Important records to keep in your small business

Whilst we all know that it's important to keep records in business, do you know what you should be keeping and why?

The guidance from HMRC is that you must keep Financial Records for 6 years from the end of your companies last financial year or you could face a £3000 fine.

So for example if your financial year ended on the 5th April 2022, then any record from 6th April 2021 to 5th April 2022 needs to be kept for the next 6 years ( Until 6th April 2028)

Financial records could be any of the items listed.

BUT this does not mean that you have to keep the paper copies, as long as you are able to produce a copy of said invoice etc when requested by HMRC, then you can keep these records digitally.

I've always worked on the basis, that any invoice received physically in the post is scanned in and kept both digitally and physically, but that any invoice received digitally is kept digitally but isn't printed unless required.