Half of business owners have rejected external experts in different admin areas because of costs and 35% say they don’t have other staff members with the relevant skills.

Due to adopting a ‘go it alone’ approach, 32% of owners have ended up paying an external expert to fix an error they have made when taking on tasks they are not qualified to do.

Currently 69% of SMEs tackle accountancy, company formation and tax issues without expert support, spending 37% of their time on such tasks in their first year. With MTD adding new and complex digital processes, it is likely to consume even more of their time.

Company growth suffers due to these tasks and will continue to do so when MTD adds extra burden. Nearly three quarters of SME owners (73%) believe that their business would grow more quickly if less of their time was taken up by company admin.

Eduardo Martinez, co-founder of Geniac said: ‘Small business owners have enough on their plates trying to build successful businesses so any additional admin that the new regulations bring in could have a devastating effect. Managing a company’s finances is a vital and complex part of the business which many small business owners already find intimidating.

‘While it’s commendable that HMRC are looking at innovative solutions to streamline these processes, right now not enough is being done to educate SMEs about what will be put in place and how to handle their finances in a timely and cost-effective manner. Whatever the government decides, SMEs will need to be more organised and should take advantage of online business platforms to ease the admin burden.’

Geniac's research was conducted among 514 existing business owners in the UK with a turnover of £500,000 or less (not including self employed), and 146 people who are thinking of starting a business.