If you're running multiple businesses, congratulations, you're clearly doing something right. But here's a question that might make you pause: are you using different accountants for each venture?
It's a surprisingly common setup. Maybe you inherited the accountant when you bought Business A. Business B was a new venture, so you went with a mate's recommendation. Business C needed a specialist, so you found someone else. Before you know it, you're juggling three (or more) different accounting firms, each with their own systems, their own way of doing things, and their own opinions about what you should be doing.
On the surface, it might seem fine, even logical. After all, each business is its own entity, right?
Here's the thing: splitting your accounting across multiple firms is costing you more than you think. Let's dig into why.
When you've got Accountant A handling Company 1, Accountant B handling Company 2, and Accountant C sorting out your personal tax affairs, none of them can see the full picture of your financial life.
And that's a problem.
Think about it like this: imagine trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle, but three different people are each working on separate sections in different rooms. Nobody can see what the finished picture is supposed to look like. That's essentially what's happening with your finances.
Your accountants should understand:
When you're working with multiple firms, none of them have this visibility. They're all working with incomplete information, which means they're making decisions and giving advice based on only part of the story.
Here's where things get expensive.
The UK tax system offers numerous opportunities for businesses under common ownership to optimize their tax position. But here's the catch: you need someone who can see all your businesses to spot these opportunities.
Group relief is a perfect example. If Company A makes a profit and Company B makes a loss in the same tax year, you can potentially offset that loss against the profit, reducing your overall corporation tax bill. But if different accountants are handling each company, they might not even know the other company exists, let alone coordinate the tax planning.
The same goes for loss offsetting between companies. If one business has trading losses, there may be options to carry those losses forward or sideways to reduce tax elsewhere in your group. Miss this, and you're literally paying tax you don't need to pay.
Then there's your personal tax position. The way you extract money from your businesses, salary, dividends, pension contributions, loans, should be optimized across all your income sources, not just one business at a time. Multiple accountants mean fragmented advice and missed opportunities to structure things more efficiently.
One accounting firm reported saving a client £66,000 in year-end taxes simply by having visibility across all their businesses. That's not a small number, and it's money that would have been lost forever with a fragmented approach.
Let's talk about the practical, day-to-day headache of working with multiple accountants.
Multiple points of contact. Need to discuss your financial position? You're now coordinating calls with three different people, trying to explain the context each time, and hoping they're all available when you need them.
Different systems and processes. Accountant A uses Xero. Accountant B prefers QuickBooks. Accountant C has their own bespoke system. You're now learning multiple platforms, remembering different login details, and trying to figure out why the reports from each firm look completely different.
Repetitive explanations. Every time you have a new goal, a new plan, or a change in circumstances, you're explaining it to multiple people. That's time you could be spending actually running your businesses.
Setup and onboarding costs, multiplied. Every new accounting relationship means setup fees, onboarding processes, and getting a new team up to speed on your businesses. Multiply that by three or four firms, and you're looking at significant unnecessary costs.
Manual reconciliation. Want to understand your overall financial performance? You're now manually pulling together reports from multiple sources, trying to make sense of different formats and accounting periods, and basically doing work that should be automated.
It's exhausting just thinking about it.
Here's a scenario that plays out more often than you'd think:
Accountant A advises you to take dividends from Business 1 to minimize tax. Accountant B, working with Business 2, suggests you take a higher salary for pension contribution purposes. Accountant C, looking at your personal tax, recommends something entirely different.
Who's right? The honest answer is: possibly none of them, because none of them are working with complete information.
When you're getting advice from multiple sources, inconsistencies are inevitable. One accountant might be conservative; another might be more aggressive. One might prioritize short-term savings; another might focus on long-term structure. Without coordination, you end up with a patchwork strategy that doesn't actually make sense when you zoom out.
Even worse, conflicting advice can lead to mistakes. You might implement a strategy suggested by one accountant that directly contradicts or undermines advice from another, and you might not even realize it until it's too late.
Quick question: can you tell me, right now, what your total profit across all your businesses was last quarter?
If you're working with multiple accountants, the honest answer is probably "not really" or "I'd need to dig out several reports and add them up."
That's a problem.
As a business owner with multiple ventures, you need a consolidated view of your financial performance. You need to see:
When you're receiving separate reports from different accounting firms, getting this view is difficult, if not impossible. You're left manually consolidating information, which is time-consuming, error-prone, and often out of date by the time you've finished.
Modern accounting tools like Xero, QuickBooks, Fathom, and Syft can provide beautiful, real-time consolidated reporting across multiple entities. But they only work properly when everything is managed through a unified approach.
The alternative is straightforward: work with one accounting firm that handles all your businesses.
When you consolidate your accounting, you get:
Holistic tax strategy. Your accountant can develop integrated strategies across all your businesses, identify group relief opportunities, optimize your personal tax position, and provide accurate tax projections based on your complete financial picture.
Streamlined operations. One point of contact. One system. One consistent approach. All your data flows automatically into a unified platform, giving you real-time visibility without the manual work.
Faster, more accurate filings. Everything needed for tax filings is already integrated. No scrambling at year-end. No missed forms. No discrepancies between different sets of records.
Better decision-making. When you can see your complete financial picture in one dashboard, you can make informed decisions quickly. Should you invest more in Business A or B? Where's your cash tied up? Which venture needs attention? You'll have answers immediately.
Cost efficiency. Yes, really. While you might assume using one firm is more expensive, you're actually eliminating duplicated work, redundant setup fees, and the hidden cost of your own time coordinating between multiple providers.
At Titus Accounts, we work with plenty of clients who run multiple businesses: and we've built our service around exactly this scenario.
We act as an extension of your finance department, providing a unified view across all your ventures. Whether you're running two businesses or ten, we bring everything together into one coherent system.
Using platforms like Xero, QuickBooks, Fathom, and Syft, we create consolidated reporting that gives you real-time visibility across your entire business portfolio. You can see exactly what's happening, where opportunities exist, and where problems might be brewing: all from one dashboard.
More importantly, we develop tax strategies that consider your complete financial situation. We look at how your businesses interact, identify opportunities for group relief and loss offsetting, and optimize your overall tax position: not just individual company positions.
And because we understand your complete picture, the advice we give actually makes sense. No contradictions. No blind spots. Just clear, strategic guidance that works across all your businesses.
If you're running multiple businesses with different accountants, you're making things harder and more expensive than they need to be.
You're missing tax planning opportunities. You're paying for duplicated work. You're spending your time coordinating between multiple firms. You're receiving conflicting advice. And you don't have a clear picture of your overall financial performance.
The solution isn't complicated: consolidate your accounting with one firm that can see: and optimize: your complete financial picture.
Your businesses might operate independently, but your accounting strategy shouldn't. It's time to bring everything together and start making decisions based on the full story, not just fragments.
Interested in consolidating your accounting and getting a unified view across all your businesses? Get in touch with Titus Accounts and let's have a conversation about how we can simplify your life and improve your financial outcomes.
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February 10, 2026