Accounting for startups, built around your raise and your runway.

Generic accountant services for startups treat you like any other small company, and it shows. Most accountants are built to file last year’s accounts for an established business. They are excellent at looking backwards and almost useless at the questions a founder actually has.

Can my company qualify for SEIS (the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme) before I raise? Is this work an R&D claim? Should my early hires get options or shares? Will my numbers survive an investor’s due diligence? A backward-looking accountant has no answer, so founders make these calls alone, and the expensive mistakes only surface later.

A specialist accountant for startups works in the present and the near future. We know which decisions at incorporation decide what you can claim in two years, because we have walked founders through it from first share to first term sheet before.

Before the SEIS certificates and the R&D claims, there is one decision that shapes everything after it: sole trader or limited company. Most founders reach for sole trader because it looks simpler, and for a freelancer testing an idea it often is.

But if you plan to raise, reward early hires with share options, or claim R&D tax relief, you almost certainly need a limited company. SEIS and EIS relief, EMI options and the cleanest R&D claims are only open to companies. Start as a sole trader and you can move later, but the switch means transferring contracts, re-registering, and a possible tax charge on any value you have already built.

The honest answer is that it depends on where you are heading, not just where you are today. A side project earning a few thousand pounds is a different question from a product you intend to raise against within the year. Accounting for tech startups is a different job from accounting for a corner shop, and the structure you pick now sets the ceiling on both.

We look at your plans, tell you which structure actually fits, and if a limited company is right, we handle the company formation with a clean share structure from day one. That is the part a cheap set-up service skips, and the part that decides what you can claim later.

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Enterprise Investment Scheme give your investors generous tax relief for backing an early-stage company. For an angel weighing up your round against ten others, that relief is often what tips the decision.

But the relief is the investor’s, not yours, and it only exists if your company qualifies and the paperwork is right. The trade has to be eligible, the company has to be within the scheme’s limits, and the money has to be used the way the rules require.

The limits recently grew. From 6 April 2026 an eligible company can raise up to £10 million a year and £24 million over its lifetime through EIS, and the gross-asset tests rose to £30 million before the share issue and £35 million after. SEIS sits earlier in the journey, with up to £250,000 of investment for a young company that qualifies. Whether either scheme fits depends on your trade, age and size, so we check that first rather than assume it.

The single most useful thing here is advance assurance: a letter from HMRC, secured before you pitch, indicating your company should qualify. It turns a nervous conversation into a confident one, because your investors can see the relief is real.

We confirm you qualify, secure the advance assurance, then handle the compliance statements after the round so your investors actually receive the certificates they need to claim. Get the share class, the timing or the trade wrong, and the relief can be lost entirely, which is exactly why a startup accountant earns their fee here.

Once you have a limited company, how you take money out of it matters. You pay Corporation Tax on profit, then most founders take a modest salary topped up with dividends, which is usually more efficient than salary alone, though the right mix depends entirely on your numbers and what the company can afford while it is still burning cash.

We run your payroll so your salary and any early employees are paid properly through PAYE (Pay As You Earn), and we plan the salary-and-dividend balance around your runway rather than a textbook.

For the team you cannot yet pay full market salaries, equity is the answer, and share options are usually the smart way to grant it. A well-run EMI (Enterprise Management Incentives) option scheme lets you reward key hires tax-efficiently and tie them to the upside they are helping to build. From 6 April 2026 the scheme reaches further, with an eligible company able to grant up to £6 million of options, employ up to 500 people and let options run for up to 15 years, so teams that once outgrew it may qualify again. We set the scheme up, arrange the valuation and handle the filings so the tax advantages actually hold.

Growth brings deadlines. As your sales climb you have to register for VAT (Value Added Tax) once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12 months, no earlier and no later, and we handle your VAT registration and returns so it is one less thing on your plate.

Your company also owes Corporation Tax on its profits and has accounts to file at Companies House each year. As your tax accountant for startups, we keep every statutory deadline tracked and filed, so a missed return never turns into a penalty during a fundraise.

Underneath all of it is your accounting software. We help you choose a tool that fits a startup, whether that is Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent or Sage, connect it to your bank, and set it up so your bookkeeping, claims and board reporting all draw from one clean source of truth, rather than three spreadsheets that disagree.

Most early-stage startups pay between £129 and £250 a month, with project work like an SEIS/EIS application or an R&D claim scoped and priced up front so it never appears as a surprise on your statement.

No hourly rates and no January shocks. One fixed fee covers your accounting services for startups, with a named, qualified accountant who understands raising and runway, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.