Small Business

Everything a small business needs from its accountant — books, accounts, VAT, payroll, tax — from one UK-based team, on a fixed fee, with advice that arrives before decisions instead of after.

Speak to a Specialist Call 020 8567 3451

Small businesses are underserved in a specific way: big firms price them out, and volume 'compliance shops' file their returns without ever looking up. What a small business actually needs sits in between — accurate compliance as the baseline, plus someone who notices things: that the VAT scheme no longer suits, that profit extraction is set up wastefully, that the numbers say hire later, not now.

Acumon serves small businesses with the full firm behind each one: a named accountant who knows your business, cloud bookkeeping that keeps the numbers current, and specialists — VAT, payroll, tax planning — pulled in when your situation needs them, without you managing the handoffs.

The Core, Done Properly

Bookkeeping on Xero, QuickBooks or Sage kept current rather than quarterly; year-end accounts prepared and filed on time; VAT returns under Making Tax Digital; payroll run by our CIPP-qualified team; and self assessment for the owners. One firm, one fee, one person to call — and deadlines that are our responsibility to watch, not yours to remember.

Advice in the Fee, Not on the Meter

The difference between an accountant and a filing service is what happens between deadlines. We review the numbers we already keep for you and say what they mean: margins drifting, a customer becoming dangerous concentration, cash headroom against the quiet season. Questions get answered when asked — without the taxi-meter anxiety that stops small business owners calling their accountant until it is too late.

Tax Shaped Around an Owner-Managed Business

Small company tax is mostly about the seam between the business and its owner: the salary-dividend-pension balance reviewed annually as rules shift, spouse shareholdings arranged properly, VAT schemes chosen on your actual numbers, and reliefs — capital allowances, R&D where it genuinely applies — claimed rather than missed. None of this is exotic; all of it is regularly left undone, and it compounds.

Room to Grow Into

The right small-business accountant is one you do not outgrow. As you take on staff, premises, investment or bigger contracts, the specialists are already in the building: management accounts when gut feel stops scaling, audit when thresholds arrive, due diligence when you buy or sell. Clients who joined us as one person trading from a kitchen table are still here with teams — same firm, same named contact.

What You Get With Acumon

A named accountant who actually knows your business
Bookkeeping, accounts, VAT, payroll and self assessment in one fixed fee
Cloud accounting on Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, kept current
Annual profit-extraction review: salary, dividends and pensions
VAT scheme choice checked against your real numbers
Questions answered without hourly-rate anxiety
Deadlines watched by us, not by you
Specialists on hand as you grow — no need to change firm

Why Acumon for Small Business?

All 90 of the firm's professionals are based in the UK
ICAEW Chartered Accountants with fixed fees agreed in advance
Dedicated Xero, QuickBooks and Sage bookkeeping teams in-house
CIPP-qualified payroll team running payrolls for 250+ companies

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a small business accountant cost?

With us, a fixed monthly fee agreed in advance, scaled to your volume and services — bookkeeping frequency, payroll headcount, VAT — so the cost is a budget line rather than a surprise. Fixed does not mean minimal: advice and questions are inside the fee. The comparison worth making is not against the cheapest filing service but against what an unwatched business leaks in wrong VAT schemes, missed reliefs and late-payment penalties; the fee is usually the smaller number.

We're tiny — do we really need an accountant rather than software?

Software does the arithmetic; it does not make judgements. It will not tell you whether to register for VAT voluntarily, how to pay yourself tax-efficiently, whether that contract's terms hurt you, or that your prices are too low — the questions where real money moves. Plenty of very small clients use us lightly: software does the daily capture, we do the year-end, the tax and the judgement calls. That blend costs little and prevents the expensive category of mistake.

Can you take over from our current accountant?

Yes, and it is easier than owners expect: you tell your current accountant you are moving (or we do), we request professional clearance and your records, and we take over the filings from an agreed date. Mid-year moves are routine. We start with a short review of what we inherit — the single most common finding for new small-business clients is straightforward money left on the table: unclaimed allowances, mis-set VAT, inefficient extraction.

How is Acumon different from a small local practice?

You get the same relationship — a named person, direct contact — backed by what a small practice cannot hold: 90 UK-based specialists across tax, VAT, payroll, audit and advisory. In practice that means your everyday accountant can pull in an ex-HMRC VAT specialist or a due diligence partner the day a question needs one, at no relationship cost to you. Small firm feel, full firm depth — that combination is the point.

Get in Touch

Ready to Sort Your Small Business?

Tell us what you need. Within one business day, a qualified accountant will be in touch to talk it through and give you a clear, fixed-fee quote — no obligation.

Call us020 8567 3451

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Email[email protected]

Visit us1-2 Craven Road, Ealing, London, W5 2UA

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