Background
FlipFlop Marketing was established by Elaine Carr in 2002 as a sole trader entity providing strategic and outsourced marketing services to SMEs across East Anglia. Paul has been Elaine’s accountant since 2004 and Elaine has worked with Paul to assist with his marketing during that time.
In 2008 Paul advised Elaine to make the move from sole trader to Limited Company as this would have financial benefits. Elaine took the advice and FlipFlop Marketing became a VAT registered Limited Company.
When 1 Accounts was founded in 2014 FlipFlop Marketing Ltd was one of the first clients to join the new company.
The Challenge
Being a service based business selling consultancy means that every hour that Elaine is not delivering her consultancy is time when she is not generating a fee. Spending hours trying to get to grips with the bookkeeping and accounts was not the best use of Elaine’s precious time. Not only did she not enjoy “doing the books” she was also missing out on maximising her income from consultancy. The dilemma for Elaine was that whilst she preferred words to numbers she also liked to know that her accounts were up to date and in order and that there would not be any nasty surprises from the tax man!
How 1 Accounts Helped
1 Accounts provide a full book-keeping service for Elaine using Receipt Bank and Sage One.
Elaine photographs her receipts and the team at 1 Accounts Online set up rules for the receipts to post automatically to the cloud based Sage One accounts system. 1 Accounts also operate the payroll for the business and process the quarterly VAT returns.
Going forward Elaine has asked to transfer her accounts over to Xero. The next step for 1 Accounts will be to transfer the accounts from Sage One to Xero using Move My Books. The move will enable Elaine to take full advantage of the other applications that connect with Xero. The increased functionality will save time and provide clear insights into her business.
The Outcome
Elaine has the freedom to focus her time and energy on delivering marketing services for her clients. She has the confidence and the peace of mind that her accounts are bang up to date, her obligations as a director are being fulfilled and her VAT and corporation tax are under control – all thanks to the team at 1 Accounts.
