost.

At Double Point, we work with businesses at exactly these transition moments – when you’ve outgrown DIY but aren’t sure what proper support should look like. Our chartered accountants can review your situation and give you an honest assessment of whether professional help would save you money.

Book a free consultation to talk through your specific circumstances.