BOOKKEEPING FOR LIMITED COMPANIES · UK
Bookkeeping for limited companies, kept up to date every working day.
Wenzo keeps your company's books current in the software you already use. Your director's loan account stays clear, your records are ready for VAT, and your accountant gets a tidy set of books at year end.
Why limited company books need more care
A limited company is a separate legal person. Its money is not the director's money, even when one person owns all the shares and runs everything.
That changes how the books work. Every payment between you and the company has to be recorded as what it is: salary, dividend, expense repayment or loan. The company must keep records of all money received and spent, its assets, and debts owed by and to it, along with the receipts, invoices and bank statements behind the accounts and Company Tax Return.
Those records must be kept for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to. HMRC can fine a company £3,000, or a director can be disqualified, if accounting records are not kept. Daily bookkeeping keeps all of this in order as it happens, rather than in a rush before the deadline.
Director's loan account visibility
The director's loan account is the running record of money you take from, or pay into, the company outside salary, dividends and expense repayments. GOV.UK says you must keep a record of any money you borrow from or pay into the company, and show any amount owed by or to you on the balance sheet in the annual accounts.
In practice the account moves more often than directors expect. A personal purchase on the company card, a transfer to your own account before dividends are agreed, or a company bill paid from your personal card all change the balance.
What we do day to day
- Spot personal and mixed payments. When a payment on the company bank or card looks personal, we post it to the director's loan account and ask you to confirm, rather than hiding it in expenses.
- Record money you put in. If you pay a company cost personally or lend the company money, we record it so the company's debt to you is clear.
- Keep the balance visible. Your monthly summary shows the director's loan balance, so you know whether you owe the company or it owes you.
We record what happened. Decisions about salary, dividends or clearing the balance are for you and your accountant.
Why the balance matters for tax
If you owe the company money at the end of its accounting period, it can lead to extra tax. Under the GOV.UK rules, if a loan is not repaid within 9 months of the end of the Corporation Tax accounting period, the company pays Corporation Tax on the outstanding amount at 35.75% for loans made on or after 6 April 2026, 33.75% for loans made from 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2026, and 32.5% for loans made before 6 April 2022. The company can reclaim that tax after the loan is repaid, but not the interest.
If you are a shareholder and director and owe the company more than £10,000 at any time in the year, the company must treat the loan as a benefit in kind and deduct Class 1 National Insurance. You must also report the loan on your personal Self Assessment tax return.
A made-up example. A hypothetical one-director consultancy pays a £600 personal holiday deposit from the company account in March. Posted as an expense, it would understate profit and the director's loan balance would look £600 lower than it really is. We post it to the director's loan account and flag it in the monthly summary, so the director can repay it or agree with their accountant how it is treated. This is an invented example, not a real business.
VAT-ready records
A company must register for VAT if its taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or is expected to go over £90,000 in the next 30 days. A company below that can choose to register voluntarily.
Once registered, the VAT return is only as good as the records behind it. We keep those records ready:
- Every bank line reconciled. Sales and purchases match the bank, so nothing is counted twice or missed.
- The right VAT code on each transaction. Standard, reduced, zero-rated, exempt and outside the scope are kept apart. Where a receipt does not show VAT properly, we do not claim it and we ask the supplier or you for a proper invoice.
- Missing invoices chased. Purchases without paperwork are listed and followed up before the quarter closes, not after.
We prepare the records. Submitting the VAT return is quoted separately. Our guide on how to file a VAT return explains the steps, and reclaiming VAT covers what you can claim back.
Year-end handover to your accountant
Annual accounts must usually reach Companies House within 9 months of the company's financial year end. The Company Tax Return is due 12 months after the end of the accounting period for Corporation Tax, but the tax itself is due 9 months and 1 day after the period ends. That means the books need to be finished well before the return.
When your year ends, we hand your accountant books they can work from straight away:
- Bank and card accounts reconciled to the year-end statements.
- Customer and supplier balances that match what is actually owed, with old items explained.
- The director's loan account with every movement recorded and the closing balance clear.
- A list of open questions, such as items we could not find paperwork for, so nothing is guessed.
Year-end adjustments, the annual accounts and the Company Tax Return (CT600) stay with your accountant, or can be quoted separately. See what year-end accounts are and the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant.
Salary, dividends and expenses in the books
Directors are often paid through a mix of salary and dividends. We record what is paid, as it is paid, so the books match your payroll records and the dividends your accountant has documented. Running payroll itself is quoted separately.
Expense claims are posted against receipts, so the company only records costs it can support. Our guides on paying yourself a director's salary and allowable expenses for limited companies give the wider picture.
What is included, and what is quoted separately
Every package covers the same daily work: bookkeeping every UK working day in your existing software, bank reconciliation and receipt matching, finance inbox monitoring, missing invoices and receipts followed up, and a monthly financial summary in plain English.
We work in Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, Dext, VT Transaction+ and others. You keep your own software subscription, and we work as an invited user where the software supports it. If your company's records are behind, we can bring them up to date first with catch-up bookkeeping.
Some work sits outside the monthly packages and is quoted separately: catch-up work, annual accounts and Company Tax Returns, payroll, CIS returns, VAT return submission and other statutory filings.