Accounting services forTech Start-ups
Technology
A lot of people have had a great idea for a piece of tech that can change lives, but it either wasn’t so great, they didn’t follow it up or they didn’t do their research. So if you’re one of the few who has got it right so far, we take our hats off to you and wish you the best of luck with your venture. At Wilson Partners, we love entrepreneurs – it takes guile, determination, never say die attitude not to mention seriously hard work, innovation and a great team to realise your dreams with a tech start up and we’re here to help you on your journey and help give you a smoother ride.
With a team dedicated to the tech sector we are well versed in helping start ups bring their vision to reality right through to exit. As one of the most important sectors, both in the UK and on a global level, it is crucial that you partner with a firm that gets what you’re doing and what you’re trying to achieve.
We’re passionate about innovators and entrepreneurs and the impact they have on the world. At Wilson Partners we are specialist technology accountants that can help high growth technology companies. With our own Corporate Finance team in-house, we can not only help with the numbers, but also with funding, acquisition and exit too. Our dedicated Innovations and R&D team can help provide a boost to your innovation through maximizing any tax incentives that are available.
When you have your initial idea and you’ve decided to take it forward into something tangible, it can be a long while before you have something that starts generating revenue. You may start with your own personal funding but you can burn through this super-fast before you might start to look at friends and family to get you towards delivering a MVP. This can be a difficult time for any founder as there are many hurdles along the way. We get the challenges that face tech startups and that’s why we are here to hold your hand through the process. There’s obviously the basic stuff such as company incorporation, share structuring, management reporting – but this is the side show to our real talent which is being there for you as a trusted partner and adviser with a talent pool that reaches far and wide in helping you achieve your goals faster and get you from start up to MVP before getting you structured for real growth and ultimately – exit.
Whether you have been with us from the start or you’ve got to a point where you have established a user base and MVP and feel like you need better support, this is an exciting time and Wilson Partners can help high growth tech companies to scale. You’ll need support across many areas so you can focus on the business itself and we can help in areas such as:
Taking care of the numbers
With a growing user base, investors, marketing budgets and continued investment in your product, there are crucial areas of the business which need clarity, focus and experience. Outsourcing stuff like book keeping and payroll as you grow can alleviate some of the daily pain – and because we have clients with 1 employee up to 1000 employees we can scale what you get from us with no risk – we’re built to last the journey.
Management reporting for high growth tech businesses
Accurate and up to date financial reporting will be one of the most valuable investments you’ll make as typically you’ll have a growing number of stakeholders who will need to make quick decisions. Very few of them will make a decision based on a hunch or how much they like your product, this needs to be backed up with robust, fact based information that can withstand the utmost scrutiny and give them a real-time, fact based view of the business. Management accounts, cashflow forecasts and scenario planning are the very minimum requirement to attract and maintain investors and of course keep you on track with your ambitions.
EIS and SEIS
Talking of attracting investors, we can also provide support with EIS and SEIS applications that offer generous tax reliefs to potential investors.
Getting government support for your innovation
The government is heavily committed to supporting innovation in the UK, with vast sums of money available in the shape of R&D Tax Reliefs and The Patent Box. Our dedicated innovations and R&D team can help you put together robust claims that will provide a boost to your cashflow, helping you achieve your ambitions even quicker.
Now that you’re in the advanced phase of your business, the challenges are quite different to the start up phase. Your operation will be much bigger, possibly with overseas production and markets, increased regulation and of course the challenge of keeping ahead of your competition will all be part of the daily routine. Having an experienced team in your corner will not only relieve the burden of the day to day but provide reassurance to your investors, help you maintain key staff and keep you on track through continued growth. Then of course the big questions – do you scale further? Do you exit? Do you merge with or acquire competitors? All stuff that is much easier when you have a sounding board that can look at your business against the market backdrop and help you de-risk your decision making from hiring, to investment, growth and exit. The kind of things we can deliver for you are:
- Raising finance
- Outsourced CFO / Advisory
- CoSec and Board reporting
- Business strategy
- Audit
- MBOs
- Employee share schemes and EMI
- Expansion planning and forecasting (at home and overseas)
- Business valuations
- Due diligence
- Exit planning and implementation
"We have used Wilson Partners for a number of years across core bookkeeping, tax and EMI options, company secretarial and payroll and have really enjoyed working with them- they have an excellent team, are highly responsive and really understand companies of our size and focus"
Hazy.com
The tech start-upjourney
Whilst every business is different, there’s a lot of consistency for how the journey from start up to exit might look. Here’s a rough guide of what your business journey might look like, for you to get your head around and prepare you for what’s ahead.
Shareholder Agreement
This is a legal document that will define the rights, obligations and roles of your shareholders. This is one of the most important documents you will need, so it’s crucial to make this a priority at the beginning...
