Minns
    Your business · Your accountant

    You and your accountant, looking at the same dates.

    If your accounting firm runs its practice on Minns, it can let you and your team in. You see what is due, what they are waiting for from you, and what is ready for your approval, and you send, ask and approve in one place instead of a chain of emails.

    Join the waiting listTalk to us

    For businesses whose accounting firm uses minns. Your accountant invites you by email.

    The portal as your team sees it. Example firm, dates and stages.

    01 · Where things stand

    Every date that matters, and whose move it is.

    Your firm keeps each client's statutory dates on one board: accounts and the confirmation statement for Companies House, corporation tax, VAT, Self Assessment, PAYE, P11D, CIS and pension re-enrolment. You see your own, each with a plain stage: we need your records, with your accountant, ready for your approval, approved, filed.

    So the question "what do you need from me?" answers itself. What is waiting on you sits at the top, and a date that has slipped past is marked overdue. Your accountant's internal notes and how often they have chased you stay on their side.

    • Dates come from Companies House where the firm has connected it, and from the statutory rules otherwise.
    • Reminders from the firm step up as a date nears: 60, 30, 14, 7 and 1 days out.
    • Each reminder is released by a person at the firm, never sent by the assistant alone.
    02 · Send records

    Statements and receipts, sent straight to the job they are for.

    Send a bank statement, a photo of a receipt or a spreadsheet from the portal, with a note, and say which date it is for. It lands on your client page at the firm, counted as new until someone there has looked at it.

    No more guessing which email address, or whether the attachment got through. You can see what you sent and when, and the firm can see what came in from whom.

    • PDFs, photos, CSV files and spreadsheets, up to 8 MB each.
    • A bigger file is refused with a reason: send it in parts or as a smaller scan.
    • The firm downloads it and marks it seen, and you see that it has been.
    03 · Ask a question

    Ask your accountant, and get the firm's answer, not a guess.

    Ask a question in the portal whenever it occurs to you. At the firm, their assistant drafts an answer from your own books, ready by the time someone opens your page, and a person there reads it, changes what needs changing and releases it.

    You only ever see an answer the firm has released. The questions and answers stay on your page, so the next time the van or the home office comes up, the answer is there.

    • Answers are in the firm's name. The firm decides what is said.
    • Your questions are counted on the firm's board until someone has answered them.
    04 · Approve in a tap

    Your VAT return and your accounts, in figures you can check.

    When the firm has prepared your VAT return, it appears with its boxes and the amount due, and any warnings the books raised. Approve it and the firm files it with HMRC. If the books change after it was worked out, the approval is refused and the return is worked out again, so nothing goes on old figures.

    The year's accounts appear the same way, in headline figures: turnover, profit and net assets. A director approves them in their own name. If the firm still has something to put right, the accounts say so and cannot be approved yet.

    • The firm files the VAT return with HMRC through Making Tax Digital, on its own named approval.
    • Approving the accounts approves them for the board and signs them in your name.
    • The amount to pay HMRC, and when, is on the return.

    Example return. Box 5 is Box 1 less Box 4.

    The use case: one VAT quarter

    From the quarter's end to filed, in the order it happens.

    Your business, its VAT quarter to 30 September, and Hartley Accountants. You send and approve; the firm prepares and files.

    1. 1 OCT

      The quarter ends

      The VAT return for July to September appears in the portal, due 7 November, marked we need your records.

    2. 8 OCT

      A reminder from the firm

      Thirty days out, Hartley emails a reminder for September's statement and the receipt for the £960 bill from Coleman Supplies. A person there released it.

    3. 9 OCT

      You send them

      From your phone you send the statement, a photo of the receipt and the mileage sheet, each against the return. The stage moves to with your accountant.

    4. 10 OCT

      A question answered

      You asked about the VAT on the van you bought on 4 October. The firm's answer is released: yes, in next quarter's return.

    5. 20 OCT

      Ready, and approved

      The return is prepared. You read the boxes, £5,305.15 to pay, and approve it.

    6. 22 OCT

      Filed

      The firm files it with HMRC. The portal reads filed, with the amount due by 7 November.

    Example dates and figures.

    Who decides

    It does the work. You make the calls.

    What the assistant may do on its own, and what only you, or someone you choose, may do.

    The assistant may

    • Show you your own dates and where each one stands.
    • Take the records you send to the firm, against the date they are for.
    • Help the firm draft answers to your questions, for a person there to release.
    • Show you a return or the accounts, in figures, when they are ready.

    Only you may

    • Approve your VAT return and the year's accounts.
    • Decide what you send to your accountant.
    • Accept the firm's invite to the portal.
    Questions owners ask first

    Straight answers.

    Do I need Minns for this?
    You need an accounting firm that uses minns. They let you and your team in by email, and you open the portal in the Minns app, where it shows as Your accountant.
    Who files with HMRC?
    Your accounting firm, after you approve. Nothing is filed from your side, and the firm's own filing needs a named person there to approve it too.
    Does my accountant see my email or my other apps?
    No. The firm sees what you send through the portal: records, questions and your approvals. Nothing else of yours crosses over.
    Is the answer to my question written by a machine?
    The firm's assistant may draft it from your books, but a person at the firm reads it and releases it, and it is the firm's answer. You never see an unreleased draft.
    What can I send?
    PDFs, photos, CSV files and spreadsheets, up to 8 MB each, with a note saying what it is and which date it is for.

    Give your business an assistant.

    Connect your mail, calendar and books in a few minutes. It works the way you do, and asks before it acts in your name.

    Join the waiting listTalk to us