Frequently asked questions

A one-off setup fee applies to cover chart of accounts review, bank feed connections and clearing any backlog before ongoing monthly work begins. The exact figure depends on how much cleanup the file needs and is confirmed before you commit, not added as a surprise on the first invoice.

Pricing is tied to transaction volume and the number of accounts reconciled, so it is reviewed if your business grows or shrinks materially rather than increasing automatically every year regardless of change. Any adjustment is discussed with you before it takes effect, never applied retroactively without notice.

The base plan covers bookkeeping, reconciliation and monthly reports. Payroll, tax preparation support, VAT filing coordination and advisory work are priced separately as add-ons, so you pay for what you actually use rather than a single bundled fee that assumes every business needs every service.

Notice terms are set out in your engagement letter rather than left open-ended. Most UK engagements run on a rolling basis with a defined notice period, giving both sides time to hand over cleanly rather than stopping abruptly mid-month with reconciliations left unfinished.

A genuinely one-off request outside the standard monthly deliverables is scoped and quoted separately before the work starts, so there is no ambiguity about whether it falls inside your existing plan. Most routine requests from a lender or investor are already covered by the standard reporting package.

Invoices are issued in pounds sterling and paid by bank transfer or card, matching how most UK businesses already handle supplier payments. If your business also operates in another currency, we agree the invoicing currency with you directly rather than defaulting to one automatically.

Some plans offer a reduced monthly rate when billed annually rather than month to month, reflecting the lower administrative overhead of one annual invoice. Whether that option suits you depends on your cash flow preference, and either billing cadence is available on request.

Your data stays inside your own Xero, QuickBooks Online or Sage account, which you own and control independently of us. We access it to do the work, but the underlying file, its hosting and its backups are managed by that software provider, not by Finbryn.

Tell us immediately and we help you review recent activity and revoke any access that should not be there, alongside contacting your software provider's own security team. Because we never hold your data outside your own account, containing an issue does not depend on a separate system of ours.

No, your data is used only to deliver the service you have engaged us for. Where a third-party tool such as Dext or A2X is part of the workflow, it processes data as a function of that integration, under its own terms, not as a separate data sale or share.

Access is reviewed whenever a team member's role changes and removed entirely once an engagement ends, rather than left active by default. You can also request an access review at any point if you want to confirm exactly who currently has entry to your file.

Yes, our handling of personal data follows UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, including the safeguards that apply when data is processed outside the UK. Full detail on the legal basis and any international transfer safeguards is set out in our privacy policy.

Yes, you can request a copy of your data and records under UK GDPR subject access provisions, and we respond within the statutory timeframe. In practice, most of what exists about your account already lives in your own accounting software rather than in a separate system of ours.

Because your live data sits in your own Xero, QuickBooks Online or Sage account rather than a separate system we operate, an outage on our side delays our ability to work in the file, not your access to it. You can always reach your own accounts directly regardless.

You get a response within one business hour on business days, either answering directly or confirming when a fuller answer will follow if it needs checking against your file. This is the standard we hold ourselves to, not an occasional best effort.

You are introduced to the person or small team handling your account at the start of the engagement, so questions go to someone who already knows your file rather than a general inbox. If that person's role changes, we tell you and introduce the replacement before the handover happens.

Flag it as urgent when you send it and we prioritise accordingly, whether that is a bank reconciliation needed for a same-week lender request or a figure required for an unexpected meeting. Routine work continues alongside it rather than stopping entirely to accommodate one urgent item.

A one-off spike, such as a busy sales period, is absorbed within the existing plan where reasonable, and flagged to you if it looks likely to become the new normal rather than a single unusual month, since that changes what plan actually fits your business going forward.

Raise it and we review the entry together, since a categorisation decision is often a judgement call that benefits from your context about the business. We would rather correct it once you flag it than assume our first pass was automatically right.

You can request visibility into progress during the month, such as which reconciliations are complete, rather than waiting until the finished report lands with no insight into what happened along the way. Most check in only at month end, but the option is there.

