Building an all-in-one financial tool for small businesses

This month Countingup passed a huge milestone in our short history as we became the UK’s first challenger bank, with plans to integrate full accounting services, to officially launch for sole traders and limited companies.

Moving from beta to official launch is a big step, but we are still only at the beginning of our journey of helping all small businesses have their accounting and banking in one place.

As reported by FT Advisor, we specialise in bringing accounting services and banking together for small businesses. Insider noted that we worked with over 1,000 small businesses, sole traders and entrepreneurs to review the service, provide invaluable feedback and help shape the product as it is today, as well as in the future.

Any sole trader, freelancer and/or small limited company can visit countingup.com now and start the process of getting a Countingup business current account. Benefits include:

• Automated bookkeeping
• Easy and fast account opening
• Free to open an account
• Free contactless Mastercard, sort code and account number
• Real-time profit and loss reporting

Additional accounting and tax features will be rolled out over the coming months. Businesses can get started with a current account for free while the combined business current account and accounting product will be available to the self-employed for less than £10 per month.

Small businesses all over the UK are wasting a huge amount of time on financial admin. Time that could otherwise be used to help your customers and grow your business.

Whilst HMRC’s innovative Making Tax Digital project will give better visibility of the tax liability a business is facing it also requires more regular reporting. Countingup will ensure small businesses comply with HMRC’s new MTD requirements simply and efficiently. (Get our guide to MTD here)

Instant, automated expense recording allows small business to make smarter, more actionable decisions with real-time insights into the health of their business. By ensuring all expenses are accounted for, Countingup can also reduce a small business’ tax bill.

“An accounting system reveals what’s going on behind bank transactions — but small business owners only tend to see this analysis when they find time to do the books. This can be months later, or at the end of the tax year in a mad rush before the self-assessment deadline. This means that many opportunities to gain valuable and actionable insight in real time are lost. This could be the difference between success and failure for a small business”

• Tim Fouracre, CEO and Founder of Countingup as quoted in BusinessAdvice.co.uk

You can open an account with us in just 5 minutes. All you need is a smartphone and your passport or driving licence. No more waiting several weeks to see if the traditional banks will allow you to open an account.

If you choose to use the banking service without the accounting features, then don’t worry about being charged for things you aren’t using. Our banking service is free if deposits are below £750, and only £2.95 per month if above.

The UK has 4.3 million self-employed and micro businesses, which have been neglected by traditional banks. We have taken a different approach and are rethinking how financial services work for sole traders and small businesses.

Additional features will be rolled out throughout 2018 and beyond, which includes self-assessment tax filing to help support small businesses when the government’s Making Tax Digital deadline approaches. We also have a place for our customers to put forward feature ideas they would like to see in the app and vote for their favourites.

We have a lot more to come in the months and years ahead, including creating and tracking invoices, and expense management features.

We are very excited about the future, and we can’t wait to bring it to you.

Are you a freelancer, sole trader or running a limited company? You can get a Countingup account in as little as 5 minutes.

Download for iPhone and Android devices today.