Crunch is an online accountancy firm specialising in easy, accessible accounting for freelancers, contractors and small businesses’.

The idea for Crunch was formed in 2007 when Darren Fell (Crunch MD) was approached by two friends; an owner of a web agency and an accountant who’d run a successful practice since 1991. The idea was to develop a new way of offering accountancy services to freelancers, contractors and micro-businesses.

Crunch is novel in that it combines a complete, and always live, online accountancy service (invoices, expenses, dividend, VAT etc) for your, or your company’s accounts, combined with professional Chartered Accountants doing the accounts and returns from the software available whenever they are required. This is all available for a single flat monthly fee.

For most customers, the way Crunch works is as an invoice/expenses engine which then, behind the scenes, is verified and checked by an accountant and any returns or VAT etc. is then returned to the online system so that the user can make any adjustments or changes before submission (which is done electronically). There are also accountants on hand to answer questions, account managers for more general queries and technical support for, well, technical queries about the software.

The entire Crunch package is available for a set fee of £59.50 per month (which is £714 per year) and this includes unrestricted online software, the on call accountants, an account manager to administer the “back of house” operations of your business accounts all your VAT and company returns. There are also periphery benefits to the Crunch service like using a Crunch office as a registered address, the opportunity for some free promotion for you business in the course of Crunch’s own marketing and the opportunity to make money via an affiliate program.

The Accountancy side of the business is headed up by Steve Crouch who is a Chartered Tax specialist of some years experience. Crunch is also PCG and ICAEW accredited (meaning that they comply with UK tax regulations and are approved by the largest contractors and freelancer organisation in the country) and have direct software links to the HMRC for the purposes of instant, paperless submissions.