How to price limited company accounts work

Q: What does a priced example look like?

Illustration only. A trading company has one director who owns all the shares. It is VAT registered, keeps its own cloud bookkeeping and has one bank account and one card account. The practice estimates: Review of bookkeeping, year end adjustments and statutory accounts: 8 hours at a blended rate of £90, giving £720. Tax computation, CT600 and iXBRL tagging: 3 hours, giving £270. Confirmation statement and review of the register: 1 hour, giving £90, plus the £50 Companies House fee shown separately. The base company fee is £1,080. Last year the director's loan account was overdrawn at the year end and needed a CT600A, which added about 1.5 hours, so the practice quotes a fixed fee of £1,200 and records two assumptions in the schedule: the books will be reconciled before they are sent, and records will arrive within three months of the year end. The director's own return, which has salary and dividends only, is quoted separately at £250. At the end of the job the firm compares the fee with recorded time. ICAEW's fee information helpsheet notes that time records are management tools rather than a justification for a fee, but they show whether the quote was right.

A small company compliance fee is best built from its parts: the statutory accounts, the Company Tax Return with its tagged accounts and computations, the confirmation statement and any personal returns for the directors, each priced on the work and risk it involves. The state of the records, transaction volume, VAT, payroll and director’s loan issues move the price far more than turnover does. Whatever method is used, the ICAEW Code of Ethics requires the basis of the fee to be given to the client in writing.

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What goes into a limited company compliance package?

Pricing starts with listing what the company must deliver and when, because each item carries its own work, deadline and risk.

Component	What the law requires	What drives the time
Statutory accounts	Delivered to Companies House within nine months of the end of the accounting reference period for a private company (Companies Act 2006 section 442), and also sent to shareholders and to HMRC with the tax return	Quality of bookkeeping, year end adjustments, fixed assets, stock, accruals, disclosure choices
Company Tax Return (CT600)	Due 12 months after the end of the accounting period; tax usually payable nine months and one day after it. For most companies the accounts and computations must be in iXBRL, and paper or PDF is not acceptable	Capital allowances, disallowable items, losses, supplementary pages, tagging
Confirmation statement	At least once in each 12 month review period, within 14 days after the review period ends (section 853A)	Checking officers, shareholders and people with significant control, identity verification codes
Directors’ personal returns	Only where the director meets one of HMRC’s conditions for filing, for example untaxed income such as dividends	Number of income sources; see the separate guide to pricing personal returns

The Companies House fee for the confirmation statement is £50 when filed online or through software with the first statement in the 12 month payment period, according to the Companies House fees guidance last updated on 25 September 2026. For the deadlines in more detail, see Corporation Tax deadlines and confirmation statements explained.

What do the professional rules say about quoting the fee?

The ICAEW Code of Ethics 2026, which applies from 1 July 2026, does not dictate a pricing method. Paragraph R330.4 requires the accountant to explain the basis on which fees will be calculated and give an estimated initial fee at the earliest opportunity. Paragraph R330.5 requires fee quotes or the basis of fees in writing, before the engagement starts or as soon as possible afterwards, normally in the engagement letter.

Paragraph 330.4 A1 says fee levels are a commercial matter but may be determined by the seniority and expertise of the people doing the work, time spent, the risk and responsibility of the work, the nature of the client’s business, the priority and importance of the work to the client, and expenses properly incurred.

There is also a floor. Under paragraph 330.3 A2, quoting less than another accountant is not unethical in itself, but a fee so low that it might be difficult to do the work to the required standards creates a self interest threat to professional competence and due care.

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Which factors move the price most?

Two companies with the same turnover can need very different amounts of work. The factors that usually make the biggest difference are:

Who keeps the books and how well. A company with reconciled cloud bookkeeping needs review and adjustments; one that sends bank statements and receipts needs the books written up first.
Transaction volume and the number of bank, card and payment accounts.
VAT registration. VAT control account reconciliations at the year end take time even where the practice does not prepare the returns.
Payroll and benefits. Director salaries, staff payroll and benefits in kind all need reconciling to the accounts.
Director’s loan account. Where a close company has made loans to a participator that are not repaid within the period, the CT600A supplementary page and the section 455 Corporation Tax Act 2010 charge come into play. See director’s loan accounts explained.
First period after incorporation. A first accounting reference period can run for more than 12 months, which changes the filing deadline under section 442(3) and usually means two tax returns for one set of accounts.
Urgency. Work requested close to a deadline falls under the Code’s priority and importance factor and can justify a higher fee if this is agreed in advance.

