Help your clients conquer common accounting hurdles

They say a problem shared is a problem halved and when your small business clients encounter financial obstacles, they may well turn to you for help. To make it easier for you to boost your clients over some of the most common accounting hurdles - and add value to your relationship in the process - we’ve gathered a few handy links from our website that you can share with them.

Familiarise clients with some accounting lingo

Mastering the complex language of the accounting world might not be a top priority for many clients, but it can never hurt to introduce them to some basic terminology. Our accounting glossary for small business owners has been carefully curated by Emily Coltman FCA, FreeAgent’s very own Chief Accountant, and defines over a hundred accounting terms in our characteristically client-friendly way.

Wave goodbye to “is there VAT on…?” questions

VAT is one of the most complicated areas of the UK tax system and we know that clients frequently turn to their accountants for answers. If your clients are struggling to figure out what goods and services are exempt from VAT and what they can and can’t claim VAT back on, direct them to our handy guide. Not only will it provide them with a first port of call for many of their VAT queries, it’ll help reduce the number of queries that end up in your inbox!

Read the latest Open Banking update

Over the last few months, we’ve been encouraging your clients to switch their bank feeds over to new Open Banking feeds. This switch has been driven by updates to PSD2 legislation that came into effect on 14th September. However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently announced an extension to the legislation change. So what does this mean for your clients? Here’s everything they need to know.

Guide clients through their financial concerns

Even the most well-established small business clients are likely to have concerns about broader financial matters from time to time, so we’ve created a library of guides to help them:

• Your self-employed clients can find out more about their mortgage options here.
• Any self-employed clients who need help with sorting out their pension can find some useful steps here.
• Clients thinking about relocating to a co-working space can learn about the tax implications of doing so here.

You can find plenty more useful guides to share with your small business clients on our website.

Share how-to videos (and many more)

While we work hard to make FreeAgent as intuitive and user-friendly as possible, many users still appreciate a little more help when dealing with accounting tasks that may be unfamiliar or new to them. That’s why we provide a wide range of useful videos - from how-to videos to customer testimonials - that you can share with your clients quickly and easily on our Practice Portal.

Looking for further materials to share with clients? Keep an eye on our social media channels for more useful links or speak to your FreeAgent account manager if there are particular types of content that your clients would find helpful.