Starting a Business | SEO & Google

Finding a Business Accountant

Accountants are highly skilled individuals. Getting the right one will save you and your business hundreds or thousands a year. Get the wrong one and you will be paying through the nose for bad, even dangerous, advice.

If you don't get a buzz out of crunching numbers, don't worry, these people do. They might not be much fun at the Christmas party but they will make sure you can afford to have one.

Many businesspeople regard accountants as though they are the enemy. This is not the case if you have a good working relationship with an accountancy firm. Very few of us like working with numbers (those who do are accountants!) but it is an intrinsic part of running and operating any business. A good accountant is on your side to ensure that the business is able to make, and more significantly keep, as much profit as possible - and this is not a bad thing. A good accountant needs to be brought in right from the start, to get to know you and the proposed business right from its infancy. You will not be scored badly for offering an incomplete plan, just helped in the right direction to make it right. By allowing accountants to give you feedback on early drafts of the business plan, they quickly learn about what it is you are trying to achieve and can tailor their service to suit you and the company - saving you needless meetings and expenditure.

Accountants come in all shapes and sizes. Choosing an accountant is a major decision, so you should never just reach for the telephone directory and pick a name that sounds quite good. As a rule of thumb, don't contact firms that advertise in the local papers, or who drop flyers through your door, or worse, who cold call you - although they have every right to advertise, it does beg the question 'why do you not have enough clients?' The best way to choose a firm of accountants is through personal recommendation. If someone you know runs a business and they've been happy with their accountant for a few years, it's a safe bet that they will work well for you too. Unlike solicitors, it also pays to use a local firm. Not only will you get a more personal service, it will be much better when it comes to preparing the company accounts if you are able to transport files and documents by hand or car than trusting them to the mail.

A good habit to get into from the moment you start planning your new business is to keep records of absolutely everything. An organised office is immediately obvious from the number of box files taking up every available shelf. Leave nothing to chance. You can always destroy it in a year's time if it really is useless. As a bare minimum, every business should have a box file for:

Bank statements
Credit card statements
Invoices received
Invoices issued
Staff (contracts and income tax information)

There really is no upper limit on the number of box files you use over the coming years, but happy indeed is the accountant who can ask for a document and the client knows exactly where to look!

Accountants vary enormously in the methods they use to produce your accounts. Remember, there is no single correct answer in accounting issues. In general, they prefer to understate profits rather than overstate them because optimistic accounts tend to lead to more problems later. You can picture the scenario: gung-ho businessman puffs his accounts, borrows money and attracts investors, and finally, a few years later, goes broke. Who does everyone blame? The accountant, of course! Every time there is a big business scandal, from Robert Maxwell to Enron and Worldcom, the accountants are brought shuffling out to explain how they allowed the managers to bamboozle them. From an accountant's point of view, a 'conservative' attitude towards profits is highly desirable - and it means you pay less tax, too.


Custom Search