Can you recommend an accountant?

[ecfc29]

Hi all

Am new to contracting and am in the process of setting up my company.

Can anyone out there recommend a decent accountant - good service, good advice and well priced - all the important criteria!

Thanks for your help.

[cojak]

Welcome to CUK.

I would just look down the threads on this forum as this question has been asked many times.

[northernladuk]

Because this has been asked so much I put a thread together with all previous recommendations...

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

After reading that go have a look in the Welcome/FAQ's forum and check out the thread on how to search for information on the boards.. You can find it here..

http://forums.contractoruk.com/welco...uk-forums.html

[Scoobos]

All I'll add is that I've been with a couple of the "big names" and found them to be dissapointing.

It's worth considering a smaller outfit that's got good contractor experience and will know your business and accounts personally.

[Clare@InTouch]

Call a few and chat to them - price and service are important, but it's also essential that you feel you get on with them and can ask as many questions as you like.

[northernladuk]

All I'll add is that I've been with a couple of the "big names" and found them to be dissapointing.

It's worth considering a smaller outfit that's got good contractor experience and will know your business and accounts personally.

And I will counter that with me going with a local service expecting exactly what Scoobos suggests and he didn't know contractor accounts very well and was more interested in his bigger customers so screwed my accounts up royally. He didn't have the tools the big guys do that are tailored specifically to our needs. Been with a big name 3 or 4 years now and service has been perfect.

[Jeremiah@RHJAccountants]

Call a few and chat to them - price and service are important, but it's also essential that you feel you get on with them and can ask as many questions as you like.

I will echo this comment you need to get on with your accountant as you being a newbie will have a lot of questions and who better to ask than your accountant.

We are here to help and advise you.

[jamesbrown]

.

Yeah, I can recommend this one

[Kanye]

Yeah, I can recommend this one

I agree that the big firms were dissapointing.

My first two were useless, bordering on criminally negligent.

Claire @ InTouch was great, but they didn't do a book keeping service at the time so I moved away.

2 problems with accountants in this sector IMO:

1) To operate at scale they have to put you into a process. As they grow they then often insert people who aren't qualified as accountants to handle the day to day communications. This all ends up feeling quite impersonal on a service that is quite important to us and does not come cheap.

2) I found that I still had to do a lot of work in terms of data entry which I was always behind on and found it quite complex to stay reconciled with the bank account. This in itself is a skilled job in my opinion.

The best solution for me has been a combination of FreeAgent + a good freelance bookkeeper/accountant.

This setup has meant that I have been able avoid doing any data entry myself, whilst keeping ownership of the data, and also staying in regular contact with the a key person who has since gotten to learn about the company and it's finances.

The woman I use has a website at CASA Office – Accountancy and Bookkeeping Services Hampshire | Bookkeeping, Admin, Business Support, Accountancy but I would genuinely recommended the same setup to anyone.

[Scoobos]

WHS !

And I will counter that with me going with a local service expecting exactly what Scoobos suggests and he didn't know contractor accounts very well and was more interested in his bigger customers so screwed my accounts up royally. He didn't have the tools the big guys do that are tailored specifically to our needs. Been with a big name 3 or 4 years now and service has been perfect.

My big name made a hash of my accounts, and publically listed meetings and personal stuff attacking me on these forums. They even suggested libel action even though they were totally aware of my honesty.

Guess its luck of the draw, as I know others here that use the same name and have great service.