HGV Accountants for Owner-Drivers, Haulage Firms and Fleets
Accounts, VAT and tax built around the truck, the operator licence and the haulage business. From one vehicle on hire purchase to a fleet with drivers on the payroll.
- Operator licence financial standing worked out and evidenced
- Fuel cards, VAT and self-billing reconciled rather than filed
- Cost per mile and per-truck profit, monthly, not once a year
- Fixed fee agreed before any work starts
National, remote and UK wide. Work is delivered by Tidy Money Ltd, company 06509733. Who that is.
Operator licence finance
Standard national
- First heavy goods vehicle
- £8,000
- Each additional vehicle
- £4,500
- Held for
- the life of the licence
Start With What You Run
Four routes in. They lead to genuinely different work, not to the same page with a different heading.
- One truck, mineOwner-driver, sole trader or limited. Vehicle finance, fuel, self-billed customers and the licence money.
- Two to ten vehiclesThe stage where you are still driving, the figures stopped being readable and every extra truck moves the licence requirement.
- A haulage companyEstablished operation with drivers, subcontractors and an operator licence to keep evidenced.
- I drive, I do not own the truckEmployed, agency, umbrella or your own company. Status first, then the return and any relief you are actually owed.
What Changes When the Vehicle Is Yours
A driver's tax return and a haulage business are not the same job done at different sizes. The day the truck is yours, four things start happening at once that a general accountant has no reason to look for.
What owner-driver work involves- The asset arrives before the profit
- A truck on hire purchase is not a monthly expense. The capital allowance, the interest and the balance sheet entry all have to be right from the first payment, and restating it later costs more than doing it once.
- Fuel becomes the largest reclaim you make
- Diesel is bought on credit against a statement, not on the day the bank pays. Post it from the bank and the biggest VAT reclaim in the business is sitting on no evidence at all.
- Somebody else writes your invoices
- Under self-billing, a job the customer never entered produces no document and no debt. Nothing is outstanding, because nothing was raised.
- The balance sheet becomes a licensing document
- Financial standing is a continuing condition of the operator licence. Money taken out in the wrong month is not just a cash flow question.
The Operational Side We Actually Work On
Six areas where haulage accounting differs from general small business accounting.
- Operator licence financeThe amount you have to demonstrate, how it is evidenced, and what happens when the balance moves.
- Fuel cards and VATStatements posted as purchase invoices, coded to a vehicle, with litres captured alongside cost.
- Truck financeHire purchase, lease or contract hire, and what each does to tax, VAT and the bank balance.
- Per-truck performanceCost per mile, empty running and the rate a vehicle needs to earn to stand still.
- Driver payroll and allowancesPAYE, employer costs and night-out payments, with the conditions that make them free of tax.
- Haulage VATSelf-billing, international movements and the evidence that has to sit behind a zero rate.
Work Out the Licence Money Before You Commit
Every extra vehicle on a standard licence adds to the capital and reserves you have to be able to show. Here is the arithmetic, using the published amounts, before you sign anything.
Financial Standing Calculator
Rates checked 2026-08-03
The working
- First heavy goods vehicleat £8,000 each
- £8,000
Indicative requirement
£8,000
Capital and reserves you should be able to demonstrate are available, for as long as the licence is held.
This is an indication based on the published amounts, not licensing or legal advice. The Office of the Traffic Commissioner decides what is required in your case and what evidence it will accept. Amounts from GOV.UK: Apply for a vehicle operator licence: financial evidence (opens in a new tab), checked 2026-08-03.
What the money has to look like, and what counts as evidence
Everything On This Site
Six services and 12 technical guides. The services are what we are engaged to do. The guides are the reference material behind them, each with its sources listed and a date it was last checked.
Services
- 01HGV Driver AccountantsFor drivers who do not own the truck: employed, agency, umbrella or working through their own limited company.
- 02HGV Owner-Driver AccountantsOne truck, your name on the finance agreement, and a business that has to fund a vehicle as well as pay you.
- 03Haulage AccountantsFor established road haulage businesses running vehicles, drivers and subcontractors under an operator licence.
- 04Small Fleet AccountantsTwo to ten trucks: the stage where the owner is still driving and the business has outgrown the way it was set up.
- 05Lorry Driver Self AssessmentFiling a return as a lorry driver, an HGV owner-driver or a driver with income outside PAYE.
- 06HGV Driver Tax RebateFor employed and agency HGV drivers who think they have overpaid tax, and want to know what is genuinely claimable.
Guides
- 01O-Licence Financial Standing
- 02Cost Per Mile
- 03Fuel Cards and VAT
- 04Buying or Financing a Truck
- 05HGV Payroll and Allowances
- 06One Truck to a Small Fleet
- 07Overnight Subsistence
- 08HGV Employment Status
- 09MTD for Owner-Drivers
- 10CIS and Haulage
- 11International Haulage VAT
- 12Self-Billing
Who You Would Be Dealing With
No client counts, no review scores and no badges. What follows is what can be checked, and there is a link to check it.
More about the practice- Legal entity
- Tidy Money Ltd, registered in England and Wales, incorporated 20 February 2008.
- Company number
- 06509733
- Director
- Preetesh Parmar, appointed 20 February 2008.
- Software
- Tidy Money Ltd states that it is a FreeAgent Gold Partner. That is a software partner tier, not a regulatory status.
- Service area
- The United Kingdom, delivered remotely. There is no branch network and no office to call in at.
- Contact
- By email through the enquiry form. There is no inbound telephone line for this brand, so nothing on the site pretends otherwise.
How an Engagement Runs
No onboarding sequence, no discovery package. Four steps, and you know the price at the second one.
- Step 1Tell us what you runHow many vehicles, how the business is set up, and what is outstanding. A few lines on the enquiry form is enough to scope it, and we ask anything else in the reply.
- Step 2You get a fixed quoteBy email, with what is included, what is not, and the dates the work has to be finished by. Nothing is charged until you accept it.
- Step 3Records and accessWe tell you exactly which documents we need, and we set the bookkeeping up so fuel and sales post themselves rather than piling up.
- Step 4The regular cycleVAT returns, payroll and the monthly or annual figures on an agreed rhythm, with the licence and tax dates tracked ahead of time rather than announced late.
If Something Is Already Going Wrong
These come in most often. None of them are improved by waiting, and none of them are as bad as they look on the first phone call.
- A financial standing check has landedEvidence has been asked for and the balance does not look right.
- Accounts or returns are lateFiling deadlines have passed and penalties are running.
- Night-out payments were never approvedThe industry rate has been paid without an approval notice or a checking system.
- Making Tax Digital starts soonThe records are on paper and the first quarterly update is coming.
A Fixed Quote for the Truck or the Fleet
Tell us how many vehicles you run, whether you are a sole trader or a limited company, and what is outstanding. We reply by email with a fixed price and the dates the work has to be finished by.
- A fixed fee agreed before any work starts
- Nothing charged until you accept the quote
- We tell you if you do not need what you asked for
Rather read first? How it works sets out what happens after you send this.
Tell Us About Your Truck or Fleet
A few lines is enough to start. Nothing is charged until you agree the quote, and we only use your details to answer this enquiry.