I accidentally built an app to deal with the £90k VAT trap… 🤦♂️📸🎥
Hey everyone! Hope you’re all surviving the start of the season.
I wanted to share something a bit different today. Like a lot of you, I’ve spent years playing a constant guessing game with HMRC’s rolling 12-month VAT threshold.
As photo and video creatives, our industry just doesn’t suit being VAT registered. Because we mostly deal with private clients who can’t claim that 20% back, hitting that threshold means we either have to hike our prices by 20% overnight and risk losing bookings, or swallow the cost and take a massive pay cut. It’s a total productivity trap that makes you want to ‘throttle’ your business just to stay safe. All whilst battling the constant rise in the cost of living.
I got so fed up of trying to predict the future that I decided to jump on the app-building bandwagon. I initially built a tool completely for myself to solve the problem, but it’s been such a lifesaver for me that I decided to put it online to see if it can help anyone else.
It’s called You Shall Not VAT (see what I did there?!) and Instead of just telling you what happened like regular accounting software, it actually looks at your upcoming bookings to forecast the future:
* The Base Tracker is Free: You can log your numbers, see exactly where your rolling 12-month total stands today, and remove the guesswork.
* The Pro Forecasting: If you want to peer down the line, there’s a Pro version available for a simple, one-time fee. It maps out your future bookings, warns you of upcoming breach risks before they happen, and tells you your exact ‘Safe to Earn’ capacity each month. If you’re already registered, it even calculates your earliest possible deregistration date.
If you want to remove the mist, see exactly where you’re at, and take control of your threshold, feel free to have a play with it at youshallnotvat.com.
#vatthreshold #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #accounting
This time last week I was on the train home from the @thatweddingvideographerpodcast Summit in Glasgow, buzzing from meeting so many talented creatives — and the feedback on my editing efficiency workshop!
I wasn’t sure if the tips and efficiency hacks would resonate, but so many people told me how useful they found them.
As a result I’m excited to say I’m currently working on turning it into a full online tutorial so you can watch at your own pace and level up your editing.
Watch this space!
Big shout out to…
@rizzo.films and @afterglowweddings for hosting the event 🎭
@roo_films for being my travel buddy and laughing and clapping at the right moments 👏🏻
@_goodluckwolf for the cool pics 📸
Watch this space!
Quick turnaround. Total consistency. One dedicated editor (me) from first import to final export.
I take the time to understand how you want your films to feel, not just how you want them to look.
Because your name’s on it.
So it matters to me too.
You probably got into wedding filmmaking because:
– You love storytelling
– You love capturing real moments
– You love being creative
– You love the buzz of a wedding day
You probably didn’t get into it to:
– Be drowning in edits
– Work until 1am every night
– Have edits stacking up on hard drives
– Feel like you’re constantly behind
Hi, I’m Dan and you may know me from my other business @daniel_yates_films
What you don’t know is that before that, back when I had a ‘real’ job, whenever something needed doing, someone would sing:
“GET DAN ON IT!” 🎶
So I turned it into a business.
I edit wedding films for filmmakers who want to:
✂️ Stay creative without burning out
⚡️ Deliver on time
🧠 Get their evenings back
This page is where I’ll share:
📅 Availability updates
💡 Editing efficiency tips
🎬 Ways to make post-production less painful
If you want to shoot more and stress less…
You know what to do.
GET DAN ON IT 🎶
