Stay as you are
£150–£350
a year for an accountant to do your return
- That covers one return. Not the four quarterly updates HMRC now wants.
- And January still means fourteen months of statements in one go.
Bepa Books by L.C.
Bookkeeping for sole traders now in Making Tax Digital
Your next HMRC update is due 7 November. No business account, no new software for you to learn. Every update and your tax return goes in on time.
The bit nobody says out loud
They want it every three months now, and you can barely get it done once a year.
Everything goes through the same account. The jobs and the stock sit right next to the weekly shop. So every January it's fourteen months of statements and a lot of guessing, and somewhere there's a letter you keep meaning to deal with.
And you don't take home anything like the threshold, so it can't be you. Except HMRC counts what comes in before expenses. The stock you buy and sell straight on counts too.
436,000 of 864,000
About 864,000 sole traders and landlords were due to start in April 2026. By mid-August, about 436,000 had sent their first update. HMRC figures, GOV.UK.
Income before expenses, from self-employment and property. GOV.UK, checked October 2026.
A year, three ways
Stay as you are
£150–£350
a year for an accountant to do your return
A London bookkeeper
£150–£350
a month, for the bookkeeping
Keep it how it is
£75
a month with one account. Up to three accounts, £150. The January bill is in both.
At or below a London bookkeeper's range, with the return and the updates already in it.
Guide prices published by UK accountancy and bookkeeping firms, 2026. London figures from a London pricing guide.
Why this exists
Nobody goes self-employed for the paperwork. You went out on your own because you're good at something, fitting a boiler, wiring a house, baking the cake for someone's wedding, and you wanted to spend your days doing it.
The back office has a way of getting in the way of that. Receipts and deadlines, and now an update for HMRC every three months. None of it is why you started.
One thing about me is that I’m really good at managing and creating structure. I like everything in its right place, and I hate anything left outstanding. I spent several years in finance and account management before I went self-employed, and then I built Bepa, my own system that reads your statements, remembers what everything is, and keeps your books straight all year.
You get on with the work you love. I'll handle the back office.
I'm a bookkeeper, studying for my AAT. Not an accountant, and I won't pretend to be.
Leyla Coote
Bepa Books by L.C.
The offer
Keep your bank exactly as it is, and every quarterly update and your tax return goes to HMRC on time.
Starter
£75
a month
One account, up to about 100 transactions a month.
Steady
£150
a month
Up to three accounts, up to about 300 a month.
Both include every quarterly update and your return. £200 once to set up. Direct debit. See every package, side by side →
The method: SORTED. Six tracks, no skips.
S
TRACK 01All your accounts, exactly as they are. No business account needed.
O
TRACK 02I only ask about what I can't place. One text, one quick reply.
R
TRACK 03Every answer becomes a rule. You're never asked the same thing twice.
T
TRACK 04Every month you see what's actually yours once the tax is out.
E
TRACK 05Your update, ready two weeks before it's due.
D
TRACK 06Your return is in the monthly price. No January bill.
Two weeks early.Everything is ready at least two weeks before its deadline. All I need is your statements within seven days of each quarter ending.
If I'm late, I pay.If anything goes in late because of me, that month is free and I pay the penalty, up to what you've paid me in the last twelve months.
No lock-in.Thirty days' notice either way, and you leave with your spreadsheets, your rules and your records within fourteen days.
Liner notes
Short list. All of it's true.
Honestly
Page me
That's the most I'll take, so every one gets done properly. Places open as soon as my registration with HMRC for anti-money laundering is through.