Experienced Bookkeeper — Join Together We Count
Part-time · Fully remote · Trades specialists · Immediate start
Together We Count is a specialist firm of accountants for trades businesses — plumbers, heating engineers, electricians, roofers and construction firms. We do proper, hands-on client work, and we back it with real investment in automation and AI, so our team can spend its time on skilled work rather than routine data entry.
We are looking for an experienced bookkeeper to join us, part-time and fully remote, with an immediate start. One of our team has moved on, our Senior Client Manager has picked up the extra clients on top of her own, and we need a safe pair of hands to take the compliance and clean-up work off her desk so that client deadlines are always met. It is a temporary role to begin with, while we see where the workload settles, but for the right person there is a clear path to something permanent.
The person we're looking for
We're looking for an experienced, practical bookkeeper who can work independently and contribute from day one. This is not a trainee or development position, and it won't suit anyone who needs close supervision — it will suit an established professional who wants defined, self-contained work.
We value applied, real-world experience above formal qualifications. Qualifications are welcome but not essential; what matters is a proven record of day-to-day accounting done well. A qualification on its own, without practical application, isn't enough — we need someone who understands the realities of the work, not just the theory.
This is a hands-on delivery role, not a supervisory or management one. It will suit someone who takes pride in doing the work well and will turn their hand to the full range of tasks, routine and complex alike, with no job considered beneath them. It isn't a stepping stone into team leadership. Above all, we need someone dependable and straightforward, who can be trusted to get on with the work with minimal oversight, use good judgement about when to query and when to proceed, and see every task through to completion.
What you'll be doing
You'll work independently on jobs delegated by our Senior Client Manager, running them through to completion and only raising what genuinely needs her input. Day to day, that means:
- Keeping client books clean and accurate in Xero — reviewing transactions for miscoding, recoding to the right nominals and putting the VAT treatment straight.
- Preparing and reviewing VAT returns, and preparing monthly CIS returns and refund claims.
- Posting journals and correcting prior-period entries
- Handling the fiddly compliance jobs, such as VAT and CIS registrations and deregistrations — including working out an unfamiliar process and dealing with HMRC directly.
- Reconciling bank accounts and payment platforms like Stripe, ServiceM8 and GoCardless.
- Lending a hand with sales ledger, credit control and the monthly management accounts when they fall due.
- Working alongside our AI-assisted bookkeeping — checking and correcting its output rather than taking it at face value, and telling us where you think we could use AI to work even smarter.
The experience you'll need
- At least five years' recent, hands-on UK bookkeeping experience, in practice or in-house.
- A confident, hands-on command of Xero. If you're Xero certified, even better — we'll just ask to see it your certification.
- Strong, practical VAT knowledge, including the domestic reverse charge and reduced-rate work that's common in the trades, plus solid CIS and Making Tax Digital experience.
- The confidence to deal with HMRC directly, and the resourcefulness to work an unfamiliar process out and see it through.
- A genuine interest in AI, and the judgement to check its work rather than simply trust it.
- A sharp eye for detail and a calm, methodical head when the books you've inherited are in a mess.
- You must be based in the UK, or have English as your first language.
- Experience with trades clients — plumbing, heating and construction — would be a massive advantage, as would a track record of untangling messy, legacy bookkeeping.
Day to day you'll work in Xero, document-capture tools such as Hubdoc, our AI-assisted bookkeeping and our practice management software. Training is provided.
What's in it for you
- Fully home-based, so no commute — and the freedom to fit work around the rest of your life outside our core hours.
- A friendly, close-knit team that looks after each other, even though we're remote.
- Varied, interesting work across a whole portfolio of trades businesses.
- The chance to build genuinely useful AI skills in a real finance role.
- Proper training and support, and a real route from temporary to permanent for the right person.
The essentials
- Hours: part-time, with core hours of 10:00 to 2:00, Monday to Friday. The work peaks around our key dates — VAT on the 7th, management accounts on the 15th and CIS on the 19th — so hours flex up a little around those and ease off in between.
- Core days and any set hours to be agreed.
- Pay: £14–£16 an hour if employed, plus 20 days' holiday (pro rata) and a workplace pension. If you'd prefer to work self-employed, we're open to that.
- Contract: temporary to start (around 3–6 months), with a strong chance of becoming permanent. Immediate start.
- Location: fully remote, UK-based. We will provide a computer, you will need to provide a good internet connection and a private space to keep client information confidential. A second screen will be provided.
- You'll need the right to work in the UK. We're an equal-opportunities employer and welcome applications from everyone with the right experience.
How to apply
Like the sound of it? Email your CV to [email protected], and tell us why you'd be a great fit for the job. Here's what happens next:
- If we like the sound of you and your CV, we'll invite you to carry out a small practical test.
- Go well with that, and we'll invite you to a video interview with the team on Microsoft Teams.
- The final step is a face-to-face interview at our Sheffield office.
Pay: £14.00-£16.00 per hour
Work Location: Remote
