6 signs it's time to hire an accountant

You've re-sorted the receipts twice. You’ve matched the VAT column against the bank statement, chased down an invoice from someone, and you're still stuck on that client dinner from March, wondering if it counts as entertainment or subsistence.

Maybe you do need an accountant.

Usually the Google search "Do I need an accountant for my small business" turns into a real question somewhere around the third receipt of the day.

There are six signs that show up once the work has outgrown a spreadsheet and a free evening, that might help answer your question.

1. Your sales are heading towards £90,000

HMRC measures taxable turnover over any rolling 12 months, so one strong quarter can carry you past the £90,000 VAT threshold before the tax year is anywhere near over. Once that happens you have 30 days from the end of the month to register.

If you can see it coming in the next 30 days, you have to register by the end of that window, before the money even lands.

Registering changes how you invoice from that point on.

You start charging VAT on taxable sales, filing returns, and reclaiming the VAT on what you buy for the business, and each of those pieces needs its own paperwork.

An accountant can watch that turnover alongside you, work out the date you'd actually need to register from, and get the returns running once you're over the line.

2. Someone is about to join the payroll

Paying yourself a salary means registering the company as an employer, even as the only director, and that comes with a running list of jobs:

• Register with HMRC before the first payday
• Calculate Income Tax and National Insurance on every payment
• Report each payment to HMRC on or before payday
• Pay employer National Insurance and pension contributions on top of the salary

Before that first payday, Ampere's UK salary calculator puts an employee's take-home pay next to what the salary costs your company in total. Bring those figures to your first call with an accountant and the conversation already starts with real numbers.

3. You're weighing salary against dividends

Most directors take money out through a mix of salary and dividends, and getting that mix right matters more than it used to.

Dividend tax rates for basic and higher rate taxpayers rose two percentage points on 6 April 2026, so the same dividends now cost more than they did last year, which makes the year-end a good moment to look at the split again rather than leaving it on autopilot.

Taking more out than you've put in, creates a director's loan, and a balance still owed 9 months and 1 day after the year-end brings an extra Corporation Tax charge for the company.

An accountant can plan the mix before the year-end, while there's still time to change it.

4. Deadlines are stacking up

A limited company works to four timetables at once:

• Annual accounts to Companies House, due 9 months after the financial year ends
• Corporation Tax payment, due 9 months and 1 day after the accounting period ends
• Company Tax Return, due 12 months after the accounting period ends
• Confirmation statement, due once every 12 months

First accounts get extra time, up to 21 months after you registered with Companies House, but the Corporation Tax dates run on their own clock regardless, so a long first stretch is actually a good moment to have someone keeping the calendar for you.

Missing the accounts date costs £150 straight away, rising to £1,500 once you're more than six months late, and doubling again if you were late the previous year too. Gov.uk is also clear that an appeal can fail when the delay was down to your accountant, so the dates stay yours to track even once someone else is doing the filing.

Agree them together from day one.

5. A bigger move is on the horizon

Applying for a loan or bringing in an investor puts your accounts in front of people who will read them closely, and a year of tidy books makes those conversations a lot easier to have.

Buying equipment adds its own timing question, since tax relief on it is claimed in the accounting period you buy it in, so the date of a purchase can shift your Corporation Tax bill up or down depending on when it lands.

An accountant can prepare the accounts with those readers in mind and time the purchase around your year-end.

6. The paperwork has outgrown you

The shoebox of receipts has turned into a folder called "sort later," working out how much profit the company actually made takes an afternoon you don't really have, and most evenings go on matching receipts to transactions instead of anything else. A letter from HMRC you can't quite decode counts here too.

An accountant can catch up with the books, go through the letter with you, and keep everything current from then on.