My business is growing. I’ve gone from just me to a few members of staff now that I am taking on much larger contracts. What things do I need to consider?

Helen: I think the main thing is going to be cashflow.

You’ll need to be invoicing in a timely manner to make sure that you’re getting the money into the business to pay your staff.

You’ve now got a commitment going out every month, whereas before it might just have been yourself. You might have been able to take a bit more money one month and then you might take a bit less the following month. But now you’re going to have a set amount going out each month assuming your staff are working the same hours.

So it really is trying to do a bit more cashflow planning around when you have money coming in and commitments going out, assuming all the setup has been done correctly with HMRC for you to be an employer and that you’ve enrolled your staff on payroll software, and are reporting in a timely manner.

Your two trigger points really are going to be money out when you’re paying them and any Tax or National Insurance over to HMRC by the 22nd of the following month.

If you’re not already on a system I would strongly recommend either QuickBooks or Xero, where you are able to manage payroll either by yourself or by asking ourselves, or a fellow accountant to do this for you.

If you do manage your business payroll yourself then you must keep up to date with all the payroll rules and regulations as well as employment law. If you’re not sure – ASK!

Q&A Monday