If you are starting a business, doing the accounts is an essential part of your operations and its easier to get it right from the start.
Many business start ups and entrepreneurs might see hiring an accountant as unnecessary. Tight profit margins, little-to-no investment and a small team mean even, the smallest expense can make or break a company. However, an accountant’s job is about more than just filing taxes and crunching numbers. Utilising an accountant can help; it’s something that you ought to do especially if you are running a limited company.
Unless you have a background in accounting or tax, keeping up to speed with all of the necessary laws, rules and regulations that you have to comply with can be a drain on your time. Time that you could better spend running your business.
A good accountant is like a year-round business partner. A trusted, knowledgeable advisor and critical friend during the start up phases along with through tricky times and reassuring one during the good ones. Considering almost half of all new businesses fail in their first year, bringing on experienced financial assistance is less of a luxury and more of a necessity.
To make sure that you get the right accountant for your business here are our top 10 tips:
- Get a recommendation from someone already using an accountant
- Ask the accountant for client testimonials or for the names of clients to contact for a reference
- Check their professional accounting qualifications
- Check the years of experience that they have in providing similar services to those that you need
- Ask how many clients they have in a similar industry to yours
- What are their charges – check that this fee is fixed or ask about ‘extras’?
- How do they ensure that all of your deadlines are met and that fines will not be imposed?
- Are they regulated by a professional accountancy body?
- Do they have professional indemnity insurance?
- What is their complaints procedure?
If you are a start up business we’d be pleased to discuss how we can help and provide a free no obligation consultation. This enables us to review your circumstances together and discover if we can assist you in any way. Call us on 0121 753 5522 or contact us enquiries@onyxaccountants.co.uk. Alternatively, you can drop us a line using our online enquiry form
