Most owner managed limited companies in the UK pay between £150 and £3,500 per month plus VAT for an accountant. At eba, compliance for a limited company starts from £300 per month plus VAT. A £2m company wanting monthly numbers and advice usually sits between £900 and £1,800, and a £6m group with three entities between £2,000 and £3,000. Sole traders pay far less, often £40 to £150 per month. Price follows transaction volume, payroll and entities rather than turnover alone, and every eba fee is fixed in writing before work starts.
These are eba's bands for owner managed limited companies turning over roughly £250,000 to £10 million. They are indicative rather than a quote, because two companies with identical turnover can be twice apart on price, for the reasons set out below.
| The business | What it usually needs | Package | Typical fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to £500,000 turnover, one to five people | Annual accounts, corporation tax, quarterly VAT, a small payroll and the director's personal tax return. | Core | From £300 per month plus VAT |
| £500,000 to £2m, five to twenty people | The same compliance with more transactions, a real payroll to run every month, and reporting through the year rather than only at the year end. | Core or Insights | £450 to £900 per month plus VAT |
| £2m to £5m, twenty to fifty people | Monthly management accounts, monthly payroll, several VAT and reporting strands, budgeting and forecasting, and an accountant involved in decisions during the year. | Insights or Partner | £900 to £1,800 per month plus VAT |
| £5m to £10m, or a group of entities | Consolidated reporting across entities, monthly management accounts, scenario forecasting, board level input and, often, preparation for a sale. | Partner | £1,800 to £3,500 per month plus VAT |
| A specific one off piece of work | Tax planning, a restructure, a valuation, due diligence on a purchase, or company secretarial work, quoted per engagement. | eba Plus | Fixed price per engagement |
Core is the compliance package and the floor: accounts, corporation tax, Companies House filings, VAT returns and the director's personal tax return. Insights adds interim management accounts and check-in meetings through the year. Partner adds quarterly management accounts, quarterly strategy meetings, KPI tracking, forecasting and exit preparation. eba Plus sits alongside all three for specialist work, quoted per engagement. Everything is billed monthly by Direct Debit, with the scope written down alongside the number.
When two firms quote the same company very differently, it is almost always because they have assumed different things about the items below. These are what we look at before putting a number on anything.
Turnover is the number everyone quotes because it is the number everyone knows, but on its own it is a poor guide. A £3m business with forty invoices a month is less work than a £600,000 business with four thousand card payments. What costs money is the volume of things to record, reconcile and check.
Each company means its own accounts, its own corporation tax return and its own Companies House filings. A holding company with two trading subsidiaries is three sets of everything, plus consolidation and intercompany work. Two companies is not twice the price of one, but it is well over half as much again.
Payroll is priced per payslip and per run. Thirty people paid monthly is twelve runs a year. Thirty people paid weekly is fifty two. Pensions, starters and leavers, statutory pay and the construction industry scheme all add to it.
A standard quarterly return on accrual accounting is routine. Partial exemption, margin and retail schemes, monthly returns, imports and reverse charge work take real time and real judgement, and they are priced accordingly.
This is the biggest single swing in most quotes. Clean, reconciled Xero with receipts attached costs a fraction of a shoebox of paper and a bank account nobody has looked at since April. Rebuilding the record before we can report on it is a bookkeeping job with an accounts job on top.
A year end that arrives complete and on time is predictable work. One that arrives late, missing a stock figure, with a director's loan account nobody can explain, is not. Firms that quote low and then invoice for the mess are technically honest and practically unpleasant. We would rather price the reality up front.
Compliance is a fixed body of work with a defined output. Advice is not. If you want filings done accurately and otherwise to be left alone, that is one price. Monthly numbers, a forecast you trust, someone to argue with about a hire or an acquisition and a plan for selling is a different service, and it costs more.
Real shapes of business, with the figures we would expect. None of them are lowballed to look attractive.
£520,000 turnover, two employees, quarterly VAT
Around fifteen client invoices a month, a simple payroll for two, expenses on one card, and books kept properly in Xero. The work is annual accounts, corporation tax, four VAT returns, payroll and one personal tax return. Nothing needs fixing before it can be used.
Where it lands: Core, at or close to £300 per month plus VAT. Add a quarterly session on margin and pricing and it becomes Insights, moving towards £450 to £550.
£2.1m turnover, fifteen employees, subcontractors under CIS
Weekly payroll, monthly CIS returns and subcontractor verification, retentions and applications for payment, plant on hire purchase, and a bookkeeper on site who is good but not an accountant. The owner wants the margin on each contract while it is still running.
Where it lands: Insights, typically £900 to £1,300 per month plus VAT. Payroll and CIS account for much of it, and contract level reporting is why the owner wants the rest.
