Most owner-managed businesses in Cheltenham reach the point where the books no longer fit into a Sunday evening. Invoices go out late, the bank feed piles up in Xero, and the VAT return becomes a scramble. The answer is usually a bookkeeper, and the real choice is which kind.
Three ways to get your bookkeeping done
- A freelance bookkeeper. Often good value and flexible. The risk is cover: if they are ill or on holiday, the work stops, and their records still have to be picked up by your accountant at the year end.
- An in-house bookkeeper. Makes sense once there is a full day's work every day. Below that, you are paying a salary, employer National Insurance and pension for part-time work, and you still need someone to check it.
- A bookkeeping service from your accountant. The bookkeeper and the accountant work from the same records, so year-end adjustments, VAT and management accounts come straight out of the books rather than being rebuilt from them.
What good bookkeeping includes
- Bank feeds reconciled weekly or monthly, not once a year.
- Sales invoices raised on time and chased when they are late.
- Supplier bills and receipts captured as they arrive, with the paperwork attached in Xero.
- VAT returns filed from the books under Making Tax Digital.
- Payroll and pensions posted correctly each month.
- A short monthly summary: what you made, what you are owed and what you owe.
Why it matters more from 2026
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax now requires sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 to send quarterly updates to HMRC, falling to £30,000 from April 2027. You cannot summarise a quarter you have not recorded, so the bookkeeping has to be kept up during the year rather than done in January. See our Making Tax Digital page.
For VAT-registered businesses the same applies to VAT returns. And the registration threshold of £90,000 is tested on a rolling twelve months, which is hard to watch if the books are months behind.
Questions to ask before you choose
- Which software do you use, and will the records be in my name?
- How often will the bank be reconciled?
- Who covers when you are away?
- Who checks your work, and how does it reach my accountant?
- Is the fee fixed, or charged by the hour?
How we do it
Our bookkeepers sit alongside our accountants at 3 Royal Crescent in Cheltenham, working in Xero as a Xero Silver Partner. The same team that keeps your books prepares your VAT returns, management accounts and year-end accounts, on a fixed monthly fee agreed up front. We work with businesses across Cheltenham, Gloucester, Tewkesbury and the rest of Gloucestershire.
See our bookkeeping services, or book a free call to talk it through.
