I'm an accountant, do I need to hire one?

[blinko]

I am an accountant aswell, although a very low paid one. So I don't really have a choice but to do it myself. It's a pretty steep learning curve as it's alot different doing the books of your own company to the usual processing I do during the day.

But in saying that I am learning alot as I do it and I have full control over my finances and accounts.

Although in saying that, the management accountant at my current place is on a handsome wage and she pays someone else to do the accounts.

In all honesty it's the last thing I want to do when I get home, but for me its an extra £1200 a year saving so, I go solo.

[TimCaprica]

Thanks Tim, what you say about the three levels of complexity makes complete sense.

I'd say I'm probably about 2/3 of the way through the basics, as I have been acting as FD for a software company for the last 6 months with very tight budgets so have been trying to do as much myself as possible. I definitely think the time vs benefit curve levels off beyond the basics and so would absolutely intend to have an expert to advise me on the finer details.

Cheap plug accepted, are you able to give a rough idea what you (or someone else in a similar position) would charge to do a tax review and offer value added advice given a set of draft accounts in Xero?

Cheers

Hi Doubleh,

Sorry for slow reply. I was expecting alerts when people updated the thread ...

The way I normally work is that I expect clients to keep Xero up to date though would anticipate it needing a bit of tidying up at year end.

Personally I wouldn't want to be doing just a tax review (very focused on building a base of 'subscriber clients') and then value added services is hard to quantify really as will be so dependent on your circumstances.

If ever you want one off jobs like a tax review done I'd suggest you use People Per Hour you'll get a VERY competitive quote off some decent accountants.

If I was you the bits I would most want to get someone else to do is the actual preparation and filing of iXBRL accounts, CT600, PAYE stuff. They're things that are quick and easy when you've got the processes and software set up but slow and painful when you don't.

Not sure that helps you at all ....

[Wanderer]

I am no tax expert and so would engage one to help ensure I'm not paying too much - or doing anything that would put me at risk.

Get an accountant for the first year and once you've gone through the whole cycle, review what was done and decide if you could do it all yourself or if you want/need to have an accountant do it for you.