For your business

Bookkeeping

Good bookkeeping is the quiet work that everything else depends on. Your tax return is only as accurate as your records. Your VAT return is only as reliable as your transaction log. And the management accounts that tell you whether the business is actually making money – those start with the same data. We handle bookkeeping for businesses across Yorkshire who’d rather spend their time running the company than categorising bank transactions.

In a nutshell, we ensure your records stay accurate throughout the year using Xero or FreeAgent (whichever suits you best), and we may recommend other tools such as Dext to assist with the legwork. Clean books mean your accounts, tax return, and VAT are right when they need to be, and there are no nasty surprises at year-end. Hourly fees, agreed upfront.

Do you actually need an accountant for your bookkeeping?

If you’re organised, technically comfortable, and disciplined about keeping records throughout the year, you can do your own bookkeeping – especially if you’re on a good cloud accounting platform like Xero or FreeAgent. Some clients come to us specifically so we can train them to do it themselves: see our Software Training page.

In practice, the businesses that benefit most from outsourcing are those in which the owner is doing two jobs at once: running the business and keeping up with the books. And neither is getting done properly. The records slip. The VAT quarter comes around, and the preparation is three times as much work as it should be. Year-end becomes chaos. Most of our bookkeepers are qualified accountants, so not only do they do an efficient job, but it is technically accurate which means that the data is more reliable.

What we cover

Our bookkeeping service covers the ongoing work of keeping your records clean and up to date:

Transaction recording and coding - bank feeds reconciled against Xero or FreeAgent, income and expenses categorised correctly, using the correct VAT treatment
Bank reconciliation - ensuring your records match your bank statements, every period
Supplier and customer ledger management - purchase invoices matched to payments, sales invoices aged and flagged
Expense receipts captured and matched, with Dext handling the volume where needed
VAT return preparation - records kept clean and MTD-compliant through the year, returns reviewed and filed quarterly. See our VAT page for more info
Payroll journals posted into the accounts where we also handle your payroll.
Year-end records prepared and handed to the accounts team – so the move from bookkeeping to Company Accounts is smooth and nothing needs unpicking

We also handle catch-up bookkeeping – if your records have slipped behind, we get them straight before taking over the ongoing work. We’ll tell you what’s involved and what it costs before we start.

We use the best software

Dext - used alongside Xero or FreeAgent to capture supplier invoices and expense receipts via phone camera, email, or direct inbox. Removes the paper trail problem at the source.

FreeAgent - particularly well-suited to freelancers, sole traders, and small limited companies that want everything in one clean dashboard. Strong Making Tax Digital compliance built in. It is also free for a lot of businesses.
Xero - a widely used cloud accounting platform for more complex limited companies, or businesses that use 3rd party add-ons. Excellent reporting and bank feed connectivity, strong integrations with payroll and VAT.
Dext - used alongside Xero or FreeAgent to capture supplier invoices and expense receipts via phone camera, email, or direct inbox. Removes the paper trail problem at source.

If you’re already on one of these, we work with what you have. If you’re not on any of them yet, we’ll recommend the right fit and handle the setup.

See our Cloud Accounting & Making Tax Digital page for more on how these tools work and what they mean for your tax obligations.

Making Tax Digital and bookkeeping

For VAT-registered businesses, Making Tax Digital for VAT already requires digital record-keeping and digital submission. If your bookkeeping isn’t currently in a compliant digital format, it needs to be as there are daily fines for non-compliant data. For self-employed people and landlords, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will require quarterly digital submissions from April 2026 (for those with qualifying income above £50,000), dropping to £30,000 from April 2027. Clean, current bookkeeping is the foundation that makes quarterly reporting manageable rather than a quarterly panic. We get clients MTD-ready as part of the ongoing bookkeeping service – so the compliance change lands quietly rather than as an emergency.

How we work

The shape of the service depends on your business.

For most clients, we work on a monthly or quarterly basis: bank feeds are reconciled on a regular cycle, sales and expenses are captured in Dext as they happen, and we do a review pass before VAT quarters and year-end. Documents come through ShareFile, our portal, or directly through Dext; we’ll set up whatever works cleanest for how you operate.

For simpler structures, quarterly bookkeeping plus a year-end tidy-up can sometimes be enough. We’ll recommend what makes sense for the size and complexity of the business.

Hourly Fees Based on Your Needs

Bookkeeping fees depend on transaction volume, how organised the incoming records are, and whether you’re bundling payroll, VAT, and accounts. We work it out from a short conversation and your last few months of bank statements – no guessing, no price creep.

Ask for a quote

A couple of minutes on our online form, and we’ll come back to you with a number.

Who we look after

We handle bookkeeping for businesses of most types and sizes:

Owner-managed limited companies that want their time back
Sole traders and freelancers whose records have grown beyond spreadsheet level
Growing businesses whose bookkeeping has lagged behind the pace of growth
Businesses approaching MTD that need to get onto a compliant digital system
VAT-registered businesses where the records need to be consistently clean for quarterly returns
Businesses switching from another accountant where the records need picking up and straightening out
Large businesses with complex processes when you are too big for a part-time bookkeeper but too small for an in-house financial controller.

Who we’re not right for

Businesses who need daily record-keeping, or who want their bookkeeping prepared on something other than Freeagent or Xero.

Why clients stay with us

We’ve been looking after businesses in York and the rest of the UK since Stacey Mcveighty founded the practice in 2014.

Today, we work with around 800 clients from our office in Fulford. We’re ACCA-accredited, and we hold 37 five-star reviews on Google, most from clients who’ve been with us for years.

Change Accountants are brilliant. Always welcoming and friendly whilst being totally efficient and professional. Highly recommended.

Jason Rayner
4 years ago via Google
Working with Change Accountants has been a game-changer for my business. I get sound advice I can trust when I need it and their team takes care of the things I don’t want to worry about like payroll, VAT, filing my accounts and personal tax returns. They offer reassurance and insights whenever we have curveball government announcements that may affect my business. Would definitely recommend them.

Rob Colley
1 year ago via Google

Frequently asked questions

What if my records are in a mess?

We do catch-up bookkeeping regularly. You tell us how far behind things are; we tell you what it will take to get back on track and approximately how much it will cost. Once it’s sorted, we take over the ongoing work so it doesn’t slip again.

Do I need to do anything, or do you just take over?

You need to make sure your bank feeds remain connected (we set this up) and that invoices and receipts reach us – usually via Dext on your phone or in your email inbox. Some clients are entirely hands-off after setup; others prefer to stay involved in the coding. Either approach works for us.

Can you handle bookkeeping if I’m on a different software platform?

If you’re on QuickBooks, Sage, or another platform, get in touch. We primarily work in Xero, FreeAgent, and Dext, and for most clients, moving to one of them makes the ongoing work easier and cheaper. But we’ll have a look at your situation first before we recommend anything.

Is bookkeeping the same as accountancy?

Not quite. Bookkeeping is the ongoing recording of transactions. It’s the daily and weekly work of keeping accurate records up to date. Accountancy (in the sense of preparing annual accounts, filing tax returns, and advising on tax) uses those records as its raw material. We do both, and the two work best when they’re joined up.

Why is bookkeeping not a fixed fee?

When we prepare the bookkeeping for a client, part of that service is to look for efficiencies. We use technology, such as Dext, and advances in cloud software to automate as much as we can. This often means that we can cut the amount of time that you, or a previous bookkeeper, were spending on bookkeeping. We charge on a per hour basis so that you only pay for what you need.