Setting up a limited company? Professional Support for your business will make all the difference in terms of your success. When choosing your preferred contractor accountant don’t gamble on one of the most important decisions you can make.
Know your options and follow these four steps to make sure you appoint the right accountant for you.
1. Personal touch
Best advice has to be based on a real understanding of you, your circumstances and aspirations. Only by getting to know you can we tailor advice that suits your needs. Even if you are an established contractor, who understands the technical accounting aspects of the statutory returns that your company needs to submit you will still benefit from talking to your accountant who will recognise opportunities to proved further advice.
The contractor market includes many provides of accountancy support but beware of those that call themselves online accountants – many offer no more than access to online accounting software and do not actually act as your accountant!
To gain the most from your accountant you have to know who you are talking to. Make sure your accountant will provide a qualified dedicated accountant and team to look after your business and that you will only talk to them. Ensure that when you call someone in the team will be available to answer your query and not expect you to wait for a call back.
A favourite differentiator for contactor accountants is to offer free face to face meetings with their clients. Not all meetings are equal……… ensure that your accountant will come to meet you at a location of your choice, at a time you choose. Make sure that you are not restricted to one free meeting over the course of your relationship with your accountant.
Ultimately, the best way to choose your accountant is to ensure a connection between you and your advisor. Talk, talk and talk again to the accountant you are thinking of appointing..you will know instantly if you feel that you can work together and if you can trust them to provide you with the service you deserve.
2. Knowledge
Accountants come in all shapes and sizes, just like contractors. Your best advice will come from a specialist contractor accountant who will be able to demonstrate both a substantial level of experience in dealing with freelancers and a clear understanding of how you work.
Specialist Contractor Accountants will keep you up to date with the latest industry thinking on legislation, such as IR35 and will make sure your remain fully compliant with HMRC returns and deadlines.
When appointing an accountant, consider their personal qualifications. Your best combination will be a qualified accountant with industry expertise. Make sure you talk to them and find out how long they have been supporting contractors, ask them how they build relationships with their clients and what techniques they use to stay in touch and keep you informed.
3. Accounting software
It is vital that you make sure the software you choose to maintain your company records is fit for purpose. Your accountant should offer software that has been designed specifically with Contractors and Freelancers in mind.
Choose a facility that is simple and quick to use, whilst clever enough to keep you in control at all times.
Your chosen solution should include:-
- Easy uploading of bank transactions either via an overnight feed or the download of a file from your bank. The software should facilitate easy allocation of each transaction against a list of pre-defined categories.
- Easy to enter expenses, via your phone, tablet or PC. You never have to loose a receipt again as they can be captured instantly and allocated to the correct cost category via an easy to use menu
- Facilities to set recurring expenses and mileage records, saving time and hassle
- A time sheet and invoicing function that allows you to invoice and email your clients from within the system ensuring timely preparation of invokes
- Access to a detailed Overview screen that clearly sets out a tax timeline of future liabilities and payment dates, any amounts owed to you and a reminder of the company profits and available dividends.
4. Fees
Many accountants now offer what appear to be fixed monthly fees – and some are outwardly much cheaper than others. Beware of the headline prices and the hidden additional fees – the service behind the fees will not be equal!
Costs can add up quickly and so transparency is vital. Choose an accountant who offers a truly inclusive service for their fixed fees and ask them to set out in writing what their fee includes. If you believe you need additional services ask for a price to be agreed in writing before the work commences. You need to make sure you have no nasty surprises in the future.
It is also really important to make sure that you understand any minimum tie in periods and costs.
If you are new to contracting you may not be sure what you need to ask...
Consider the following when reviewing fees:-
- Do formation costs cover registering for various taxes e.g. VAT registration and the opening of a PAYE scheme
- Is there an additional fee for using the accounting software?
- Is your tax return included?
- Are there additional fees for non contracting income to be included on the tax return?
- Is there an annual filling fee?
- Are charges made for rent or mortgage references?
- Are you charged for meetings?
- Is all telephone and email advice included in the fee?
- Is there a closure fee?
Genie Accountancy: your personal accountant
Genie Accountancy only deals with Contractors and Freelancers and all of our staff, accountants and administrators have accountancy qualifications so the whole team is very experienced in supporting people like you.
As part of our standard fixed price package we offer access to accounting software, written by Contractors for Contractors. We support this software with personalised, bespoke advice. We love to meet our clients, however, if that is not practical we are available via phone and email as much as you need us to be.
Any accountant should be able to prepare the statutory returns and records that you need but not all will deliver these with the additional value of bespoke proactive advice. As a client of Genie Accountancy you can be confident that you have engaged a specialist who will keep you informed of anything that affects you and your company.
We will ensure that you comply with your responsibilities with regard to the filing requirements of Companies House and HMRC and we will do all of this for a transparent fixed monthly fee.
You may find our guide to choosing the right accountant useful. Please click HERE to access the guide.
If you would like to speak to one of our accountants at Genie Accountancy, give us a call: 01296 468 185
