Contractors

Unless you are new to contracting you will know that Agencies (and the end client, if you are fortunate enough to avoid using an Agency) insist that you operate (i.e. contract with the Agency) through a limited company.

This means that you have two choices: either a) establish your own limited company or b) join an existing ‘umbrella’ limited company.

The Ezacs system is developed to fully assist/accommodate the contractor who wishes to establish a new limited company OR who wishes to use his/her existing limited company.

We recommend that as soon as you have decided to contract through your own company that you should establish the company as soon as possible as quite often the agency will want you to start ‘yesterday’ and expect you to have your own limited company ready to use.

The following is a simple list of the steps necessary to establish and operate your own limited company using Ezacs.

1. Establish a limited company - we can do this for you for a reasonable fixed fee if you provide us with the following details:

• Three company name choices;

• Directors - by law at least one director is required, and we recommend that the contractor is a director;

• Shareholders – These are the owners of the company. If there is to be more than one shareholder then you need to indicate the ownership proportions. There can be advantages in having more than one shareholder. We can advise you separately on this matter;

• Registered office address of the company – this can be your residential address.

2. Open a company bank account - this is a fairly straightforward matter and we can assist you with any queries/problems.

3. Register for VAT - Most agencies insist that you are VAT registered. We can undertake this for you for a reasonable fixed fee.

4. Log into Ezacs and enter your company/VAT information and ‘upload’ a logo (this is optional) for your company invoices/correspondence.

5. Set up your customers - if you are going to raise regular invoices to one or more customers then you can set up each customer so that when you raise an invoice and select a customer from a dropdown box the selected customer details will automatically populate that invoice.

6. Raise your first invoice and email/post it to the agency/customer.

7. When you receive payment enter the payment information into Ezacs to update your cashbook and profit and loss account.

8. Enter any expenses that you have incurred into Ezacs to update your cashbook and profit and loss account/balance sheet.

9. Pay yourself a salary using the payroll system.

10. Consider paying dividends using the ‘dividend payment’ facility.