Startups

Startups have accounting needs ordinary small businesses never meet: investment rounds with tax reliefs riding on the paperwork, share option schemes granted before anyone documented a valuation, R&D claims in an era of aggressive HMRC checking, and burn-rate arithmetic where the difference between the books and reality is measured in runway. Most of the expensive startup accounting mistakes are made early, cheaply and irreversibly.

Acumon works with startups from incorporation through funding rounds: the compliance core on a fixed fee, the specialist moments — SEIS advance assurance, EMI valuations, R&D claims, due diligence — handled by people who do them constantly, and reporting that tells founders the one number that matters: how long the money lasts.

Foundations That Survive Diligence

Every funding round is an audit of your history: cap table hygiene, share classes, board minutes, option grants, contractor IP. We set the structure up correctly at formation — or repair what a web incorporation produced — and keep the records investor-clean as you go, because retrofitting two years of informality during a live round burns exactly the time and credibility a raise cannot spare.

SEIS, EIS and Investor Reliefs

SEIS and EIS make UK startup investment happen — and their reliefs die on procedural detail: eligibility conditions, advance assurance drafted around your actual plans, shares issued correctly, compliance statements filed on time, and the three-year traps that quietly void relief afterwards. We run the whole machinery, so your investors get the certificates their relief depends on and your future rounds are not haunted by a defective first one.

R&D Relief Without the Horror Stories

R&D tax relief still matters to genuine technology companies, and HMRC now checks claims aggressively — the era of optimistic boundary-pushing is over and its claims are being unwound with penalties. Ours are built to be defended: qualifying activity assessed honestly against the scheme's definitions, costs evidenced, technical narratives written to answer the questions HMRC actually asks. If your activity does not qualify, we say so before you spend the money mentally.

Share Options and Runway Reporting

EMI options are the startup tool most often fumbled: valuations agreed with HMRC before grants, scheme design within the limits, grants documented and notified on time — each step cheap in sequence, expensive out of it. Alongside, we run monthly reporting built for founders and boards: burn, runway, revenue traction and the metrics your investors expect, from cloud accounting kept current — so board packs take hours, not weekends.

What You Get With Acumon

• Incorporation and cap table structured for future rounds
• SEIS/EIS advance assurance, share issues and compliance statements
• R&D claims assessed honestly and built to survive HMRC checking
• EMI option schemes: valuations, grants and notifications done in order
• Monthly burn, runway and traction reporting for founders and boards
• Cloud accounting kept diligence-ready from day one
• Payroll, VAT and compliance handled while you build
• Due diligence support in the same firm when the round lands

Why Acumon for Startups?

• All 90 of the firm's professionals are based in the UK
• R&D, EIS/SEIS and Patent Box advisory delivered alongside accounts as core services
• Technology-sector audit team with team members who previously worked on audits for Apple, Airbnb and Fujifilm
• Due diligence and valuations specialists in the same firm for funding rounds

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.