Bookkeeping, VAT (including the construction reverse-charge), payroll, CIS subcontractor administration, and accounts preparation for trades businesses and contractors. Delivered by an AAT Licensed Practice that knows how a construction ledger actually flows.
Construction and trades businesses generate ledgers that punish anyone treating bookkeeping as transaction entry. Subcontractor payments, CIS deductions, retentions, the VAT reverse-charge between contractor and subcontractor, and the long working-capital cycle between job start and final invoice all sit inside the day-to-day bookkeeping - not as year-end adjustments.
S.K.E. Accountancy works with construction and trades businesses on the bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, and CIS administration that keeps the ledger reliable from week one. The practice also prepares the sole-trader accounts, the partnership accounts, and the statutory accounts for limited company contractors at year-end - ready for HMRC submission or for your tax adviser to use as the basis for the tax return.
Working as an AAT Licensed Practice means we stay strictly inside the services we are licensed to provide. Where work falls outside our scope - for example, the tax return itself, statutory audit, or pensions or investment advice - we will refer you to an appropriately licensed firm.
Subcontractors verified through HMRC’s online service before the first payment, deductions calculated at the right rate, payment and deduction statements issued, and the monthly CIS300 prepared and submitted from the ledger.
Monthly CIS returns prepared and filed by the 19th to avoid the automatic £100 penalty. Reconciled to the underlying ledger entries so the figures are defensible if HMRC opens a compliance check.
Construction services between VAT-registered businesses are subject to the domestic reverse-charge. Sales invoices, purchase coding, and VAT returns set up so the reverse-charge is applied correctly at the point of invoicing, not corrected at year-end.
Retentions held back by main contractors posted to a separate ledger account with the release date tracked. Your P&L and balance sheet stop telling each other contradictory stories about cash.
Management accounts and short cash-flow forecasts make the gap between ‘invoiced’ and ‘paid’ visible weekly - before HMRC payments and supplier runs collide with a slow-paying main contractor.
Bookkeeping structured so labour, materials, and subcontractor costs are coded to job level. You see which jobs make money and which do not - from the same ledger that produces your VAT return and statutory accounts.
One AAT Licensed Practice covers the bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, and accounts preparation that a construction and trades business needs day to day - without straying outside our licence.
Whether you are a sole-trader plumber, a small contractor with employees and a handful of subcontractors, or a limited company contractor working with main contractors and long retention periods, the bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, and accounts-preparation work is the same in shape - only the volume changes.
Not currently. S.K.E. Accountancy is an AAT Licensed Practice operating in Tier 3 and Tier 4 services - bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, CIS, sole trader and partnership accounts, statutory accounts for limited companies, management accounts, and budgeting. Tax returns (self-assessment, corporation tax) are Tier 2 services and we will refer you to an appropriately licensed firm for those.
Yes. CIS is administered through HMRC, and we are registered as an HMRC agent. We verify subcontractors, prepare and file monthly CIS300 returns, and produce the payment and deduction statements your subcontractors need.
Between VAT-registered businesses in the construction supply chain, the customer accounts for the VAT rather than the supplier. So if you are a subcontractor supplying a main contractor, you do not charge VAT on the invoice. If you supply an end-user (a homeowner, or a developer selling the finished property), normal VAT rules apply. We assess your position case by case and set up your invoicing so it is right by default.
Yes - that is Tier 3 work under our AAT licence. We prepare the statutory accounts and file them with Companies House. We will prepare the underlying figures that your tax adviser uses to compute corporation tax, but we do not prepare the CT600 return itself.
Yes. We obtain professional clearance, take over the accounting software, and pick up bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, and CIS from the next period. There is no need to wait until year-end.
For general accountancy questions, see our main FAQ or browse the full Q&A library.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We will review your current CIS, VAT, and bookkeeping position and give you a fixed monthly fee.
Book a Free Consultation View all sectors