£6m combined turnover, thirty employees, one holding company
Four sets of statutory accounts and corporation tax returns, consolidated monthly management accounts, intercompany balances to reconcile, a payroll for thirty, property in one entity and a shareholder thinking about an exit inside five years.
Where it lands: Partner, typically £2,000 to £3,000 per month plus VAT. Exit preparation and structuring sit alongside it as eba Plus engagements, quoted separately so the transaction work is priced on its own.
A single company turning over £5m with thirty staff and reasonable bookkeeping sits at roughly £1,500 to £2,500 per month plus VAT with management accounts and advice included.
A starting price is only useful if you know where it stops. This is the boundary of Core.
The word "from" is doing real work there. £300 per month plus VAT is what a straightforward company with clean books pays. Add a payroll of twenty, a second entity or records that need rebuilding and the number moves, which is why we quote after looking at the records.
A sole trader with straightforward income and expenses should expect to pay between £40 and £150 per month, or £400 to £900 a year for accounts and a self assessment return prepared as a one off. A dormant company, or a single director company with almost no activity, sits at the bottom of that range. Bookkeeping is usually on top.
eba is not the cheapest option at that end of the market and we do not pretend otherwise. Our smallest ongoing engagements start above those figures, because they come with a named chartered accountant rather than a portal and a queue. If what you need is an accurate tax return at the lowest sensible price, a local bookkeeper or an online service will serve you better. We will still take one off work through eba Plus if you have a specific question worth answering properly.
There are businesses that should not hire us. It saves everyone time to say so on the page rather than in the third meeting.
A specialist contractor accountant or an online service will file your accounts and tax return properly for a good deal less than we charge, and with one invoice a month there is little for a chartered firm to add. Take the cheaper option.
If you are choosing between quotes on cost alone, we will lose and we should. What we sell is judgement and access. If you do not need those, you are paying for something you will not use.
Some businesses genuinely do not need an accountant involved during the year. A stable, profitable company with clean books and no plans to change anything is served very well by a smaller practice for a smaller fee.
Audit above a certain size, a listed parent, complex international structures, or an investor who insists on a particular tier of firm. We will say so when a bigger firm is the right answer.
We turn work away on this basis reasonably often. A firm that takes every client walking through the door is telling you something about the ones it already has.
Usually it makes no difference to the total. Most firms, eba included, charge the same whether you pay in twelve instalments or one annual bill, because the work is the same. Monthly by Direct Debit is easier on cash flow and stops a large invoice landing months after the year end, when the money has been spent. Treat a discount for paying a year up front with caution: it usually means the fee had room in it.
Some do and some do not, and it is worth asking before you sign anything. Traditional firms often bill in six minute units, so every call has a cost and clients quietly learn not to ring. eba does not do that. Day to day questions sit inside your package. If a question turns into a real piece of work, such as a restructure or a tax planning report, we scope and quote it before it starts.
You find out in one of two ways: an invoice you were not expecting, or a job quietly done to a lower standard to fit the fee. Protect yourself by getting the scope in writing rather than just the number, and by asking what would trigger an extra bill. A firm that has understood your business answers in specifics. A firm that has guessed answers in generalities.
Monthly, in almost every case. It spreads the cost across the year the work covers, keeps the fee inside your management accounts rather than distorting one month, and usually comes with a relationship that runs all year rather than one annual transaction. eba bills monthly by Direct Debit for that reason. One off specialist work is quoted as a fixed fee per engagement.
Not always. For a simple company with clean books, a low cost service is a rational choice and paying more would buy you nothing. It becomes a false economy when the fee is too low to cover the thinking: nobody looks at the numbers until months after the year end, and decisions get made without advice. That cost never appears on the invoice, which is why it is easy to miss.
Not legally, for most work. "Accountant" is not a protected title in the UK, so anyone can use it. Chartered status through ICAEW, ACCA or ICAS means qualification, compulsory professional indemnity insurance, continuing training and a complaints route that is not just the firm itself. For a very simple company an unqualified bookkeeper may be adequate. Once real money, complexity or risk is involved, the protection is worth what it costs.
For a single company that size with a monthly payroll and reasonable bookkeeping, expect roughly £1,500 to £2,500 per month plus VAT for compliance, management accounts through the year and regular advice. Compliance alone, with no reporting through the year, sits lower. A group structure, weekly payroll, CIS or poor records push it higher. At eba that is Partner territory, and we would quote it after looking at your records rather than your turnover.
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Thirty minutes on what the business does and what you actually need, then a fixed fee in writing with the scope alongside it. If a cheaper firm is the right answer, we will tell you.
