As a sole trader or small limited company, when you first start out you generally do everything yourself. This generally involves everything from answering the telephone, invoicing, to cleaning the office not to mention actually doing the work that your clients pay you for.
As your business grows you get to the point where you can't do everything yourself and if you want to continuing growing you are going to have to employ the services of other people. An accountant should be the first professional that you consider hiring but choosing the right accountant for your business isn't as straight forwards as you might think. Here are some tips to help your decision making process.
Make sure that you hire a qualified accountant for your business. There are many people who will offer to do your accounts for you and on the surface they may appear to carry out a good job but you don't really know how good a job they are doing until the Inland Revenue ask to look in to your accounts in detail. If this happens then you really need the assurance that your books have been professionally prepared by a qualified person who is up-to-date with current tax laws and allowances.
Choose an accountant that you feel that you can have a genuine professional relationship with. Once you start looking around for an accountant there is generally a divide between the big accounting firms and the smaller local accounting firms. If you are a small to medium sized business then the greater personal attention that you receive from a smaller accounting firm will help in developing a productive long-term relationship. The service fees of a smaller accounting firm are also liable to be much more affordable.
Choose and accountant that understands your business. Most smaller accountants tend not to be specialised in a certain area of business and have much more diverse accounting experience. Ensuring that your accountant knows how your business operates is essential to them being able to carry out a good job for you so make sure that your accountant understands your industry and business set-up.
Choose an accountant that offers a comprehensive range of services. There is much more to accounting than just bookkeeping and at a basic level your accountant should be able to file your tax returns with the Inland Revenue, prepare your financial statements and if the need arises they should be able to present all of the relevant documentation for auditing. Many accountants will also measure your business performance, help with business and growth planning and support your management team.
Make sure that you interview the accountant before choosing and don't just interview one. Choose two or three accountants that you feel are the best options and compare their services, prices, their knowledge of your type of business and very importantly, how well you get along with them.
As your business grows you get to the point where you can't do everything yourself and if you want to continuing growing you are going to have to employ the services of other people. An accountant should be the first professional that you consider hiring but choosing the right accountant for your business isn't as straight forwards as you might think. Here are some tips to help your decision making process.
Make sure that you hire a qualified accountant for your business. There are many people who will offer to do your accounts for you and on the surface they may appear to carry out a good job but you don't really know how good a job they are doing until the Inland Revenue ask to look in to your accounts in detail. If this happens then you really need the assurance that your books have been professionally prepared by a qualified person who is up-to-date with current tax laws and allowances.
Choose an accountant that you feel that you can have a genuine professional relationship with. Once you start looking around for an accountant there is generally a divide between the big accounting firms and the smaller local accounting firms. If you are a small to medium sized business then the greater personal attention that you receive from a smaller accounting firm will help in developing a productive long-term relationship. The service fees of a smaller accounting firm are also liable to be much more affordable.
Choose and accountant that understands your business. Most smaller accountants tend not to be specialised in a certain area of business and have much more diverse accounting experience. Ensuring that your accountant knows how your business operates is essential to them being able to carry out a good job for you so make sure that your accountant understands your industry and business set-up.
Choose an accountant that offers a comprehensive range of services. There is much more to accounting than just bookkeeping and at a basic level your accountant should be able to file your tax returns with the Inland Revenue, prepare your financial statements and if the need arises they should be able to present all of the relevant documentation for auditing. Many accountants will also measure your business performance, help with business and growth planning and support your management team.
Make sure that you interview the accountant before choosing and don't just interview one. Choose two or three accountants that you feel are the best options and compare their services, prices, their knowledge of your type of business and very importantly, how well you get along with them.
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