Should each element be priced separately or as one fee?

Most small companies prefer one annual figure. The practical answer is to build the price from components and present one fee with an itemised schedule of what is and is not included.

ICAEW’s engagement letter helpsheet, fully reviewed on 10 March 2026, follows the same structure: separate schedules for preparing statutory financial statements, corporation tax, personal tax and acting as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). Since 18 November 2025 identity verification for Companies House has been a legal requirement for directors and people with significant control, and an agent who verifies identities for clients must register as an ACSP. Many practices now price that service separately because it involves its own checks and record keeping.

Firms should also budget for a change already announced: Companies House says that from 1 April 2028 accounts must be filed using commercial software. Practices that still file small company accounts through the free online service will have a software cost to reflect in fees.

How do directors’ personal returns fit with the company fee?

The company and its director are separate clients. ICAEW’s helpsheet on liens gives the example of Mr A’s personal tax work and his owner managed company, Company B, and states that these are two separate clients. That separation should run through pricing as well: a separate schedule or letter, a separate fee and ideally a separate invoice.

Not every director needs a return. HMRC’s list of people who must file includes the self employed earning over £1,000, partners, people with Capital Gains Tax to pay and people liable to the High Income Child Benefit Charge not collected through PAYE, and adds that untaxed income such as dividends may also require a return. Being a director is not on the list by itself, so the quote should be based on the director’s actual sources of income.

If the company is to pay for the director’s personal work, ICAEW’s guidance on determining the basis of charging fees (paragraph 10) says the accountant should consider the relationship with both the party paying and the party receiving the advice. The way the director’s fee is priced is covered in how to price Self Assessment tax returns.

What does a priced example look like?

Illustration only. A trading company has one director who owns all the shares. It is VAT registered, keeps its own cloud bookkeeping and has one bank account and one card account. The practice estimates:

Review of bookkeeping, year end adjustments and statutory accounts: 8 hours at a blended rate of £90, giving £720.
Tax computation, CT600 and iXBRL tagging: 3 hours, giving £270.
Confirmation statement and review of the register: 1 hour, giving £90, plus the £50 Companies House fee shown separately.

The base company fee is £1,080. Last year the director’s loan account was overdrawn at the year end and needed a CT600A, which added about 1.5 hours, so the practice quotes a fixed fee of £1,200 and records two assumptions in the schedule: the books will be reconciled before they are sent, and records will arrive within three months of the year end. The director’s own return, which has salary and dividends only, is quoted separately at £250.

At the end of the job the firm compares the fee with recorded time. ICAEW’s fee information helpsheet notes that time records are management tools rather than a justification for a fee, but they show whether the quote was right.

How should the quote deal with extra work during the year?

ICAEW’s fee information helpsheet says a firm that sets a fixed fee will be expected to honour it and must be clear about the extent of the work it covers. An estimate is generally not legally binding, while a quote may form part of the contract. Where it becomes clear an estimate or quote will be exceeded, the firm should tell the client in advance, give a fresh estimate and seek consent to continue.

If a fee above the previous quote or estimate is issued, paragraph R330.4B.2 of the Code requires the firm to explain the reason for the excess and how it was calculated, and under R330.4B.1 a client who asks for a fee breakdown must be given one. A short list of chargeable extras in the engagement letter, such as HMRC enquiries, late records or a change of year end, prevents most arguments. For more on controlling extras, see scope creep in engagements and fixed fees or hourly rates.

What mistakes do practices make when pricing company work?

Pricing off turnover alone, when records quality and transaction volume decide the time.
Bundling the director’s personal return into the company fee without saying so, which blurs who the client is and who owes what.
Not repricing after the first year, when the long first period and the double tax return fall away or new issues such as payroll appear.
Quoting a fixed fee with no stated assumptions, so there is no agreed basis for charging extra when records arrive late or incomplete.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.