Your UK company's year with HMRC · Lesson 1 of 5

Set up from three certificates

1:32 · Captions: English, Arabic, French and Chinese.

A UK company's details are spread over letters from two government offices, and every new tool asks you to type them in again. In this lesson, Olivia sets up her studio from the papers she already has.

What you'll learn

  • Set up your company from the papers you already have
  • Choose the date your books start
  • Open the books from your last balance sheet

Step by step

  1. A business in the United Kingdom — Olivia creates a business profile for Hale & Moss, in the United Kingdom.
  2. The Certificate of Incorporation — First, the Certificate of Incorporation. Snappy reads the company's name, its number, and the day it was incorporated.
  3. The VAT certificate — Then the VAT certificate: the VAT number, and the months its quarters end.
  4. The PAYE letter — And the letter HMRC sent when the studio started employing people: its PAYE reference and its Accounts Office reference. She adds what the studio does for its clients: brand and design work. Hale & Moss closes its year at the end of March, so she sets the year-end to match.
  5. When the books start — Last year's Corporation Tax return isn't filed yet, so her books start on 1 April 2025, the first day of that year.
  6. The opening books — To open the books, she uploads her accountant's last balance sheet, and the bank statement up to that day. Snappy checks that the bank agrees with the balance sheet, and posts the opening balances.

Three letters and two opening papers, and the company is set up. Next: the VAT quarter.