For businesses everywhere, finding the perfect accountant is vital to their success. Hiring a good, proactive accountant for your business can make a big difference to the growth of your business. Hiring a bad accountant can have the opposite effect, costing you money and wasting your time.
There are a vast number of accountants to choose from in the UK. So choosing the right one can be a difficult decision. To make this even more difficult, anybody can call themselves an accountant. However, "Chartered Accountants" must be a member of either the ACCA or ICAEW, making them the ideal choice when hiring a professional, qualified accountant for your business. So, now you know to search for chartered accountants, what other questions should you be asking when looking to work with a new accountant?
These days your accountant (if you have a good one) can offer a wide range of different business and financial services, covering everything from financial advice and tax planning through to fund raising and operational consultations. Ask these questions of your accountant and ensure you are getting everything you need for your business.
You do not want to have to change accountant regularly, so finding an accountant who you feel comfortable with and you can trust is very important. Acountants have come a long way from just preparing your statutory year end reports for you.
When choosing an accountant, ask lots of questions and let them know what services you would be expecting from them if you were to you hire them as your accountant. For example, a lot of chartered accountants will not provide bookkeeping services as standard. Often it works out to be more cost-effective to keep your own books, having the support of your professional accountant along the way rather than having your accountant keep them for you.
It is important you get everything you need from your accountant and agree this from the start. Many accountants will offer differing packages, so from the start you need to agree how contact will be made, be it email, telephone or in person and of course, how often you’ll be in contact. At larger firms, the person you initially meet or speak to might not be the person actually handling the work. Ask who will be dealing with your account on a day-to-day basis and ensure they are suitably qualified.