About The difference Is this for you? Services & Pricing Get in touch

The neurodivergent
accountant
for neurodivergent
sole traders.

Hi, I'm James Nicholson ACA.

Do filing deadlines, HMRC correspondence, and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD IT) make you just want to run away?

That's ok. Run over here.

James - The AuDHD Accountant
Work with me → My story
About me

As a toddler, I answered unrelated questions in numbers.
Your AuDHD Accountant since the age of 1, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, I just calculate with numbers, like the rest of us (thank you, early years speech therapy).

This, and other examples of hypernumeracy and hyperlexia, led to a special educational needs (SEND) referral... Nothing came of it, as this was the mid-1990s, and children like me back then were just "bright" or "gifted". By school age, I would lap my classmates at times tables and arithmetic tests. Spelling too. Speaking of lapping, I even won every sports day sprint race each yea... (ok James, enough with the infant school achievement flexes).

By 18, I was simultaneously working full-time at KPMG, and studying (if every word I read instantly falling out of my mind like a conveyor belt counts as studying) for both my Chartered Accountancy exams and a Durham University Accounting & Finance degree... Hello, burnout! After years of Big Four training and experience, 15 professional exams, and ICAEW-approved professional development, I'd made it: Chartered. The qualification that allows me to not just tell you what's going on, but what we should do about it.

Working for myself, in an environment that works with me rather than against me, enables me to do my best work, accounting for my fellow NDers, so they're free to go and do theirs.

Let's get started →
ICAEW Chartered Accountant
Institute of Chartered Accountants
in England and Wales
BA Accounting & Finance
Durham University
Regulated, insured & supervised
Professional indemnity.
Anti-money laundering.
The difference

A different practice for different people, free to...

...join, however neurodivergent you are.
If it resonates, it counts. There are no tests here.
...present yourself however you like.
I have Autism, ADHD and OCD myself so no masking required. No explanations needed.
...be accommodated.
I know what it's like to have communication challenges and preferences, so we'll find a communication method that works for both of us. More generally, just shout with any preferences and I'll do my best to accommodate them.
...live in or out of the UK.
Sure, I only handle UK accounting and tax, but that doesn't need to determine where you (or I) live. Fully remote means fully remote.
Is this for you?

Let's be honest about fit

A good fit if you're...
  • A sole trader filing in the UK (or about to be), even if you're based outside the UK.
  • Neurodivergent - diagnosed, self-identifying, or just nodding along reading this.
  • Tired of paperwork piling up while you do the work you're actually good at.
  • Facing MTD IT (mandatory for nearly all sole traders at some point) and don't want to handle the quarterly submissions and software migration yourself.
  • After a monthly relationship, not a one-off tax return.
Probably not if you...
  • Run a limited company or need a payroll for staff
    - I'm sole-trader only, for now.
  • Want in-person meetings. I'm fully remote.
  • Need urgent same-week filing. Give me a bit of runway.
  • Want the cheapest possible price above all else
    - I'm not that.
Ready to go? →
Services & Pricing

Everything handled.
Transparently.

Every engagement kicks off with a one-off Money MOT, a fixed-price setup and review of your current situation. Alongside that, a monthly retainer starts, covering your accounting, bookkeeping, and tax so your books are regularly updated, not months behind when you need them most. If something needs informing or explaining, it'll be without judgement, and, where possible, without jargon. I'll always need some low-effort input from you (scanning and uploading invoices and receipts), but the high-thinking, stress-inducing parts are mine to own.

