Freelance invoice/tax/finances management

I've been self employed for a couple of years now and i've never stopped being rubbish with invoicing, taxes and any matters financial. My wife is great at it and has tried to teach me her arcane, mystical ways to no avail.

I know there are software solutions to this sort of thing - i've been recommended one in the past but it didn't seem worth it at the time. It seems worth it now, so any recommendations on that sort of thing would be great.

I use crunch, not strictly a 'software' .. glorified excel and accountants who file taxes on my behalf (personal and company).

Expenses get recorded automatically but have to be manually reconciled .. I dread that day, comes every 6 months.

Cheers - I took a look at crunch and it does seem like it might be worth considering. Especially as it wouldn’t work out much more annually as just getting an accountant to do my return.

I think what I’m after is something a bit more ‘dashboardey’ - something that I can use to keep tabs on invoicIng, time allocation, all that side of things.

On a related note - does anyone have a good bank account for sole traders?

if you are going for crunch, lemme know I'll send you a referral link

Sage?

Beat me to it, also check out https://www.xero.com/uk/ am thinking over move over them from Crunch

I use FreeAgent, really like it. Use it for estimates, billing, tax and VAT. Hit me up for a referral code if you like it.

am thinking over move over them from Crunch

why? (genuine question)

Xero Cashbook is pretty effortless. Tide is an easy account for sole traders that don’t need to pay in physical cash.

Or get an accountant. Happy in the knowledge that you can free up (billable) hours doing the thing you’re good at and not your company finances.

I think Free Agent is the one that i was recommended a while back and forgot the name of. I think i'm going to give it a pop and see if it fits @cjr if you have a code.

At this stage, getting an accountant feels a little overkill (for anything beyond just doing my return for me). I just don't have very complicated finances - expenses are limited to the odd coffee/lunch with client/prospective client, and essentially renting my studio to myself.

Cheers for the recommends, everyone. I'll update with my experiences of Free Agent for future thread searchiness purposes.

Does anyone file their own end of year statutory accounts with Companies House and HMRC? If so, how difficult is it to do?

How much accountancy knowledge do you have? The process is very simple for a small Ltd Co. but you need to be aware of the subtext of the questions that HMRC are asking. Do you have a working knowledge of the tax liabilities for your kind of company and the potential pitfalls of things like directors loans etc?

Edit to add.. First thing is whether you can produce a set of accounts that balance because otherwise you won't be able to submit!

Thanks for your reply! The concern is what you list; that I don't have an understanding of potential pitfalls or unknowns. Each year I produce my own numbers that tally with the accountant version and it ends up seeming like doing the job twice and paying a wedge for an 'official' printout. Feels like I could have a shot at it, but might be good to have someone take a final look. I don't know if accountants work like that however?

The amount of time it takes to verify a clients work is often more then it would take for your accountant to do the whole job themselves. That’s before the queries.

Yes assumed as much. I'm looking for some kind of halfway house. I'm registered as a Ltd, but basically operate as a sole trader so I don't really need all the accountancy bells and whistles.