AI accounting for UK limited companies — books that practically run themselves
Running a UK Ltd company means real accounts — full double-entry, accruals, depreciation, payroll, Corporation Tax. Most owner-managed companies pay a bookkeeper or stay up late doing it themselves. Luca does it for £20/month.
Why Ltd company accounting is different
Sole traders can get away with cash-based bookkeeping. Limited companies can't. You need accruals (income recognised when earned), depreciation (capital assets written down over time), payroll (with PAYE returns to HMRC), proper double-entry journals, and statutory year-end accounts filed at Companies House.
Luca handles all of this natively — your accounts are always year-end ready.
Core Ltd company features
Full double-entry accounting
Every transaction posts as a balanced journal entry, enforced at the database level. Trial balance, P&L and balance sheet are live at all times. Your accountant audits clean books rather than reconstructing them in February.
VAT — standard, flat rate, cash, MTD
Whatever VAT scheme you're on, Luca handles it. Quarterly returns prepared automatically and submitted via MTD VAT. Cash accounting and standard accrual VAT both supported.
Director's loan account
Track money you put into the company and money you take out. S455 tax exposure flagged automatically. Year-end declared dividend handling.
Payroll integration
Luca doesn't run payroll itself in beta — pair it with BrightPay, FreeAgent Payroll or Sage Payroll for the actual PAYE calculations. Luca then reconciles the payroll output into the accounts (gross wages, employer NI, PAYE due, net pay to bank).
Corporation Tax preparation
At year end, Luca produces a draft CT computation and the figures your accountant or CT600 filing tool needs. Native CT600 filing inside Luca is on the roadmap.
Year-end accounts — statutory format
Luca produces UK GAAP / FRS 102 1A or FRS 105 (micro-entity) format accounts in iXBRL ready for Companies House and HMRC. Your accountant can audit and file from these.
Multi-currency for international businesses
Sell or buy in EUR, USD, AUD? Luca handles multi-currency with FX revaluation at period end.
Pricing for Ltd companies
£20/month hosted. Or self-host free if you have technical capability. Plus Claude Co-Work Pro from $20/month.
Compare to a typical bookkeeper at £200-£500/month for a small Ltd, plus your accountant on top — Luca handles the bookkeeping work, your accountant focuses on advisory and statutory filings.
What about my accountant?
Keep them. Luca isn't a replacement for your accountant for statutory work and tax advice. Luca replaces the bookkeeping — the daily transactions, reconciliations, and VAT prep — that bookkeepers traditionally do. Your accountant gets clean Luca-produced books to file from.
Many UK accountants who've seen Luca prefer working from Luca's Merkle-chain audit trail than from typical bookkeeper output — the cryptographic chain means they can prove no historical entries have been silently changed.
Migration from existing accounting software
Luca accepts CSV exports from Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, FreeAgent and most other UK accounting tools. Typical migration is 2-4 weeks for a small Ltd company.
Related
Replace your bookkeeper, keep your accountant
Book a demo. We'll connect a sandbox to your real bank feed and show you what Luca produces from your actual transactions.