About two weeks of elapsed time for a typical sole trader or landlord, though very little of that is work at your end. The sequence is: an initial session to understand how you actually operate, then we build the file — chart of accounts, opening balances, customers and suppliers, VAT scheme if relevant, bank feeds and rules — and then a short training session so you are not left with a beautiful file you do not know how to drive. The waiting is bank feed authorisation and, if MTD is involved, HMRC agent codes arriving by post. Businesses with years of history, CIS, stock or a messy starting position take longer. We quote a fixed fee once we have seen the records, not an hourly rate.