Laurel Finance - Dorset

Laurel Finance - Dorset 🍃 Looking to regain business control, confidence and clarity?

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Step Four after registering my company was to open a new bank account in the company name.This is so important and so ea...
25/08/2026

Step Four after registering my company was to open a new bank account in the company name.

This is so important and so easily missed. It really is so helpful to have a bank account that is purely for business transactions.

I had a separate account from my personal stuff when I was a sole trader and now I have a new one in the company name purely for company 'stuff'.

There are tonnes of banks to choose from including high street and online, each has their pros and cons, but we really are spoilt for choice!

It keeps everything clean and easy to understand - a no brainer!

Posting a snap from our weekend campervan trip 😁

Do you have any other tips to keep things clean and tidy when it comes to running a business?

As part of registering as a company, I took the opportunity to sort out my processes and make sure my finances are clean...
13/08/2026

As part of registering as a company, I took the opportunity to sort out my processes and make sure my finances are clean and useful.

Step three was to open a brand new account.

I don't want to get into which software is the best - there are tonnes out there and loads of pros and cons of each. I am a Xero girly so am keeping it that way (for now at least....)

A spangly brand new Xero is really important to me so that I don't end up with a confusing mix of sole trader transactions and company transactions all mashed into the same reports.

I am sure there will be times where I have forgotten to update a subscription or something and it goes out of the sole trader credit card, but I will be able to deal with this as it happens and it will be super clear to see what we did when I look back.

This means that I have a really clear picture of how the company is doing when I run my reports, without having to spend ages filtering out information that isn't relevant or should be somewhere else. Clean and useful!

What is one thing you have done to make your numbers cleaner and more useful to you?

After incorporating my company recently, I thought it would be interesting to share a few things that I have done to set...
11/08/2026

After incorporating my company recently, I thought it would be interesting to share a few things that I have done to set out on the right path, keeping things simple going forward.

The second thing I did was to register for PAYE. This was some sound advice I received from Oxley at Aurora Services Ltd when we were having a catch up.

When you are a director and a shareholder of a company, there are a few ways of extracting money out of the business. Again, there is lots to this and I would wholly recommend talking to someone who knows their stuff before you take ANY money out of the company for yourself.

One way is to pay yourself as an employee. To do this you need to run payroll and pay PAYE. This is fine and dandy if you are registered, but if you aren't it is a real mess to try to sort out monies that have been paid to you. So, in the spirit of keeping it simple, I have registered. I am not even sure how much or when I will pay myself, but I have one less thing to worry about.

Payroll is not my specialist area, so I will definitely be asking for Katy's help to make sure I get this right.

What's one piece of advice you have received in business that has saved you a lot of time or hassle?

I mentioned last week that I had recently incorporated into a company. This was a great opportunity to reset and refresh...
04/08/2026

I mentioned last week that I had recently incorporated into a company. This was a great opportunity to reset and refresh my processes to make sure I am keeping the finances straight and making life easy for myself.

Number 1 on the list was to register for VAT.

Now, as you can imagine there is a lot to consider before making this decision - so please don't make it lightly or off the back of this post - talk it through with someone in the know.

I know that I will be hitting the VAT turnover threshold in the next few months (currently £90k of annual Vatable sales) and so I decided that I would like (!) to take the pain of registering for VAT now while everything is building and bedding in as opposed to having a headache further down the line.

Why would there be a headache? HMRC are currently taking around 40 working days to process a VAT registration, but you still have to charge VAT from your effective registration date. Until you receive your VAT number, this can leave you in the awkward position of either reissuing invoices later or asking clients to pay the VAT separately once your registration is confirmed.

There are plenty of fors and againsts when it comes to registering for VAT and the main thing to take into consideration is the statutory requirements to do so. Aside from that, it really is worth planning and thinking about when registering makes most sense for your business, every one is different.

Let's hear it then - what has been your biggest VAT headache? I bet there are some juicy ones....!

I have recently incorporated Laurel Finance into a company - which is super exciting! I thought it would be useful to sh...
31/07/2026

I have recently incorporated Laurel Finance into a company - which is super exciting! I thought it would be useful to share 10 steps I have taken at the outset to make my life easier when it comes to the finances. (I fully believe that if there is a simpler way of doing something, then it should be done that way - why make life hard?!)

1. Registered for VAT
2. Registered for PAYE
3. Set up a brand new account
4. Set up a new bank account
5. Set up a new credit card
6. Created tracking categories in Xero
7. Took out a new subscription
8. Set up a monthly savings account transfer for VAT and Tax payments
9. Updated my insurance cover
10. Created a rough cashflow forecast

The beauty of these is that they are not just options at the very start of business - you can implement any of these right now whether you have been in business 10 minutes or 10 years.

I will do a post about each in more detail.

What else would you add to the list? What have you implemented in your business that has made life easier or prevented headaches further down the line?

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