Starting point

The Money MOT

  • Before the retainer begins, we'll look at what's working, what isn't, and how we'll handle everything moving forward.
  • We'll go back as far as we need to. Gaps, errors, or missing years don't get left to surface later - they get dealt with before the retainer starts.
  • MTD IT is mandatory for sole traders above the income threshold, with more businesses coming into scope over time. Before the retainer begins, I'll confirm exactly where you stand - whether you're already in scope, when you will be, and what that means practically for you.
  • Everything configured before the retainer begins, including setting up Xero, connecting the bank feeds, and authorising HMRC access.
Monthly retainer

The Sole Trader Suite

£499 / month

  • Your income and expenses tracked and categorised throughout the year. Bank feeds connected, everything in line, no deadline scrambles.
  • Quarterly submissions to HMRC under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, handled in full. If you're not yet in scope, I'll manage the transition when the time comes. Either way, you won't need to touch the software.
  • Your annual accounts prepared and filed. No scramble at year-end - because the books have been kept up throughout the year.
  • Those letters sitting unopened on the kitchen table? I'll handle them before they become a problem. You don't need to deal with HMRC directly.
  • Every filing deadline, every submission window - in my calendar, not yours.
  • Your Xero subscription is covered. No separate software cost to manage.
  • Async-first via the client portal - answered promptly. If you'd rather talk it through, a call is easily arranged.
Add-on

Quarterly VAT returns

+£99 / month

If you're VAT registered or approaching the threshold, I'll handle your quarterly VAT returns and keep HMRC happy.

I crave certainty as much as the next autistic person, and if I could give you a fixed fee or range for the Money MOT, I absolutely would.

Here's the problem: the monthly retainer is more predictable because by then we're both starting from a stable, known point. The Money MOT is different. People understandably reach me with all kinds of different situations, and therefore the time and effort needed to arrive at that stable point will naturally differ in every case. Putting a fixed price or range on that upfront risks one of two bad outcomes: boxing myself into a price that doesn't reflect the work, or disappointing you if the real situation costs more.

What I can offer instead is total clarity on the process itself:

  1. You submit the enquiry form.
  2. I reply, say hi, and ask a few quick questions, roughly how far behind things are, whether HMRC's been in touch, what your income looks like, and how you're currently keeping records.
  3. Sometimes situations turn out more layered than they first appear, so I might need to come back with a couple more questions to quote you confidently and accurately.
  4. I'll give you a fixed quote, and I'm always happy to talk it through or answer questions.
  5. If you're happy to go ahead, we move to onboarding, the necessary checks, and get your Money MOT booked in.

You'll notice I don't tier by turnover. That's intentional. A £80k sole trader with clean records can be simpler to look after than a £25k sole trader with unreconciled transactions, unreliable delivery of information, and a side income stream. Turnover tells me what you earn, not how much work is involved.

My aim with The Money MOT is to iron out many of the creases that make up your individual setup, leaving an increasingly streamlined monthly process, and therefore lending itself more to a simple monthly fee structure. This is especially important for us NDers, since a pricing matrix with many variables and thresholds is just more potential overwhelm we could do without.

Every push to "increase efficiency" I witnessed in practice usually meant the same three things: more clients, same capacity, worse service. As a solo accountant, I know my limits and intend to keep my client list manageable. That may mean higher prices than a volume practice, but for an ND community where many have felt deprioritised, passed around, or like a low-value account, I'm making the call that it's a worthy trade-off.

I'm trying to operate on common sense rather than convention. If you think I've defaulted to standard practice where something better exists, I'm genuinely interested to hear your ideas - drop it in the AOB box in the contact form.

A note on scope and transparency

If your situation falls outside standard sole trader operations, or you need more contact than normal monthly scope covers, we'll agree any additional pricing before proceeding - no surprises.

Current pricing reflects my best thinking and may evolve as the practice grows. I'll always be upfront if experience tells me something needs revisiting.

🟡 Launching soon - get in touch and be the first to know
Let's get started

Still here?
Good. Let's do this.

No pressure, no commitment, no cost - just a conversation to see if we're a good fit.
Give me the essentials and I'll come back to you.

The essentials
Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid email address.
Please tell me what you do.

I'll come back to you by email - no commitment, no call unless you want one, and no pressure to decide anything on the spot.

All done - thanks!

I'll look over everything you've provided, have a think about your situation, and we'll take it from there by email.

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