Below is a brief video of the key things to consider when choosing the right accountant.
Video Transcript: Choosing the right accountant
Hi there my name is Rhys Edwards from Edwards of Gwynedd Certified Chartered Accountants based here in North Wales. I’m going to be doing a series of short informative videos on accountants in taxation matters. I’ll be posting them up as regular as I can the first video that when we doing today is a quick look at choosing the right accountant.
First off I’d like to say that I know there’s lots and lots of good accountants out there but it’s just choosing the right accountant for you. We’re going to be going through six key topics that I think are really important things to look at when considering an accountant and these topics are based on my opinion and my opinion is drawn from years and years of working within an accountancy practice and also speaking to lots and lots of self-employed people, people with limited companies and people that have submitted tax returns.
So we’re going to go through six key points and the first point we’re gonna look at is “do I need an accountant?”. Now if you’ve just got to submit a basic tax return with maybe some employment income and maybe some dividend income, then I’m sure lots of people out there a capable of submitting the tax return by themselves. If it gets any more complex than that then I would start considering maybe using an accountant because I know there’s lots and lots of information out on the internet but people generally don’t have the time to sift through and find out which information is relevant to them. Also, if you’re a business owner and you’re doing your own accounts and you’re basing a lot of your business and management decisions on those accounts then it’s imperative that you make sure those accounts are correct to make sure that your decisions are good business decisions, so it might be worth looking at using an accountant.
My second point is “what type of accountant do I need?”, by this I mean do you need a specialized tax advisor or accountant for example if you’re doing a lot of offshore work then it might be worth considering an accountant that specializes in this area or do you need a general practitioner which is what we are here we offer VAT, payroll a general practitioner will offer you know an array of services. Another thing to consider is “do you need an audit?”. Now larger companies will require an audit and not all accounting practices offer an audit so that’s something to consider if you’re a larger business and you’re seeking a new accountant.
The third point is “do I need a qualified accountant?”, now I personally would recommend that you do choose a qualified accountant, for three reasons really. First off they will have sat all the relevant exams and studied for some period and they should have a good grounding of all accountants and accountancy and Taxation matters, also they’ll still be governed by that their governing body so they’ll have a certain level of like certain code of ethics that they’ll have to adhere to and you can actually go online and have a look at the government bodies website to make sure that your accountant is doing the things that they should be doing. The third point is also that if if you do choose a qualified accountant they will have to do CPD which means that they will have to continual professional development and go on regular courses to keep them updated with relevant taxation accountancy matters. Now the three key the main accontancy qualifications within the UK to think about using would be the ACCA a ICAW and the CTA. ACCA is chartered certified Chartered Accountants that’s what we are here ATT a their chartered accountants and CTA their charter tax advisors and they might give you a bit more and specific tax advice. There are other qualifications but within the practice they are the three key qualifications to look at using. Now I’m not discrediting using anybody that isn’t qualified but it’s much more difficult to really verify the skill set that that person has.
The fourth point we’re going to look at is recommendation. No recommendations is a valuable thing to have when considering using an accountant, especially if you’ve got recommendation from another business owner that works in the same sector that you do. For example, you’re a farmer and a fellow farmers recommended an accountant that is really good within the industry and has got good knowledge about the farming industry and taxation issues within the farming industry and that information is invaluable. Also consider looking at online reviews it’s good to have quite a few of the reviews you know for it to have any weight in.
The fifth point to consider, and I know this is an important point for all of you, is “price”. Essentially it’s worth looking at how an accountant might price a job as different accountants have different pricing mechanisms but the main things I’m sure they a lot and consider is you know how much time is going to take the complexity and maybe the different software or skill set that they need to do the accounts or tax matter. So that’s something to consider when you go in in to practice is for example, you know how good a bookkeeping system do you have is it a bit of a mess, so the accountant is going to be considering you know it’s going to take me a lot of time to sort this out put everything in order so that’s something you could do maybe beforehand. I would recommend that you do try and get a price off your accountant beforehand now not all accountants will do that but they should at least be able to give you some sort of estimate. I’d also recommend that if you do get a price then you get a detailed guidance of you know what that price actually entail em you know what’s within that price what services are they going to offer for that price.
A sixth and final point that will have considered is “are they good fit for you?”. So essentially you know are you going to get along with this person because hopefully you can do em build up a good relationship with your your accountant and you’re going to work with them for years to come, so you’re going to have to they’re going to have to understand your requirements now everyone’s different some people want from their account you know just want to pay you know the smallest price possible for their accountant and for their accounts to do as little as possible, other people want you know to to grow their business to it you know and their accountant to be alongside them and help them give them guidance. So communication is key if you’re sending emails to your accountant and and they’re not responding pretty quickly then you know it’s gonna you can just have to start considering you know whether you’re gonna be able to work with this accountant for a long term. Other things to consider possibly is if does your accountant you software is he happy to use a software that you’re using is he introduced in the right software is he is he talking about these issues or even just simplify being able to simplify your current bookkeeping system So I’ve gone through all six pointers there I know that’s a lot to think about but hopefully I will have flagged something up there that you hadn’t considered beforehand and it’s been of some use for you.
So that’s it for today if you know of something else that would like that you think might this this video might be of interest to them and please like and share this this post if you want to see more videos like this then like us on Facebook follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube channel we’re all under Edwards of Gwynedd, so that’s it thanks for listening and have a good day and I hope you choose the right accountant.
This information is subject to change and is not professional advice. Refer to our disclaimer for more details.
