HELPING YOU FIND THE FINANCIAL EXPERTISE YOU NEED - TO BUY, RUN AND GROW YOUR CARE HOME

Your Care Home is a business as well as a place of care and support. It, therefore, needs to be financially successful if it is to continue to provide a secure, caring environment.

This financial security will depend on many factors. Not just the skills and dedication of yourself and your team, but on finding answers to every aspect of money management, from navigating the taxation minefield to providing expertise on every aspect of cash management - from fundraising to credit control.

Finding an accountant who understands your business is vital for its success.

At Rangewell, as part of our commitment to supporting UK businesses, we have put together a directory of people with the skills you need - and made it free for you to use. So, if you need professional support for your Care Home business, call us for details of the professionals who can help with expertise and services you need - and who cover your location.

Our Business Support for care homes includes:

• Accountants
• Advisors
• Sales and acquisition agents
• Equipment suppliers
• Legal Services
• Media services
• Partners
• Valuers

Why you need a specialised accountant for your Care Home

The accountancy profession includes many highly skilled professionals and well-regarded practices.

However, a generalist accountant cannot have expertise in every sector. The financial, legislative and practical demands on the Care Home sector are unique, and so is the tax position that many operate under.

Finding an accountant who can understand your business is key not just in ensuring you can maximise your profits, but also that it has a future.

To provide the level of support your Care Home business needs, you must have the support of an accountant who can understand the circumstances under which your business operates, the challenges, and the financial and other solutions that are applicable.

Those supporting the Care Home sector are able to help business owners deal with the special challenges they face.

By helping their clients to maximise their profits and minimise their tax liabilities, and providing access to expert support on all aspects of Care Home finance facilities, from credit management to grants, they can help you put your business on a sound financial footing.

Business Start-Ups and Company Formation

Setting up your own Care Home business demands support from qualified professionals.

An accountant with care sector expertise can help you with everything from creating a detailed business plan to securing the funding to put that plan into practice.

A credible and professionally prepared business plan will be vital in attracting potential investors or to gain funding. Creating a business plan will need realistic and up-to-date knowledge of the real figures involved.

Cash flow forecasting and budgeting models are important to help you plan your finances but are also commonly requested by banks and other lenders as support for your requests for finance.

An accountant with expertise in the sector will be able to provide long- and short-term forecasts with profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow forecasts based on current experience and benchmarking - greatly increasing your chances of receiving the funding you need.

Business operations

Having an accountant who understands your business can streamline your own administrative workload, giving you more time to focus on your residents. The basics - book-keeping and VAT returns - may seem routine, but not only is it essential to get them right, but they can also provide the basis for tax savings - if you can call on expert support to identify where those savings can be made.

The VAT system can be confusing, and corporation tax even more so. An accountant with expertise in the Care Home sector can identify the allowances and entitlements that might otherwise go unnoticed, reducing your tax liabilities and improving your cash flow - and increasing the profitability of your business.

Payroll

Administering your payroll can be a time-consuming process that diverts resources and focus away from the real core of your business. It is made all the more stressful by the increasing complexity of taxation and employment legislation and the penalties for failing to comply with legislation.

Your staff depend on you to deliver every aspect of payroll, including PAYE, National Insurance, Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay, and Automatic Enrollment into a staff pension scheme. There are special arrangments for joiners, leavers, P45 and P46 forms, bonuses, commissions and holidays and salary sacrifice schemes.

Outsourcing your payroll to an expert accountancy business could reduce your workload and ensure that you steer clear of issues with your payroll itself, your annual returns and your planning for the future.

Year End Accounts and Corporation Tax

All limited companies in the UK must pay Corporation Tax on all taxable profits. It is up to you and your business to figure out how much you owe, pay it, and then report it by filing a Company Tax Return.

If you are not familiar with the various tax allowances that are part of the system, it could leave you paying substantially more tax than you are required to. An accountant with understanding of the sector could provide full and up-to-date knowledge of the practices and allowances that are accepted by HMRC.

Rather than experiencing stress, frustration and difficulty, their knowledge and understanding of the UK tax system can help plan ahead and use your tax position as an opportunity to enhance your trading position, rather than a drain on your resources.

In addition to simply providing the optimised return, an experienced accountant will be able to advise you on the most tax-efficient approach for a wide range of activities, from raising funds to acquiring equipment, premises and taking on and training staff.

Auditing

In addition to ensuring your business is compliant with the various requirements of HMRC, an accountant with relevant sector experience will be able to produce audited accounts that will identify any potential problems and keep you informed of any relevant updates on financial reporting and changes to legislation that may affect your business.

Audits allow independent verification - by sight, management discussion, and assessment of internal controls and analytical procedures - that a company's financial reports are substantively correct. Having an accountant that can understand the activities of your care home business is vital to performing effective audits.

Business development

Growing and extending your business may be crucial to its success. An accountant with relevant sector skills can provide advice on the tax-efficient implementation of business strategies and support during restructuring, mergers and acquisitions.

This can include developing expense budgeting models that can be used for comparison against actual results and making full use of measures such as capital allowances. Capital allowances are a complex tax area and very few owners have taken advantage of the potential tax advantages when buying, refurbishing or extending their Care and Nursing Homes - giving themselves an unnecessary financial burden in the process

Debt collection

Debt collection is a particularly sensitive matter for Care Home businesses. Understanding of local authority accounting procedures may be essential for effective credit control and recovery. A specialist accountant should be able to deliver the necessary understanding, providing a way to avoid issues stemming from overdue accounts while maintaining professional and positive relations with all concerned, always taking into account the needs of all parties involved, and actively pursuing local authorities to obtain payment of outstanding Care Home fees.

Selling your Care Home

The time will come when you are ready to pass control of your Care Home business on. Business sucession is a difficult area for Care Home operations. Valuations, in particular, can be complex and generalist accountant may not be able to provide the necessary level of expertise.

The support of a sector expert accountant is vital to ensure that accurate valuations and forecasts can be provided, and that a fair and appropriate agreement can be arrived at with a potential purchaser.

Finding the Care Home specialist accountant you need

At Rangewell, we work with Care Home businesses across the UK and help them find the funding they need.

This means that we work closely with many professional suppliers serving the sector - including accountants. We are always happy to share our knowledge, and if you feel that your Care Home business could benefit from an accountant with experience in the sector, please call us on 020 3936 8607 and we will be happy to introduce you to an accountant in your region who can provide the expertise you need.

Joining the Rangewell Care Home ‘ecosystem’

Are you an accountant with expertise in the Care Home sector? Please contact us to discuss being included in our Care Home database. There is no charge for professionals who wish to be included in our ‘ecosystem’.

Call us now on our Care Home Support Line on 020 3936 8607.