UK Bookkeeping Guide for Beginners 2026/27

Why this one

Almost everything written about bookkeeping starts from the assumption that you already know what a ledger is and what belongs in one. This guide does not. It starts from an empty page and a shoebox of receipts, and it tells you exactly what to write down, in what order, and what each thing is for. It covers the first month day by day, the choice between the cash basis and traditional accounting with the arithmetic worked through, what a receipt has to show and what to do when you have lost one, how to apportion a phone or a car, how long to keep what, and three complete sets of books taken from turnover to a tax figure.

What you get

• A guide in 21 chapters, as a PDF
• Why any of this is necessary
• The four things you are actually recording
• The one decision that makes everything else easy
• Your first month, day by day
• What counts as income, and when
• Cash, and why it needs its own chapter
• What counts as a cost
• Cash basis or accruals: how to choose
• What a receipt has to show, and what to do when you have lost one
• Splitting a cost between the business and you
• The receipt problem, and how to stop having it
• What ‘adequate records’ actually means
• How long to keep what, and in what form
• Turning the lists into a profit figure
• The three figures that come out the other end
• Three sets of books, one tax year
• How much to put aside
• If you are already behind
• The mistakes that cost the most
• The year, month by month
• The one-page checklist

Need more than one? This is also in the UK Self Employed Complete Tax Bundle 2026/27 (£30.99) or UK New Business Starter Bundle 2026/27 (£23.99) — the same files at a lower price than buying them one by one.

Questions