However good your relationships are, who knows where you’ll be in 5 months or 5 years? So getting this stuff down on paper can help avoid many an awkward conversation, allowing you to make quick decisions and move on. Typically we would work alongside a lawyer to deliver a robust document that suits all parties.
Tax Planning
But I haven’t made any money yet? You might feel like you can kick the can down the road on this one, but if you’re anticipating fast growth, the tax structure in the UK can provide many dents in your cashflow.
It is vital to have this on the agenda at the beginning to ensure that you understand your commitments both on a personal level and company level and can factor this into your forecasts. Simple stuff like choosing how to pay yourself, when to register for VAT, your financial year end and much more can have a huge impact on your cashflow and on the amount you pay and as the business grows. Our extensive tax team can provide advice to ensure you always put your best foot forward.
SEIS/EIS
SEIS and EIS are schemes designed to make buying shares in qualifying companies more attractive to investors as they offer generous tax incentives to mitigate the risk that comes with investing in an early stage start up.
We can advise you, set you up and help with the administration to make you more attractive to investors.
Cloud accounting
We love cloud accounting. We’ve been a platinum partner with Xero for many years and it makes a lot of sense to get set up with it.
As well as establishing some best practices for accounting, you can save time and admin with a plethora of features and add-ons, not to mention the ability to view your financial data in real time. Being set up properly and keeping your data up to date will allow you to make quick decisions with confidence as well as enabling quick access for key stakeholders. You can also set Xero up to help with R&D tax relief claims (but more on that later). We can help you get up and running with Xero in a flash so you can be using it from day one. For any business, cloud accounting is your friend.
Fundraising
When it comes to needing investment, we can help you get everything in place to help present your case to potential investors.
From robust financial reports, to P&L and cashflow forecasts to business planning, Wilson Partners has the expertise to give you the best shot.
R&D reliefs
With most tech start ups, the majority of early stage time and investment is in innovation. R&D reliefs and The Patent box provide generous tax incentives in the form of either cash rebates or reduced corporation tax bills to expedite innovation.
Our dedicated Innovations and R&D team can help you build a robust claim that will help you achieve your ambitions quicker. We can also get your accounting set up to ensure you’re tracking all of your R&D costs ready for when you want to make a claim.
Employee incentive schemes
Another great initiative, employee incentive schemes such as EMI are crucial to ensuring you not only attract but retain key personnel who may need to look beyond the salary on offer in order to be lured to your business.
At Wilson Partners, we will provide advice on how to structure your scheme ensuring that it is aligned with your objectives, then we'll get you set up and administer the scheme for you.
Cashflow forecasting
Another crucial part for any business is strong cashflow management. It can be the difference between success and failure and as such you need to be all over it all of the time.
Being set up with cloud accounting and having some good practices in place is a great start. Wilson Partners can work with you to ensure that those inevitable bumps in the road are as smooth as they can be and enable you to make great decisions as you'll know exactly where you are with your cashflow.
Board reporting
Now you’re at the business end of the journey, you’ve likely got founders, investors, board members and your SLT requiring regular reports to enable clear and effective decision making.
This goes beyond the typical management reporting of P&L, balance sheet and cashflow and instead looks at the key metrics in your business. Things such as churn rates, customer lifetime value, breakeven point need to be monitored and we can help get you set up to ensure you have all the information you need.
Expanding overseas
If part of your plan is to expand into overseas territories, you’ll need to understand local laws around company and tax legislation.
With access to a global network of like-minded professionals who love working with tech start ups we can introduce you to the best people to help make it happen.
Legacy planning
So you’ve realised your ambitions, you’ve got a tidy sum in your bank account and now is a good time to think about how you manage your wealth going forward.
With a hefty tax burden on HNW individuals, not to mention the prospect of your estate being taxed by up to 40% when you die – we can help ensure you have all your ducks lined to help reduce the tax burden on you and your family. Then, you can sit back, relax, enjoy some time out whilst contemplating whether you go again! Go on, if you’ve got this far we’re pretty sure we know the answer to that!
Getting ready for exit
If we’ve been working with you since startup, then we’ll have had this conversation with you many a time as we will have likely been encouraging you to think about what exit looks like. We do this because it’s important to have a clear marker to work towards to help drive timely decision making.
Once you get to this point, we’ll help you explore the different routes to exit from MBO, to IPO, to trade sale. With our in-house Corporate Finance team we can value your business and help establish the most suitable route to exit. We will also advise on the best options for tax planning purposes to ensure that you don’t make any costly decisions. We'll also give you full oversight of the different routes available to maximise the return on investment which by now will be very well earned.
The tech start-upjourney
Whilst every business is different, there’s a lot of consistency for how the journey from start up to exit might look. Here’s a rough guide of what your business journey might look like, for you to get your head around and prepare you for what’s ahead.
Shareholder Agreement
This is a legal document that will define the rights, obligations and roles of your shareholders. This is one of the most important documents you will need, so it’s crucial to make this a priority at the beginning...
