The filing list is the same at every firm, so that is rarely where two quotes differ.

Every limited company files accounts, a corporation tax return and a confirmation statement, plus VAT and payroll where they apply. Any competent firm can do that work.

The gap between quotes comes from what sits around the filing. One client of ours, a procurement consultant, had almost nothing in box 4 of his VAT return. His costs were overseas software and reverse-charge services. He had been put on the standard scheme by default. Moving him to the flat rate scheme brought his VAT bill down every quarter, with no change to turnover.

That took an hour of attention in his first month. It has been worth more than the fee every quarter since. A fee that covers filing alone would never have found it.

When a client joins us, we review structure, VAT scheme, salary and dividends, and software before anything else. Sometimes the conclusion is that nothing needs changing, and we say so plainly. Either way the owner knows where they stand.

The billing model decides how often you speak to your accountant, and most owners work that out too late.

Hourly rates look fair on paper. You pay for the time used. In practice the arrangement teaches you to stop calling.

Owners on hourly terms save their questions up for the year-end meeting. By then the hire has happened, the dividend has gone out, and the van was bought in the wrong month. The advice arrives after the decision it was meant to inform.

A fixed monthly fee removes that calculation. Asking costs nothing, so questions arrive when they are still useful. That is the entire argument for it, and it is why most decent firms moved across years ago.

Fixed fees do have a weak point worth naming. If the scope was guessed at the start, someone ends up on the wrong side of it within a year. We scope after seeing the books and the filing history, rather than from a form on a website. It means the first conversation is longer and the second year is quieter.

The honest answer is a range, and where a company lands in it depends on four things.

We are not going to print a figure here. A number without scope is exactly how quotes get compared badly, and published price lists are a marketing exercise more than a quotation.

Four things move the fee for an established limited company:

• Transaction volume and whether there is payroll to run.
• VAT: whether you are registered, and how complex the scheme and sector rules are.
• Who does the bookkeeping, you or the firm, and how current it is kept.
• Whether advice is included in the fee or invoiced separately.

The fourth one is where quotes diverge most. A firm billing advice separately can quote low and stay profitable, because the planning work either becomes a second invoice or never happens at all.

Our fee is scoped after the set-up review and paid monthly, with no long-term contract. It covers everything the company has to file plus the planning: VAT scheme, salary and dividends, and the corporation tax forecast a month before the bill lands.

If you are comparing your current accountant with a new one, price belongs at the end of the conversation.

Five questions tell you more than any quote:

1. Who does the work, and who replies when I email.
2. When will I know my corporation tax bill, in months before the due date.
3. Has anyone checked my VAT scheme against my actual costs this year.
4. What happens when I ring in June about a hire.
5. How many clients does the person handling my account carry.

The last one matters more than owners expect. I spent years as an account manager at a larger firm. Clients kept asking to be moved back to me after they were reassigned to someone else. One construction company did it more than once. That is why Nexus takes three new clients a month.

Switching mid year is normally straightforward. Professional clearance and records collection are handled for you, and we do not charge separately for the handover. There is more detail in our guide on how to switch accountants mid year.

Two changes arriving in April 2026 will affect what your accountant has to do, and what firms charge for it.

The first phase of Making Tax Digital for income tax starts in April 2026 with the highest qualifying income band. It applies to sole trader and property income rather than company profits. Plenty of directors are still caught, because they hold a rental or run something on the side. Quarterly updates replace one annual return, which is more routine work through the year.

Changes to the Construction Industry Scheme are also due, which matters if you run a construction or trades business with subcontractors.

Worth asking your current firm now whether your fee covers the extra work, or whether a repricing letter is coming in the spring. The answer tells you something about how the relationship is run.