Most switches take two to four weeks from first call to a clean handover, depending on how complete the outgoing provider's records are and how quickly access is transferred. A switch mid-month is timed to avoid splitting a single month's reconciliation across two providers where possible.

Access to your Xero, QuickBooks Online or Sage file, the most recent reconciled month, and any outstanding query list they were tracking. If your current provider is slow to hand over, we help you request the specific items needed rather than waiting on a vague promise to send everything eventually.

No, we review the most recently filed return before taking over so the new work picks up from a confirmed position rather than guessing where the last provider left off. Any gap or inconsistency found during that review is flagged to you before it becomes a filing problem.

Yes, most switches happen partway through a period rather than waiting for a clean year-end boundary, since businesses rarely time a provider change to suit their own accounting calendar. We reconcile from the last confirmed closed month regardless of where that falls in your year.

We can migrate your file into Xero, QuickBooks Online or Sage as part of the switch, reconciling opening balances against your last filed return so the new file starts from a verified position rather than a fresh, unreconciled one.

No, we work alongside your existing accountant rather than replacing their role in signing accounts or filing returns, and we coordinate directly with them on handover items such as the closing trial balance, so nothing falls into a gap between two parties who are not talking to each other.

We agree the exact handover date with your outgoing provider so billing does not overlap, and confirm with you which provider is responsible for the transition month before either invoice goes out, so you are not left resolving a billing dispute between two providers yourself.

We prepare the figures, forms and supporting schedules for your return. A credentialed signer, registered agent or licensed partner reviews and files it with HMRC. This split means the preparation work is thorough while the filing responsibility sits with someone formally accountable for that specific step.

Yes, many clients use us for the preparation and bookkeeping behind a return while their existing accountant retains the filing relationship with HMRC. We coordinate directly with your accountant on timing and figures so the return is not delayed by a handoff between two separate parties.

For Self Assessment, starting in the autumn ahead of the January deadline avoids a rushed final few weeks. For Corporation Tax, starting shortly after your accounting period ends gives enough runway before the nine-month payment and twelve-month filing deadlines that follow the period end.

Yes, foreign income and any UK-foreign tax interaction, such as double taxation relief, is factored into the preparation work, though a complex cross-border structure may need input from a specialist adviser alongside our preparation support, which we flag if your situation calls for it.

We provide the working papers and supporting detail behind the figures so your credentialed signer or adviser can respond to HMRC's questions with a full paper trail, rather than reconstructing the reasoning after the fact. Direct representation in the enquiry itself sits with your registered adviser.

Yes, this falls under our catch-up work, where we reconstruct the missing periods and prepare the outstanding returns for your credentialed signer to review and file, flagging clearly anything that suggests a penalty or disclosure conversation with HMRC is needed.

Most practices start with a small pilot, either a single client file or a short-term overflow project, before deciding whether to expand into a standing dedicated pod. This lets the practice judge quality and turnaround on real work before committing to a larger, ongoing arrangement.

That is the practice's choice. White-label work is delivered under your own branding and review process, so your client relationship is unaffected unless you choose to disclose the arrangement, which some practices do openly and others prefer to keep behind the scenes.

Your practice retains responsibility for its own anti-money laundering obligations toward its clients, since that duty sits with the regulated firm holding the client relationship. We work from the client information and checks your practice already has in place, not as a substitute for them.

Yes, busy-season support around January Self Assessment or a Corporation Tax filing peak is a common starting point, and capacity scales back down once that period passes. Some practices later move to a standing pod once they see the volume is steady enough to justify it.

Raise it and the file goes back through review, since the goal is work that meets your practice's own standard, not just a technically complete return. A pattern of issues on a specific file type is used to adjust how that type of work is reviewed going forward.

Yes, we build to your practice's existing template and review checklist rather than imposing a different structure your reviewers then have to adapt to, since matching your format is usually faster for both sides than training your team on a new one.

Yes, a single-file trial is a common way to start, priced for that file alone rather than requiring a minimum number of clients or a long-term contract upfront. Most practices use the trial file to judge turnaround and quality before deciding whether to expand further.