Bookkeepers insurance

Tailor your bookkeeping insurance online with these covers

• Professional indemnity insurance

  Obtaining professional indemnity insurance should be an important consideration, as it covers you against allegations of professional negligence. Whether you make an error during your record-keeping which causes your client to lose money, or a client accuses you of failing to submit tax returns on time, PI insurance for bookkeepers can help pay towards your legal fees as well as any compensation that you may be found liable for.

  Available with limits ranging from £50,000 to £5m, there is a minimum level of bookkeeper’s professional indemnity insurance cover required for joining various professional bodies.

• Public and product liability insurance

  If someone is injured or their property damaged as a result of you going about your business, public liability insurance covers the cost of defending you, including damages awarded against you if unsuccessful. Limits range from £1m to £5m.

  Imagine you are showing a report to a client on their laptop and accidentally spill a drink over it, causing damage. You may face charges to pay for it to be repaired or replaced. Or if a client is visiting your office, and they trip on a loose cable and break their wrist, they may bring a personal injury claim against you. The legal fees alone could cost your business thousands of pounds, so if you come into contact with third parties, it’s important you consider this cover.

• Employer’s liability insurance

  Employer’s liability insurance covers your business against claims for injury or illness suffered by employees arising from their employment. It is a legal requirement for your business to have this cover if you have any employees, whether it is a single part-time admin assistant or a whole team of bookkeepers. Cover for £10m.

• Legal expenses insurance

  A long legal dispute over the terms of a contract or a client who is refusing to pay could leave you with an eye-watering lawyers bill that you can’t afford to pay.

  With legal expenses insurance added to your policy, your legal costs and expenses can be covered for contract disputes, tax enquiries (including IR35), attending jury service, debt recovery, personal injury, as well as any award you are required to pay following an employment dispute with an employee. There is a limit of £100,000.

• Directors and officers insurance

  If you are a director or officer of your company, directors and officers insurance helps to cover the costs of defending you against allegations of wrongful acts, and any damages subsequently awarded against you. It also covers you for the legal costs and expenses of defending actions for disqualification as a director, investigations and extradition proceedings. Limits range from £100,000 to £5m.

• Office insurance

  Office insurance covers your office buildings, office contents and computer equipment against accidental damage (including theft) whilst on your business premises. In addition, you can opt to cover your business equipment (such as laptops and mobile phones) on a worldwide basis, and insure your business against loss of income and/or additional trading expenses following events such as damage to your property.

  If your laptop is stolen and prevents you from doing your clients’ bookkeeping, you can get a replacement swiftly, so work isn’t delayed any longer than it needs to be.

• Occupational personal accident insurance

  If you had an occupational accident and were unable to work, would you struggle to maintain an income? If so, you should consider having occupational personal accident insurance to help ease the financial burden.

  This cover provides a weekly payment of £100/week to £500/week for temporary total disablement (subject to a 14-day deferment period). Or in the event of loss of limbs, sight, speech, hearing, permanent total disablement or death, a lump sum of £25k to £100k would be paid out.

• Cyber and data risks insurance

  In the aftermath of a cyber-attack, cyber and data risks insurance pays the costs of:

  • restoring data and equipment
  • informing clients
  • meeting ransom demands
  • loss of your net profit
  • legal defence costs and damages you are legally liable to pay to other parties.

  
  As a bookkeeper, you hold sensitive financial data belonging to your clients on computers and other internet-connected devices. If you are a victim of a targeted cyber-attack and any client data is stolen, you will want this added protection in place to prevent long-term damage.