Accounting mistakes startups are making (and how to fix them)
Is Your Accounting Costing You?
Find out how small finance mistakes could be blocking your growth.
Accounting might not be top of mind when building a startup — but hidden financial missteps can cost you funding rounds, trigger legal headaches, or even put your business at risk.
Join us for a practical deep-dive with Ruben Portz (COO, Novabook) and Tom Kelly (Chartered Accountant & Chief of Staff, Novabook). With hands-on experience supporting over 500+ startups — from incorporation through scale and exit — they’ll walk you through the most common financial pitfalls founders make, and the simple systems, hacks, and best practices to avoid them.
You’ll learn:
✅ The filings and compliance steps most founders miss — and why investors notice
🧾 Bookkeeping hacks that save hours and prevent expensive mistakes
💰 VAT and payroll setups that can save you thousands
🧠 Smart ways to manage cash, expenses, and R&D credits
🕵️♂️ Tax-efficient tactics that too many founders overlook
📌 Whether you're pre-seed, scaling fast, or gearing up to fundraise, this session is packed with real-world insights you can apply immediately.
Your hosts
Ruben Portz is the COO at Novabook. Previously Head of Growth at Seneca Learning, he helped scale the company to its acquisition by GoStudent — and experienced firsthand how accounting mistakes can become costly as you scale, and at the point of exit.
Tom Kelly is a Chartered Accountant and Chief of Staff at Novabook. After 5+ years at PwC, Tom now supports 300+ tech startups and scaleups at Novabook, ensuring their accounting is done right from the start.
About Novabook
Novabook is the accountant for startups. Our mission is to help founders focus on building incredible things by saving them time, money and admin headaches. We combine great software and a team of experienced chartered accountants to automate founders’ work and take admin off their plate. Whether you’re raising your first round or scaling internationally, we work with some of the best founders in the UK, getting their bookkeeping, payroll, taxes, VAT and more done right.