About Us

Small Business Services is a small family business operated by Martin Woodward and his daughter Sarah. We specialise in providing a flexible and friendly service. We are based in North Essex within easy travelling distance of Colchester Clacton Harwich and Ipswich.

Martin started Small Business Services in the late seventies on a part time basis whilst employed full time with an international company where he worked his way up from Assistant Cashier through Sales and purchase ledger Supervisor to Financial Accountant before becoming a Systems Development Accountant.

Following being made redundant in 1994 Martin decided to utilise his many skills and took Small Business Services full time.

During this time the business expanded into running formal IT training courses and IT consultancy.

We have a selection of regular clients some of whom we see more than once a week with others that we see only once a year and many others on a monthly or quarterly basis.

The ethos of Small Business Services has always been flexibility and it always will be.

As the business has grown Sarah joined us in 2010 to specialise in Book keeping and running our Payroll Bureau.

Services

Provision of cost effective Accounting services, Management accounts, Payroll, Financial forecasting and Sage support and training to SME business clients.Providing Support and Advice ensuring compliannce with HMRC requirements. We offer a varied range of services, in a modular approach, we pride ourselves on our flexibility leading to a greater choice for our clients.

Cash Book & Bank Reconciliations

As every person in business knows cash flow is the life blood of a business, therefore regular updating of the cash book (either separately if a small sole trader business) or as part of the day to day book keeping is paramount. It is also essential that your cash book or bank account records are reconciled to your bank statements on a regular basis. The frequency of this depends upon the size of your business and the volume of bank transactions that you have. Generally we recommend that bank reconciliation is performed on a monthly basis.

VAT Returns & Online Filing

Another chore that seems to come around all too quickly is the quarterly or monthly VAT return. This is another area in which we can help regardless of whether we are doing or overseeing your book keeping. Obviously the VAT return is a lot easier for us and a lot cheaper for you where we also book keep for you. Let us take the strain and worry away from you about which value goes in which box!

Sales Invoicing

Are you a great salesperson, do you get a buzz out of selling and then perhaps have to spend the evening raising invoices (that dreaded paperwork again).

Either as part of your overall book keeping, or just as a standalone bureau service, we will raise your sales invoices from your sales orders or despatch documents. These can be raised as portable document files which can then be emailed to you for checking or sent directly to your customers, or we can print the invoices and mail either to you or your customers on your behalf.

Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)

If you work in or allied to the construction industry, you will know what an administration burden operating CIS can be. Having to verify contractors and deduct tax from any labour payments at given rates depending upon that contractors status. Then having to produce monthly statements to each sub contractor you have paid, clearly showing the tax deducted and finally having to submit this data to HMRC online within very tight timescales, in order to avoid penalties.

Conversions from Manual to Computerised Book Keeping

We know that quite a few businesses still keep manual records or partial manual records and perhaps a set of spreadsheets. You may be considering fully computerising, if you are then please talk to us first, we can suggest the best system to meet you requirements, and then assist you with the implementation. Not only will we draw up an implementation plan and assist you with the implementation, we will also provide you with support on an ongoing basis, but especially the first few months, as any unusual or occasional transactions crop up. We usually find that most clients can operate with very little support after using the new system for the first quarter.

Assistance with Stock Taking & Evaluation

Fortunately not every business has to carry stock, but for those that do, the annual stock take can be a real chore. Often having to work outside normal hours (few businesses can afford to close for stock taking) there is the need to count and list items quickly and accurately before you open for business again. Then comes the often even more difficult and time consuming task of evaluating the stock, we are not promising to do this any more quickly than you would, but to assist you with this onerous but necessary task at the very least annually.

Monthly or Quarterly Management Accounts

What are your numbers? “Give us your numbers?" often the first question you will receive from any potential investor or more likely from your bank manager.
Do you know your annual turnover, your gross margin percentage, your net profit?Do you know your average Debtor or Creditor days?
Do you know your breakeven point or how much you need to do each month just to cover the overheads?
The basis for accurate management accounts is of course sound and reliable book keeping.Let us prepare management accounts at regular intervals, and answer the above questions and more for you.

Trading Since

1972