How to find a reputable E-commerce Accountant

moatfarm

I run a small business through eBay and currently use a very traditional accountant. He is my father’s accountant of many years and is very reputable. However, he does not seem familiar with e-commerce businesses and small problems are occurring (eg. He will not use my PayPal statements because it is unfamiliar to him). I now realise that working with him is not sustainable. Therefore, I would like to find a small e-commerce accountancy firm, who work with businesses that operate through platforms such as eBay and Amazon. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone who can recommend a reputable e-commerce accountant. Any advice on how to find one in the Birmingham area would be much appreciated. 

Savvy_Sue

moatfarm said:

Any advice on how to find one in the Birmingham area would be much appreciated. 

the beauty of an e-commerce accountancy firm is that it really won't matter where they are. 

I can't give any recommendations, I'm afraid, but DS1 successfully uses a company which specialises in his line of business (independent computer game development) and all his dealings are online - as they need to be, because until March this year he was itinerant and out of the UK as much as in ... 

Might be worth looking on the Ebay etc board? 

moatfarm

Hi Sue, thanks for your response. I meant an accountancy firm that deals with e-commerce businesses. They don’t have to be online only,  I’d prefer if they had an office so I can arrange face to face meetings with them as and when necessary. I’ll have a look on the eBay board as you suggested, many thanks! 

Savvy_Sue

moatfarm said:

Hi Sue, thanks for your response. I meant an accountancy firm that deals with e-commerce businesses. They don’t have to be online only,  I’d prefer if they had an office so I can arrange face to face meetings with them as and when necessary. I’ll have a look on the eBay board as you suggested, many thanks! 

Yes, I do get that, BUT if they are used to dealing with e-commerce businesses, they are also likely to be easier to deal with at a distance. Although I absolutely get the face to face thing - but we do that less and less, don't we? 

oldbikebloke

I doubt you will get sufficient recommendations for an accountancy firm within reasonable distance of "Birmingham" as that is rather a narrow question and unlikely to attract a consistent response to make a clear winner.
As SS says, many online accountancy practices will be more than familiar with your e commerce records, the question then is how much weight do you put on face to face meeting ability when choosing? How far are you willing to travel? 

Mistral001

Does he really need the Paypal statements?

For my small business (sole trader), I used to give my accountant  a box containing bank statements, Mastercard statements, Paypal statements, chequebook stubs and receipts but she said she never looked at them.  She said that all they needed were totals for income and for the different categories of expenditure, such as stationery and postage, car mileage etc.  I changed to doing it the way she recommended a few years ago.  I still have to do the same amount of work before submitting my accounts to my accountant each year, except I do not have to carry that box into my accountant's office and pick it up again when they have finished with them.

martindow

I wonder what value you are getting from using an accountant now everything is set up?  It can be very useful initially to make sure you are including all of the expenses that you are entitled to but if the nature of the business stays the same you can probably continue doing it yourself.  You have to get together all of the totals and keep the receipts in any case so you might as well put the totals in the tax return as well.

This assumes you are a sole trader rather than a limited company which is much more complex and the repurcusiions of incorrect returns can be severe.

oldbikebloke

paypal statements in the form of the monthly financial summaries are very useful as the source of the turnover info and the associated transaction costs. Without that info there is a very real risk of "netting off", since the cash received in the bank is net of deductions and therefore it is a fundamental breach of accounting principle to use that, not the gross income pre deduction. 

Not really an issue for a sole trader on the cash basis,
but a complete show stopper for a Ltd 

moatfarm

PayPal is just one of a few issues. The main one being that I think it’s important to have an experienced accountant, who understands the business fully, so they can help you save money. I have many questions I’d like to ask him, but I’m not confident he will know the answers, as he’s openly said he’s not familiar with  eBay/Amazon businesses. This is the problem, which is why I’m asking for recommendations. 

oldbikebloke

moatfarm said:

which is why I’m asking for recommendations. 

sorry but forum rules discourage giving recommendations for named businesses, otherwise the forum would be awash with fake recommendations that are in reality nothing more than straight up adverts 

moatfarm

Recommendations on how to go about FINDING one... As mentioned in original post....