What to expect from an accountant ?

[private123]

I am narrowing down my shortlist of potential accountants for my first contract. I'm wondering how much I should be expecting from an accountant in terms of ongoing proactive advice. Questions that spring to mind, for example, are things like:
- If I am working from home, what should I be claiming ?
- Would it be beneficial, tax-wise, to put a certain amount in a pension ?
- Should I consider my wife being a shareholder and/or employee ?
I'm not asking for answers to these questions, these are just some random ones that have sprung to mind. What I am saying is, no doubt there are a hundred other questions I will not think to ask, so, should a good accountant be asking me these sort of questions, or am I expected to be my own, or employ my own, financial/tax advisor ?

[Danielsjdaccountancy]

I am narrowing down my shortlist of potential accountants for my first contract. I'm wondering how much I should be expecting from an accountant in terms of ongoing proactive advice. Questions that spring to mind, for example, are things like:
- If I am working from home, what should I be claiming ?
- Would it be beneficial, tax-wise, to put a certain amount in a pension ?
- Should I consider my wife being a shareholder and/or employee ?
I'm not asking for answers to these questions, these are just some random ones that have sprung to mind. What I am saying is, no doubt there are a hundred other questions I will not think to ask, so, should a good accountant be asking me these sort of questions, or am I expected to be my own, or employ my own, financial/tax advisor ?

Hi,

I would say both.


You should always ask questions of your accountant, challenge them on certain rulings. Equally though, and when the opportunity arises, your accountant should provide proactive advice, so via newsletters, email exchanges, when VAT returns and end of year accounts are produced, it should very much be a 50:50 relationship.

Remember though you are the director and therefore the responsibility is yours, not the accountants.

[Sally@InTouch]

I am narrowing down my shortlist of potential accountants for my first contract. I'm wondering how much I should be expecting from an accountant in terms of ongoing proactive advice. Questions that spring to mind, for example, are things like:
- If I am working from home, what should I be claiming ?
- Would it be beneficial, tax-wise, to put a certain amount in a pension ?
- Should I consider my wife being a shareholder and/or employee ?
I'm not asking for answers to these questions, these are just some random ones that have sprung to mind. What I am saying is, no doubt there are a hundred other questions I will not think to ask, so, should a good accountant be asking me these sort of questions, or am I expected to be my own, or employ my own, financial/tax advisor ?

A good accountant should go through with you the best way to structure your company and financial affairs solely based on your personal circumstances, at the start of your business. Once you are set up and running, they should advise you what you can and can't claim as expenses. They should be pro-active in as much they should be advising you of any obvious things you are not claiming. With regards to the company accounts and returns, these should be prepared for you to approve without you having to ask them to, with plenty of time before the filing deadlines.

nothernladuk has a list of accountants that are recommended on here. I'm sure he'll post the link here soon!

[northernladuk]

This is the thread Sally mentions.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...-requests.html

Daniel makes a key point which I don't think has enough emphasis. You are ultimately responsible so need to have a good grasp and having an accountant spoon feed you is not enough. Maybe it is just the OP's poor choice of examples but all of them can be found in the most basic guides that accountants often have for free and are indeed in our newbies lists to the right.

I found small one man bands were utterly useless at being proactive but the big contractor specialist guys will regularly send out bulletins and answer questions. I still would not call them proactive in what the OP possibly mentions. They will help and answer questions but they will not constantly ring you up and say 'I saw you are doing x, have you thought about doing y' and then filling in your paperwork. You need to understand it and apply it. In one bulletin they mentioned entertaining but it is up to me to understand and apply it if that makes sense.

I wrote this because I remember in the past being disappointed at what I thought an accountant offered. I imagined they would run my business for me and ring me every week to peruse my finances and point stuff out etc which I didn't find to be the case. They are however very good and helping me when I find stuff that maybe applicable or see in their bulletins. Know I have the hang of it I find the service perfect. Using one of the big guys first rather than a local bod would have also helped me when starting out.

[private123]

Many thanks for the repliies. My example questions were just the ones I had thought of, and therefore could search out the answers to in the first timers area and elsewhere. The questions I am worried about are the ones I have not thought to ask. However, I think you have answered my question in that it seems I can't expect an accountant to be my eyes and ears. It seems I have to stay on the ball myself and ask loads of questions, which is fine now I realise that. I'll stop worrying about whether I should look for this in an accountant.

regarding the link. I had already read that thread and threads linked within. I've done little else for the last couple of days but try to find recommendations on the forum, and following up recommendations to see if each service gives me a comfort feeling.

I'll refrain from naming any names as I don't want to be accused of giving someone the chance to advertise (as I see lots of people have been accused of that). So far I've narrowed it down to probably three, but none give seem to tick all the boxes.

Having read lots of posts and looked into several accountants, it seems what I would really like is
1. Someone who lots of people are recommending.
2. Someone who gives me a good feeling based on my contact with them.
3. Someone who offers a really good fully integrated online book keeping system, to save me having to run a separate one for myself.
4. Ideally someone PCG accredited (although some of the ones recommended on this forum are not).

There seem to be two main firms which fit criteria 1, and possibly 2. However, the only firms I have found who fit criteria 3, so far fail on criteria 1 and 2.

I will keep digging, but it looks like I will have to compromise, unless someone thinks they know of a firm who fit 1 and 3, then I can contact them and see if they fit 2.

It can be difficult to search out posts mentioning some of the firms in which I am interested. Some search terms return pages and pages of results purely because someone from that firm has posted in the thread.

[northernladuk]

Thinking you are making this harder work than it is but applaud the fact you are making the effort which many don't. Sent you a PM.

[private123]

Thinking you are making this harder work than it is but applaud the fact you are making the effort which many don't. Sent you a PM.

Sorry, did not get the PM.

[northernladuk]

Sorry, did not get the PM.

Ok took me longer to write it than I thought.. Hold yer horses!

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

I wouldn't get too hung up on the book-keeping system. Most will give you a simplified spreadsheet if that's your thing.

[Contreras]

1. Someone who lots of people are recommending.
2. Someone who gives me a good feeling based on my contact with them.
3. Someone who offers a really good fully integrated online book keeping system, to save me having to run a separate one for myself.
4. Ideally someone PCG accredited (although some of the ones recommended on this forum are not).

1. beware of why people make recommendations, without qualification, with different values to your own. For example some people deal with all their own VAT/PAYE/etc and just need the end of year accounts done, others seem to need more hand holding and instruction.

2. is by far the most important. You seem pretty switched on so trust your instincts!!

3. as already mentioned this can be done with a spreadsheet (if that suits you). A good accountant will take whatever you have and work with it, making suggestions for improvements but not to dictate using this or that package.

4. this narrows the field way too far, imho.

I think you need to go make a half hour appointment with some local accountants, let's say three, explain what you're up to and see where that takes you. That's not to say a local accountant would be best (again, it's a personal choice), but each meeting will answer some question and raise more you hadn't thought of and by the end you'll have a much better idea.

You don't necessarily need a contractor specialist accountant, but definitely someone who has a good number of contractors on their books. Some testing questions about appropriate salary levels, IR35, and how to best extract money from your company would be a good start, even if you have already figured out the answers to these.

Other questions to ask:

What do I need from you?
What do you need from me?
What will you do for me?
What can (should) I do for myself?
How much will it cost?