Countingup, the business current account with built-in accountancy and tax software, gets the most important approval of all - small businesses are embracing this new, simple way to run a business.
In just two months since launching in April for limited companies, Countingup has opened over 1,000 business current accounts. This, from a company that nine months ago was just an idea. Since launching, they have continued to gain traction with small businesses, taking just 3 weeks to go from 500 accounts to 1,000.
Founder and CEO Tim Fouracre commented, “Our customers love Countingup. The early growth we’ve seen is down to amazing word of mouth referrals. The IT fiasco at TSB has also gifted TSB’s competitors with an opportunity, as I’m sure it’s not just us benefiting from business owners fed up with TSB’s reliability issues”.
Tim is a Chartered Accountant and founder and former CEO of cloud accounting company Clear Books plc. He saw the pain small business owners faced in trying to get two separate systems, accounting and banking, working together seamlessly. He was adamant they simply shouldn’t be separate anymore - and business owners seem to agree.
Tim explains, “The bank account is the ‘What’ of your business i.e. the actual transactions, the real flow of money. The accounting is the ‘Why’ i.e. the interpretation of those bank transactions for tax and compliance. Most businesses only find out the ‘Why’ months after the bank transactions actually happen when they manually do the books. Many self-employed sole traders leave it right until the end of the tax year and then they’re suddenly under pressure to get their tax return done. At Countingup we’re bringing the ‘What’ and the ‘Why’ together to make it easy to run your business.”
Speed is of the essence
Considering Countingup was only an idea in September 2017, they have moved quickly to establish themselves. Speed to core to the product. For instance, you can open an account in just 5 minutes with your ID, some basic details and the Countingup app downloaded on your smartphone.
Forget doing the books as well. Countingup automatically categorises transactions at the point of purchase, and uses that to fill financial documents like profit and loss reports.
Tim comments, “Business bank accounts often come with lengthy and expensive application processes. Many small businesses and sole traders avoid this by using their personal current account instead. This creates a massive bookkeeping headache as business transactions have to be unpicked from personal ones. We’re making the process as simple and as fast as possible so entrepreneurs can get back to doing what they love, running their business.”
More to come
Countingup will be rolling out more features in the coming weeks and months to support small businesses. This includes invoicing and self-assessment tax filing to get ready for HMRC’s Making Tax Digital plans.
Tim adds, “We’ve been approached by several high street banks wanting to invest, but that would distract us from our mission to redefine what business banking means. Our vision is to be the number one accounting bank in the UK”