Working papers and accounts

Working papers and accounts

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I have just started producing accounts for sole traders using the records and papers supplied by them
The first one I am doing is a small joiner who has no separate bank account, and simply gave me a box with his invoices paid and received for the year.
I would like to keep my file correctly and am happy that I have produced accounts which reflect his income and expenditure and accruals etc, but am not sure what to keep on my file.
I would prefer to return his papers to him as he may need them and I am not inclined to keep them unless it is necessary.
However, if I do not keep them it means I have nothing on my file except my own working papers which shows how I arrived at the figures.
Does anyone have any ideas.
Lawrence Joseph

Replies (6)

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By AnonymousUser
22nd Jun 2007 18:56

Question for Trevor Scott
What's the danger, Trevor?

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By AnonymousUser
27th Jun 2007 13:54

Quality of scanned images
Not being an accountant, I wouldn't want to comment on the dangers listed by Trevor. However, what I DO know about is quality of scanned images. And you're absolutely right Trevor that no amount of messing about with the settings on a photocopier will ensure 100% accuracy. In fact you'll be lucky to get 90% accuracy when scanning purchase invoices.

That's because photocopiers are not very good at scanning invoices, and for that matter, neither are most scanners! Kodak scanners are the only ones which will pick up "nearly" all the information. The only thing they struggle with are faded old thermal faxes, which often aren't readable by the human eye either.

Kodak is what allows us to guarantee our scanning accuracy. We used to have Fujitsu, Canon and Panasonic scanners and often had to re-scan documents which failed our own internal quality checks. We chucked them all out and replaced them with Kodaks. We never re-scan now.

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By cjdytham
20th Jun 2007 21:10

Outsourced scanning
I use Elisabeth's service and find it economical, efficient and secure. It also saves so much space in filing paper and makes historic records so much easier to locate.

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By markfaherty
20th Jun 2007 13:56

Basic documents
I agree with Imogen. Copies of fixed asset purchase invoices and perhaps finance/loan agreements and opening and closing bank statements should suffice. But as Imogen says make sure the client is fully aware of his/her statutory responsibility to retain documents safely. I ensure that this is included both in engagement letters, copy signed by the client, and also in letters accompanying the accounts, tax return or return of documents, as appropriate.

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By AnonymousUser
20th Jun 2007 16:07

Document scanning
This is not answering your question directly but might be a solution if you want to keep everything:

Yes you can get a scanner for under £300 BUT...
1- they double-feed quite a bit;
2-don't give good quality images when scanning colour papers (orange TNT invoices, pink Viking-Direct, etc etc.);
3-will be real hard work to feed small manual invoices and till receipts through
4- and if the receipts are really light, you'll have to do them in colour and file size will be huge and therefore slow to save and open.

If you decide to go down the scanning route, you could save yourself the agro and outsource it. We've setup a scanning service specifically for accountants based on a fixed price per client file.

We can scan everything including check stubs and paying-in books. If you're interested... www.accountants.efile-it.co.uk.

Elisabeth, Papershrink Ltd

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By User deleted
19th Jun 2007 17:00

Its his responsibility
It is the tax payer's responsibility to keep his original documents for 6 years, not yours. I would make a note that you have told him this to cover yourself.
It might be worth keeping photocopies of assets purchased during the year along with your working papers, but otherwise I would give everything back to your client with strict instructions to look after it!

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