HOW TO HIRE THE RIGHT ACCOUNTANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Hiring an accountant for your business can be a complex process.
You must consider many things like the qualifications, skills, and experience of the accountants, along with your budget and the types of accounting software that your business uses.
What are the functions of an accountant?
Before moving on to hiring an accountant for your business, you must understand the roles and responsibilities of an accountant:
- An accountant or bookkeeper ensures that your financial documents are accurate and compliant with the relevant laws and regulations. For example, is your VAT invoice compliant with the VAT laws?
- An accountant helps to prepare and maintain the financial reports that are crucial in determining the business’s financial position.
- An accountant prepares and submits a corporate tax return (CT600) on time.
- An accountant prepares and submits annual accounts to the Companies House on time.
- An accountant prepares and submits a Confirmation statement to the Companies House on time.
- An accountant prepares and submits VAT returns to the HMRC on time.
- An accountant offers financial guidance to ensure increment of revenue, reduce cost, and, thus, maximise profit.
- An accountant helps in forecasting future business trends to analyse and prevent any risk.
What type of accountant should you hire?
The type of accountant that you should hire depends on your business needs.
If you want an accountant who can manage mundane daily tasks like bookkeeping and provide you with financial guidance for the growth of your business, you can search for an accounting firm that will give both of these services.
But suppose you are on a tight budget and prefer to maintain your books. In that case, you can look for an accountant on a weekly or monthly basis.
An accountant will evaluate the financial statements of your business.
In this way, you can not only manage your operations efficiently after taking advice from a professional, but you can also reduce your costs.
While hiring an accountant for your business, make sure that you ask about the fees that the accountant will charge, what services the accountant will provide, and any additional services.
What skills do you need to look for in an accountant?
While going through the hiring process, ensure that the accountant that you choose for your business has the following skills:
- Is appropriately qualified
- Holds public practice certificates
- Has the appropriate level of professional indemnity insurance cover
- Does the accountat have relevant industry experience?
- Experienced with the software your business use
- Is the accountant tech-savvy?
- Is local, or you Ok with hiring a remote accountant
- Does he/she speak your language?
- Who will be doing the day to day work?
- Will you have a dedicated account manager?
What qualifications should the accountant hold?
Some of the recognised UK bodies are:
- Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
- Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
Which platforms should you use for hiring purposes?
Online platforms
LinkedIn is one of the largest online global platforms that you can use to look for accountants for your business.
Through LinkedIn, you can also dig a little deeper into a candidate’s profile and background to check the qualifications and experience of the candidate, any recommendations that the candidate might have received from the previous clients, and the connections of the candidates.
You can even use online websites (For example- Trustpilot) that give you a list of accounting firms and show the reviews and ratings of the accountants.
Offline platforms
While it is easier and convenient to look for an accountant online, it is always recommended not to turn to the internet when hiring an accountant for your business.
This is because an accountant is responsible for helping your business financially; thus, it is always better to meet a candidate face to face before hiring.
You can tap into your networks by taking recommendations from your friends, family members, or business colleagues who have set up their business in the same industry. This can help you to get reviews of the candidates from a trustworthy source.
Best of all
You can save time and efforts and let Experlu match you with your next or first perfect accountant, tax advisor or accountant.
Using specialist services like Experlu will save you time and money.
All accountants and tax advisors on their platform are pre-scanned for professional qualifications, practising certificates, professional indemnity insurance and much more.
Best of all, it won’t cost you a single penny.
Conclusion:
Hiring the right accountant can be the difference between the success and the failure of your business.
Thus, you need to hire an accountant with the relevant credentials and a good understanding of business management, tax rules and regulations, and accounting software.
Sophia is a full-time financial writer at experlu. she is a passionate blogger and love to share her knowledge on various subject. Content created by Experlu– are loved, shared & can be found all over the internet on high authority platforms.
