As a business owner, you need to keep relevant records of your business activity and your own personal finances.
Business records to keep
As a limited company, you must keep two specific kinds of record: those relating to the company itself and those relating to your finances.
You must keep these records for at least 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to – and you can keep them as hard copy documents, digital documents or cloud-based files in your software systems.
Records relating to your company will include:
- Details of your directors, shareholders and company secretaries
- Results of any shareholder votes and resolutions
- Promises to repay loans at a specific date in the future (‘debentures’) and who you’ll be paying back
- Promises your company makes for payments if something goes wrong and it’s the company’s fault (‘indemnities’)
- Transactions when someone buys shares in the company
- Loans or mortgages secured against the company’s assets.
Records relating to your finances include:
- All money received and spent by the company
- Details of assets owned by the company
- Debts the company owes or is owed
- Stock the company owns at the end of the financial year
- The stocktakings you used to work out the stock figure
- All goods bought and sold
- Who you bought and sold them to and from (unless you run a retail business)
- You must also keep any other financial records, information and calculations used to prepare your company accounts.
Find out more details about your business records here
Personal finance records to keep
As a director paying personal income tax, or a self-employed business owner paying self-assessment tax, there are personal finance records you must also keep.
You must keep these records for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year in question.
These records will include:
- Your income from employment
- Records of any expenses you’ve incurred
- Details of any benefits you’ve received (for example, Statutory Maternity Pay etc.)
- Income from any employee share schemes or share-related benefits
- Details of any savings, investments and pensions
- Income from any property rentals
- Any capital gains or losses
- Income from overseas sources
Find out more details about your personal finance records here
If you want to know about the right records to keep, give us a call on 01454 300 999 or drop an email to info@fd-works.co.uk
Find out more about the FD Works’ approach to finance at fd-works.co.uk