21 July 2026 · 6 min read · Bruce Thomas
There is no legal requirement for a small company to appoint an accountant, and most small companies are exempt from audit. So the honest answer is that you can do it yourself.
The better question is whether you should, and that depends on the obligations involved and how much your own time is worth.
What a director is responsible for
These duties sit with the director personally. Delegating the work does not delegate the responsibility, but it does substantially reduce the chance of getting it wrong.
- Statutory accounts filed at Companies House within nine months of the year end
- A Corporation Tax return within twelve months, with the tax paid at nine months and one day
- An annual confirmation statement
- Maintaining adequate accounting records
- PAYE and RTI filings where there is a payroll, including a director-only one
- VAT returns under Making Tax Digital where registered
- Personal Self Assessment returns for the directors where required
Where DIY tends to break down
The filings themselves are not usually the problem. The problems are the judgements: whether a dividend was lawfully paid, how the director's loan account should be treated, whether an expense is allowable, and how to handle capital expenditure.
An overdrawn director's loan account is the clearest example. It is easy to create by accident, it produces a tax charge nine months after the year end, and by the time it is spotted the opportunity to deal with it cheaply has often passed.
The value is in the planning, not the filing
Software can file a set of accounts. What it will not do is tell you that your salary level is wrong for this year's thresholds, that the machine you are about to buy should be purchased before the year end, or that a pension contribution would be more efficient than a dividend.
That is the part that usually pays for the fee several times over, and it only works if the conversation happens before the year end rather than after.
When you probably can manage alone
A dormant company, or a very simple company with one director, no employees, no VAT and a handful of transactions, is manageable for a confident owner using good software — provided you read the guidance carefully and diarise every deadline.
Once there is a payroll, VAT, assets, or more than one shareholder, the balance shifts quickly.
This article is general guidance for business owners in the UK and does not amount to advice for your particular circumstances. Tax rules change and the right answer depends on your figures — please take specific advice before acting.
