Bookkeeping for Newton Abbot trades
For businesses that are better with tools than spreadsheets
Trade businesses generate a surprising amount of admin:
Materials bought on the fly, supplier accounts, fuel receipts, subcontractors, customer deposits, invoices to chase, and a bank feed full of transactions that made perfect sense at the time.
I provide regular, practical bookkeeping for trades businesses in Newton Abbot and across South Devon, keeping Xero up to date throughout the year so you know where things stand without spending your evenings trying to piece it all together.
Bookkeeping built around local trade life
Trade life
Regular bookkeeping that works around jobs, sites and the realities of running a trade business.
Lived in experience
Real experience of the purchases, suppliers, jobs and admin that come with trade businesses.
Keep VAT in check
Keep the records behind your VAT return in order throughout the quarter, not just at the deadline.
Kept on top of
Bills, receipts, bank transactions and Xero dealt with regularly, before they become a backlog.
Trade life
Your bookkeeping has to fit around the way you actually work.
Most trade businesses aren’t run from a desk.
You’re pricing jobs, ordering materials, speaking to customers, travelling between sites and dealing with whatever has cropped up that day. Bookkeeping can very easily become something you’ll sort out later.
The problem is that later often means a pile of receipts, several weeks of transactions and trying to remember which client that £286.40 purchase from Eddies was for. It’s also remarkably easy to lose track of what your paying for on a monthly basis, allowing your costs to pile up.
Regular bookkeeping keeps those gaps much smaller.
Bills, receipts and transactions are dealt with while they’re still fresh, questions are asked while you’ve got a reasonable chance of remembering the answer, and Xero becomes a useful tool for managing your business, rather than becoming somewhere everything gets dumped before the VAT return is due.
Lived in experience
I’ve seen a trade business from the inside
My experience with trade businesses doesn’t start and end with the bookkeeping.
I’ve been involved in the day-to-day running of one, so I know what it looks like when materials are being ordered between jobs, supplier accounts need keeping straight, engineers are out on site and half the purchases have been made from the van.
I also know that the tidy textbook version of bookkeeping doesn’t always match real life.
One Bradfords order might cover three different jobs, something gets paid for personally because the company card isn’t to hand, a customer changes the scope halfway through, materials get returned.
That doesn’t make the bookkeeping impossible. It just helps to have someone who understands what they’re looking at (and knows what questions to ask).
Keep VAT in check
VAT shouldn’t be a quarterly guessing game
For a lot of trade businesses, VAT is where the bookkeeping starts to feel unnecessarily complicated.
The fiddly bit is that VAT isn’t always consistent, even within the same job. Items on the same supplier invoice can sometimes have different VAT treatment, those familiar little pink slips from the merchant don’t necessarily contain everything HMRC requires for a valid VAT invoice, and construction work can bring domestic reverse charge rules or reduced VAT rates for qualifying projects into the mix.
Keeping the books up to date throughout the quarter makes all of that much easier to deal with.
I’ll make sure the transactions behind your VAT return are recorded properly, flag anything that doesn’t look right and ask for missing information while there’s still a reasonable chance of finding it.
And if I’m preparing your VAT return, you’ll know it’s based on records that have been looked after all quarter, rather than a frantic tidy-up a few days before the deadline.
Kept on top of
The day-to-day stuff, dealt with
Good bookkeeping is mostly about not letting the little things pile up.
I’ll keep Xero updated regularly, deal with bills and receipts, reconcile the bank, match payments and keep an eye out for anything missing, duplicated or just a bit odd.
That means fewer mystery transactions, fewer last-minute scrambles and a much clearer picture of what’s happening in the business.
For trade businesses around Newton Abbot and South Devon, I can also help with the bits that often sit around the edges of the bookkeeping – things like supplier balances, customer payments, CIS records and getting everything into decent shape for your accountant.
The aim is simple: your books stay current, your records make sense, and you’re not trying to reconstruct the last three months from memory.
A full diary can make a trade business feel like it’s doing well. But until the books are up to date, it can be surprisingly hard to tell what all that work is actually leaving behind.
Regular bookkeeping gives you a clearer view of the money coming in, what’s going back out on materials and overheads, what’s still owed and what’s waiting around the corner.
Busy doesn’t always mean profitable
Why keep it current?
Know what you’re making
Plenty of work coming in is one thing. Knowing what’s left after materials, subcontractors, fuel and the rest of the costs is another.
See what’s coming
VAT, supplier bills, subscriptions and other regular costs are much easier to deal with when they’re visible before they land.
Spot jobs that hurt
Rising material costs, extra purchases and jobs that keep swallowing money are much easier to notice when the figures are current.
Keep cash clearer
You don’t need to live in spreadsheets. You just need a decent idea of what’s in the bank, what’s still due in, and what needs paying out.
From £90/month
For smaller trade businesses with lower transaction volumes, regular monthly bookkeeping starts from £90.
That covers the core bookkeeping needed to keep Xero current, your transactions organised and your records ready for VAT, year-end or simply knowing where the business stands
Based on volume
Your monthly fee reflects how much bookkeeping there is to do – things like supplier bills, customer invoices, bank transactions and the number of accounts or feeds to reconcile.
Add what you need
VAT returns, CIS, monthly insights and extra help with customers or suppliers can be added where needed, so you only pay for the support that suits your trade business.
Simple Pricing
Bookkeeping that fits the shape of your trade
Trade businesses can look very different on paper. One might have a handful of larger jobs each month; another might have dozens of supplier purchases, fuel transactions, subcontractors and customer payments to keep track of.
Bookkeeping starts from £90 per month and is based on the amount of work involved – things like transaction volume, bank feeds, supplier bills and how tidy things are when we begin.
Extras such as VAT returns, CIS support, monthly insights and help with customer or supplier admin can be added where needed.
We’ll agree what’s included upfront, so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
