Invoices at 40 metres high and VAT on a maternity ward: the weirdest places to do your accounts

Around the country, small businesses are proving you don’t have to be at your desk to do your accounts. Whether on a Britain-wide tour of dozens of cafes, in a hospital waiting room, or even 40 metres up in the air, these savvy workers are making every moment count - wherever they are.

They’re part of a growing trend that’s seen more and more people splitting their time between the office and remote working. According to the Office of National Statistics the percentage of hybrid workers has roughly tripled since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

As we’ve come to expect, our dynamic FreeAgent community is at the forefront of new ways of working. These are some of our favourite stories they’ve told us about working from weird and wonderful places.

Mark Ninnim, freelance lighting operator, at work with his tech equipment behind him.

Lights, camera… mileage

If you’ve ever sat down to watch an episode of Big Brother: Late and Live, it’s likely Mark Ninnim was working away behind the set… and was maybe also keeping up to date with his financial admin at the same time. As a freelance lighting operator in the TV and film industry, Mark is a regular on the show’s crew and has worked on many other major projects, including the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Foundation and the Amanda Holden-fronted Netflix reality show Cheat.

“I work away from home for weeks at a time and it’s essential I can keep up with my accounts anywhere,” says Mark. “Thanks to the mobile app and the desktop version of FreeAgent I can always catch up when time allows.”

Mark has added receipts while hiding behind sets, kept track of his mileage in Portakabins and updated invoices while sitting at a bank of monitors, surrounded by a rainbow of flashing control boards and armfuls of cables.

Neill Shimmen, Director of Not Just Rigging Ltd, hanging about 40m up on a belay.

The height of industry

As the Director of London-based entertainment and theatrical rigging and training company Not Just Rigging Ltd., Neill Shimmen says he’s rarely at his desk. “As you can imagine,” he says, “our work takes us to some weird and wonderful places, often high up!”

You’ll regularly find Neill hanging in a harness from the ceiling above a stage or clambering through the rigging, checking everything is safe. 

“The flexibility to write invoices or pay bills whilst dangling 40 metres in the air has been a revolution for me,” he says. “The FreeAgent interface is quick to pick up and easy to access, even when I’m not!”

Nicola Phillips, Director of Canvass Design, with her husband Tony at Stokes Tea & Coffee in Lincoln - coffee shop number 27 on their tour.

Flat whites and smooth invoices

When Nicola Phillips turned 50, she decided to mark the milestone with a unique, caffeine-fuelled adventure. As well as running creative studio Canvass together, Nicola and her husband Tony are passionate coffee-lovers, so they packed their laptops and took their business on the road to visit some of the UK’s best independent cafes.

From bustling city cafes to quiet village hideaways, they visited coffee shops in all 48 counties of England as well as one each in Scotland and Wales, documenting the whole journey on their appealing Instagram account.

“Thanks to FreeAgent, we were able to keep everything running smoothly from wherever we happened to be sipping our flat whites,” says Nicola, “from sending invoices and reports to our accountant, to recording expenses and onboarding new clients, FreeAgent made it all possible.

“It was a brilliant reminder that with the right tools, you really can run a business from just about anywhere - even while chasing down great coffee across the country.”

Daniel Robertson-Scarborough’s son Ralph has joined the Your Man With a Van team!

A special delivery… and a tax deadline

Time and taxes wait for no man, as Daniel Robson-Scarborough discovered back in August 2024, when his VAT return was due… at almost exactly the same time as his new baby. 

Daniel is the Managing Director and Founder of Your Man With a Van, a moving company that started in Hertford and now has 46 branches across the UK. 

“The strangest place I’ve ever had to do my accounts was definitely in the maternity ward, just about an hour before our little boy arrived,” he says. “While sitting in the waiting room, anticipating the call to go in, I quickly opened my laptop. I worked through the report, made sure all the elements were correct, filed any missing receipts, and then pressed submit on the automated filing system.”

The VAT return was safely delivered and shortly after, Daniel’s little boy Ralph arrived. “Talk about cutting it close!”

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