In order for your company to pay you dividends, it must compile full statutory accounts annually for the Inland Revenue and Companies House. These are based on the records of the transactions which make up the year's trading picture.

Traditional paper-based accounts work on historical data - you give them your books at the end of the year and they then calculate the tax that you owe. The trouble is that the size of your tax bill often comes as an unwelcome surprise, and the opportunity to make informed financial decisions - for example whether to increase your pension contributions - are denied, because the tax year is then over, and the chance is lost.