What to expect from my accountant

dont_use_vistaprint

uknick wrote: »

The figures quoted are about the going rate if you Google and are what we charge, admittedly at the upper end. Whilst you say you're happy to pay £2-3k per year, whilst we've saved that for some clients in tax in the first year or so, it isn't every year. And, don't forget, the quoted price is the monthly rate for routine work, if you want work done outside of the contracted work, expect to pay about £100 per hour.

Also, from what you posted I assumed you were asking for an accountant to take your trial balance and produce VAT returns, year end accounts, payroll etc., i.e. no regular book keeping work. If you wanted them to do the book keeping then the cost would go up considerably.

How do you know if one's any good? Good question. In my opinion, and I would say this , first step is to make sure they're a qualified accountant with membership of the CCAB, i.e. charted institutes and they have a practicing certificate. This means a) there is a professional body you can complain to, b) they must have liability insurance and last, but most definitely not least, c) they have to carry on their professional development each year. Therefore, if things do go wrong there is proper body to complain to who will take action against the accountant if you have a legitimate complaint and the accountant refuses to sort it out.

After picking one on those criteria, listen to the advice they give you and see if it makes sense. See if they're prepared to talk you though the numbers and ask how the treatment of various items benefits you. If they're not willing to talk to you about what they're doing, then be cautious. It might well be they don't know what they're doing and you don't want to find this out when it's too late.

Thanks for that. Yes I'd check professional membership/qualification and assess professional development for any professional I give work to , I wouldn't normally ask a small company for proof of indemnity! Something would be seriously wrong if they had none !

I guess my main thing I would be looking for is someone asking me lots of questions and suggesting more ways to save tax than I can think of and advising me when I'm going to close to edge of reduction and could be viewed as avoidance and / or taking too many risks in their opinion. Someone with a good understanding of very different types of income , capital and expense , pension, property, vehicles, investment , IP, offshore income etc