Interview with Emma Simpson

Emma Simpson is a qualified accountant and business owner and Managing Director of CheaperAccountant.co.uk, based in Manchester, England and providing accountancy services to small businesses across the length of the UK. 

Emma started Cheaper Accountant to offer a better deal and affordable accounting services to small businesses who need value for money.

1. How do you differentiate your services other than being cheaper than other accounting service providers in the UK?

Not only are we a lot cheaper than other accountants but we are different to other accounts in a couple of respects. Firstly, due to the fact that we are a smaller practice we can respond to our clients’ needs and questions a lot quicker than the larger firms of accountants. For example, it typically takes one or two days for us to complete your company accounts and to submit them to Companies House. We have heard about other accountants taking months to prepare client accounts, I guess the smaller companies are not on the top of their priority list. Secondly, we also respond to all client emails and questions very promptly and again the size of our practice allows us to offer this level of service on a consistent basis to all of clients. We never leave anyone in the dark.

2. What are the usual services included for a young startup business? And how much would a small sized company expect to pay?

For our smaller, new start-up clients we typically provide the mainstream accounting services of Payroll (including PAYE), Director Self Assessment Tax Return, Annual Company Accounts preparation and Corporation Tax Calculation and submissions to HMRC and Companies House. Aside from these services we also provide free accounting and tax advice to all clients to ensure that our clients remain on the right track. Our fees vary depending on the company’s level of turnover but we offer monthly packages from as little as £14.99 a month. We also have a unique special offer for all companies with turnover below £10,000 where we will complete your company accounts and corporation tax return as well as the required submissions for a one-off fee of £149.

3. What kind of assurance does a company who engage your services get? How do you guarantee that your prices are the best?

All companies can rest assured that your accountancy work will be completed by an experienced and fully qualified UK accountant. We also work hard to ensure that our prices are the lowest in the UK. How do we do this you ask? We keep all of our costs as low as possible and keep our accounting operation firmly online which keeps our costs even lower. The best part is that we pass these cost savings onto you our clients in the form of extremely competitive fees. We know we are the cheapest in the UK as we perform a series of regular checks to ensure that no other qualified accountant is offering lower prices than ours.

4. What are the types of software or tools do you use?

We firmly promote the use of online accounting software and we always recommend Wave Accounting which is 100% free. Our accountants are happy to work with all of the major accounting software providers such as Xero, Clear Books, Kash Flow and Free Agent. However, if online accounting software isn’t for you we can simply work with a spread sheet containing your business income and expenditure details. Better still we can even supply you with a simple spread sheet to use for this purpose.

5.What do clients normally say about your company's services? Which is the best testimonial which you've ever received?

A number of client testimonials are published on our website and will see a true reflection of what our customers think about the services we provide. Typically our clients tend to be surprised by the quality of the service provided and the efficiency of our work. These aspects combined with the lowest accountancy rates means that our clients return to us year after year. I received the following from one of clients “a good accountant is always behind a good business” and I was somewhat touched that this person paid such a compliment. The company director does all of the hard work when running a successful company and all I do is make sure that their accounting is in order.