Are you looking for an accountant? Here is a brief guide to finding one that suits your business.
What to consider:
- Needs and scope: Clarify what you need help with (ongoing bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, annual accounts, reporting, advisory).
- Qualifications and expertise: Ensure the accountant/firm has relevant qualifications and up-to-date professional knowledge.
- Industry experience: Ask about experience with your industry and company type.
- Systems and integrations: Which financial systems do they use, and do they support the integrations you need (bank, POS, e-commerce, time tracking, etc.)?
- Availability and communication: Who will be your contact person, how will follow-ups work, and how quickly do you get responses?
- Pricing and agreement type: Understand what is included, hourly rate vs. fixed price, and how changes are handled.
- Transparency and reporting: Request regular reports and insights into key figures, deadlines, and tasks.
- Security and data protection: Procedures for access control, quality assurance, backups, and handling personal data.
- Onboarding and transition: How is the transition from your previous system handled, including quality checks and data cleanup.
Useful questions to ask:
- Which tasks do you handle monthly/quarterly/annually, and what is expected from us?
- What response times can we expect? Do you have operating hours and support for critical deadlines?
- Which systems do you recommend and why? How will onboarding be handled?
- How do you price additional work and changes in scope?
- How do you ensure the quality of your work (internal controls, review of VAT/tax matters)?
Need help choosing or getting started? Learn more about how we can assist at Accounting Support.