Paulina Atherton consulting

Paulina Atherton consulting Helping sole traders & small LTDs understand their numbers and stay in control.

“Do you remember what this £126 payment was for?” 🤔“When was it?”“November.”..“Absolutely no idea.” 😂And this is one of ...
12/10/2026

“Do you remember what this £126 payment was for?” 🤔

“When was it?”

“November.”..
“Absolutely no idea.” 😂

And this is one of the simplest reasons I prefer doing bookkeeping regularly.

Ask somebody about a transaction from last week and there's a pretty good chance they'll remember it.

Ask them 10 months later and we've entered archaeological territory. 🕵️‍♀️

Then we're searching emails, invoices, bank statements and trying to work out what on earth happened.

Good bookkeeping isn't about being brilliant at fixing a mess.
I'd much rather stop the mess being created in the first place.
Small problem today ➡️ small solution.

Small problem ignored for 10 months ➡️ considerably less small problem. 😅

Doing your Self Assessment doesn't start with the tax return. 👀It starts with getting your records in order.Before I can...
09/10/2026

Doing your Self Assessment doesn't start with the tax return. 👀

It starts with getting your records in order.

Before I can do anything useful, I need to understand what actually happened in your business.

Things like:
💷 What you earned
🧾 What you spent
🏦 Your business transactions
📂 The records you've kept
💼 Any other relevant income or information

And this is exactly why doing it earlier is easier than doing it in January.

If something is missing now, we have time to find it.
If something doesn't make sense, we have time to ask questions.
If something is wrong, we have time to sort it.

January detective work is considerably less fun. 🔎😂

“Paulina... can I put this through the business?” 👀Possibly one of my favourite questions. 😂And unfortunately, the answe...
07/10/2026

“Paulina... can I put this through the business?” 👀

Possibly one of my favourite questions. 😂

And unfortunately, the answer is very often...

It depends.

So I'm starting a little series.

I'll take some of the expenses small business owners regularly ask about and explain when they may be allowable, when they're not and where people sometimes get caught out.

☕ Coffee
👗 Clothes
📱 Mobile phone
🏠 Working from home
🚗 Travel
🍝 Meals

Let's start with the one YOU actually want to know about.

👇 Which one should I do first?

07/10/2026

Who’s doing your bookkeeping? 👀

You, after a full day of work? Your partner at the weekend? Your mum, because she’s “good with numbers”? 😅

Family helping out can be lovely. But when “just a few receipts” becomes hours of work every month, it might be time to give them a break.

Let your partner be your partner, and your mum enjoy a visit without a spreadsheet involved ❤️

I help small business owners get their books organised and understand their numbers.

If bookkeeping is taking up your time, or someone else’s evenings, send me a message. Let’s see how I can help.

📍 Based in Ilkley, working with businesses across the UK.

The more businesses I work with, the clearer my ideal client becomes.And they're not necessarily getting bigger.They're ...
05/10/2026

The more businesses I work with, the clearer my ideal client becomes.

And they're not necessarily getting bigger.

They're getting smaller. 😅

👤 Sole traders
🏢 One-director LTDs
💼 Small, owner-managed businesses

Businesses where the owner is still close enough to everything to know every customer, every supplier and probably every problem too.

That's where I can make the biggest difference.

Not by producing another report nobody wants to read.

But by taking something completely off their plate.
📚 Books kept up to date
🏦 Bank reconciled
🧾 Records organised
❓ Questions dealt with as they happen
📊 Numbers that actually make sense

I'm building PAC around small businesses deliberately.

And the more I work with them, the more convinced I am that it's the right direction for me.

I'd much rather message a client today saying:"Just checking, what was this payment for?"than six months later saying:"W...
01/10/2026

I'd much rather message a client today saying:

"Just checking, what was this payment for?"

than six months later saying:

"We have a problem."

That's the difference between bookkeeping and firefighting.

🔥 Firefighting reacts.

📊 Good bookkeeping catches things while they're still small.

Questions get answered while people still remember the answers.

Transactions get reconciled.

Missing information gets chased.

No giant clean-up at the end of the year.

I want to meet my clients before the problem starts.

Not after.

January Paulina has asked me to send you a message... 😂Please don't wait until January to start thinking about your Self...
01/10/2026

January Paulina has asked me to send you a message... 😂

Please don't wait until January to start thinking about your Self Assessment.

Yes, the deadline is 31 January.

No, that doesn't mean 29 January is a good time to start looking for your bank statements. 😅

If you're self-employed, now is actually a pretty good time to get organised.
🧾 Find the receipts
🏦 Check the bank statements
💷 Make sure your income is recorded
📂 Deal with the things you've been putting off

No panic.

No digging through 12 months of emails.

No suddenly remembering that half your receipts are somewhere in the car.

Just get it done.

Future you will be very grateful.

And yes, I do Self Assessments for sole traders. 😊

If I could permanently remove ONE financial admin job from your business...What would you choose? 😂🧾 Receipts💷 Chasing i...
30/09/2026

If I could permanently remove ONE financial admin job from your business...

What would you choose? 😂

🧾 Receipts
💷 Chasing invoices
🏦 Bank reconciliation
📊 Keeping Xero up to date
📁 Finding documents
😬 Getting everything ready for tax/VAT

I'm researching what small business owners actually want help with.

Not what bookkeepers THINK they should want help with.

There's a difference. 👀

If you're a sole trader or run a small LTD:

👇 https://forms.gle/MHeYzoHGj5eUDEfy8

⏱️ Around 2 minutes
❤️ Every completed survey = £1 to charity
🎯 Maximum 100 responses = £100

And even if you don't do the survey, tell me your answer below. I'm curious.

You don't hire a bookkeeper because you CAN'T reconcile a bank account.You probably can.You can also clean your office.B...
28/09/2026

You don't hire a bookkeeper because you CAN'T reconcile a bank account.

You probably can.

You can also clean your office.

Build your own website.

Do your own marketing.

Spend Sunday evening sorting receipts.

The question isn't:

"Can I do this myself?"

It's:

"Is this where my time is best spent?"

For a lot of small business owners, eventually the answer becomes no.

That's usually the point where I come in. 👋

What would happen if bookkeeping disappeared tomorrow? 👽No reconciliations.No bookkeeping software.No annoying requests ...
24/09/2026

What would happen if bookkeeping disappeared tomorrow? 👽

No reconciliations.

No bookkeeping software.

No annoying requests for receipts.

Sounds brilliant...

For approximately three weeks. 😂

Then:

💷 Who still owes you money?

🧾 Which expenses were actually business expenses?

📊 Are you making money?

🏦 Why isn't there as much cash as you expected?

😬 And what exactly are you going to tell HMRC?

Bookkeeping isn't the exciting part of running a business.

It's the infrastructure nobody really notices...

until it isn't there.

Address

Ilkley

Telephone

+447708412776

Website

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