However good your relationships are, who knows where you’ll be in 5 months or 5 years? So getting this stuff down on paper can help avoid many an awkward conversation, allowing you to make quick decisions and move on. Typically we would work alongside a lawyer to deliver a robust document that suits all parties.
Tax Planning
But I haven’t made any money yet? You might feel like you can kick the can down the road on this one, but if you’re anticipating fast growth, the tax structure in the UK can provide many dents in your cashflow.
It is vital to have this on the agenda at the beginning to ensure that you understand your commitments both on a personal level and company level and can factor this into your forecasts. Simple stuff like choosing how to pay yourself, when to register for VAT, your financial year end and much more can have a huge impact on your cashflow and on the amount you pay and as the business grows. Our extensive tax team can provide advice to ensure you always put your best foot forward.
Cloud accounting
We love cloud accounting. We’ve been a platinum partner with Xero for many years and it makes a lot of sense to get set up with it.
As well as establishing some best practices for accounting, you can save time and admin with a plethora of features and add-ons, not to mention the ability to view your financial data in real time. Being set up properly and keeping your data up to date will allow you to make quick decisions with confidence as well as enabling quick access for key stakeholders. You can also set Xero up to help with R&D tax relief claims (but more on that later). We can help you get up and running with Xero in a flash so you can be using it from day one. For any business, cloud accounting is your friend.
SEIS/EIS
SEIS and EIS are schemes designed to make buying shares in qualifying companies more attractive to investors as they offer generous tax incentives to mitigate the risk that comes with investing in an early stage start up.
We can advise you, set you up and help with the administration to make you more attractive to investors.
Fundraising
When it comes to needing investment, we can help you get everything in place to help present your case to potential investors.
From robust financial reports, to P&L and cashflow forecasts to business planning, Wilson Partners has the expertise to give you the best shot.
R&D reliefs
With most tech start ups, the majority of early stage time and investment is in innovation. R&D reliefs and The Patent box provide generous tax incentives in the form of either cash rebates or reduced corporation tax bills to expedite innovation.
Our dedicated Innovations and R&D team can help you build a robust claim that will help you achieve your ambitions quicker. We can also get your accounting set up to ensure you’re tracking all of your R&D costs ready for when you want to make a claim.
Cashflow forecasting
Another crucial part for any business is strong cashflow management. It can be the difference between success and failure and as such you need to be all over it all of the time.
Being set up with cloud accounting and having some good practices in place is a great start. Wilson Partners can work with you to ensure that those inevitable bumps in the road are as smooth as they can be and enable you to make great decisions as you'll know exactly where you are with your cashflow.
Employee incentive schemes
Another great initiative, employee incentive schemes such as EMI are crucial to ensuring you not only attract but retain key personnel who may need to look beyond the salary on offer in order to be lured to your business.
At Wilson Partners, we will provide advice on how to structure your scheme ensuring that it is aligned with your objectives, then we'll get you set up and administer the scheme for you.
Board reporting
Now you’re at the business end of the journey, you’ve likely got founders, investors, board members and your SLT requiring regular reports to enable clear and effective decision making.
This goes beyond the typical management reporting of P&L, balance sheet and cashflow and instead looks at the key metrics in your business. Things such as churn rates, customer lifetime value, breakeven point need to be monitored and we can help get you set up to ensure you have all the information you need.
Expanding overseas
If part of your plan is to expand into overseas territories, you’ll need to understand local laws around company and tax legislation.
With access to a global network of like-minded professionals who love working with tech start ups we can introduce you to the best people to help make it happen.
Getting ready for exit
If we’ve been working with you since startup, then we’ll have had this conversation with you many a time as we will have likely been encouraging you to think about what exit looks like. We do this because it’s important to have a clear marker to work towards to help drive timely decision making.
Once you get to this point, we’ll help you explore the different routes to exit from MBO, to IPO, to trade sale. With our in-house Corporate Finance team we can value your business and help establish the most suitable route to exit. We will also advise on the best options for tax planning purposes to ensure that you don’t make any costly decisions. We'll also give you full oversight of the different routes available to maximise the return on investment which by now will be very well earned.
Legacy planning
So you’ve realised your ambitions, you’ve got a tidy sum in your bank account and now is a good time to think about how you manage your wealth going forward.
With a hefty tax burden on HNW individuals, not to mention the prospect of your estate being taxed by up to 40% when you die – we can help ensure you have all your ducks lined to help reduce the tax burden on you and your family. Then, you can sit back, relax, enjoy some time out whilst contemplating whether you go again! Go on, if you’ve got this far we’re pretty sure we know the answer to that!
Want to know how we can help you on your Tech start-up journey? Then send us your details and we’ll get in touch.
For more detailed information and a meeting to discuss your accounting and finance requirements, please call us on: 01628 770 770 or email: [email protected]