Choosing the Right Accountancy Firm
There are so many options available to you when looking to choose an accountancy firm. Whether it’s for your personal life, or your professional finances, how do you go about looking for the right one. An excellent small business accountant may, for example, be a mediocre personal finance accountant, and vice versa. Let’s take a good look at exactly what you should be looking for when you take the first steps to finding an accountant.
Well, first off, far and away the best way of identifying a decent accountancy firm is to get a personal recommendation. This has two benefits over every other method. Firstly, it’s easy to see exactly how good they are. Have they saved your friends a good deal of money: have they, in essence, paid for themselves and then some. Ultimately, that’s the most important factor beyond being trustworthy. If you’re paying more than you save, there’s little point in having a specialist accounting firm, past mere ease.
Get friends to give you a few of their stories – good and bad – about what their accountant has done for them. Of course a small outfit may not suit your needs if you’re looking for a company to take on the tax concerns of a larger enterprise. Similarly, if you’re just looking for someone to deal with your personal finances, then you may find many places unwilling to take you on. Finding the right accountancy firm for your requirements – one that can offer you the most time and consideration for your buck – is an important concern.
There are national and commercial bodies which can recommend an accountancy firm to you. These may include the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, the National Institute of Accountants, and the Association of Taxation and Management Accountants. You’re well covered with those three, as they’re the largest organisations of their kind in Australia. Getting in touch with them will help you immensely, as they will be able to offer you advice on where to find the most suitable accountancy firm.
Remember, accreditation is not the only thing you need to think about when hiring an accountant. You need to actually get on with them. It’s not really enough to simply hand over a pile of paper once a year. You may be content with simply leaving it at that, and speaking to them once per year. That won’t save you money though. The whole idea of getting an accountancy firm is that you save money, and if you have regular and candid discussions with them, you’ll save more than you would otherwise.
Also, it’s worth looking to see if you can speak with clients of a firm before you hire them. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and unless a firm is doing a good job with the bottom line of their clients, they don’t deserve new business, regardless of how effective their marketing is. Remember, hiring an accountancy firm is an important part of your life, so do as much ground work as possible before taking the plunge.
