Choosing an accountant is an important decision and you need to find one that matches your needs, you feel comfortable with, can trust and whose fee levels are fair. 

 

Check for Qualifications (ICAEW or ACCA). There are many accountants who are not qualified and regulated by a supervisory body. It is in your best interest to ensure that you are dealing with professionals who are qualified and licenced to operate by their regulatory bodies. Always look for word “Chartered” within the communications.  

Call When You Need. Get an accountant who you can call whenever you need help and advice, without fear of being charged every time you make a phone call. 

Understanding. Get an accountant you can speak to openly and honestly who understands what you are saying and who you understand. Talk to them about your business and your ideas and see how commercial they are. Do they understand your business? 

Gives Tax Ideas. Ask them what tax ideas they have for you. You want an accountant who will pro-actively come up with regular new ideas.

 

Use of modern communication. Ask if they communicate by modern methods of communication as it speeds up service and saves costs. 

Competitive Fees. Make sure you get an agreed fee wherever possible for your work. If not, get a fee they won’t go beyond without your agreement.  

View their Website. To see how pro-active they are and what they offer to clients. If they don’t even have one for you to find out more about them or it’s a very poor website what does that say about the service you’re then likely to receive. 

What Services are Offered. Find out if they offer all the services you need and are likely to need in the future? 

Fixed Timescales. Agree fixed timescales by when work will be done and get them to guarantee it. 

Engagement Letter. Ask for a copy of their engagement letter and make sure everything you need is included and make sure they keep to what they are to do.

While choosing an accountant in Manchester can be a difficult process, especially if you are a new business start-up, it’s much simpler if you approach it systematically and ask the right questions. As a guide below are a few of the more common questions we get asked by prospective clients considering using our services…

 

Q: How easy is it to change accountants and why should I change?

A: If your existing accountant is offering you an excellent pro-active service at a fair fee then stick with them. However, different accountants will save you different amounts of tax and provide different levels of business advice. If your present accountant doesn’t offer the type of service you want and that we do offer, then changing over to us is very easy. It involves just one letter from you and we take care of everything else for you. Your existing accountant is not usually allowed to charge you for providing the normal handover information.

Q: You seem to offer a lot. Are your fees expensive?

A: No! We’re not always the cheapest and as with many things in life the cheapest is often the most expensive in the long run. However, we are not expensive and we offer excellent value for what we provide. We look to build long-lasting working partnerships and relationships with our clients.

Q: I don’t need an accountant until next year, so is there any need to contact you now?

A: We can’t over emphasise the importance of tax planning at an early stage, not crisis driven advice. Ideally you do tax planning before the year even starts but after that, the earlier the better. The same is applicable to all areas of advice and we are about helping you change the future, not just reporting what has already happened. It is never too early to seek advice.

Q: Will you come to visit us for an initial consultation?

A: Yes. It often helps to see your business, books and records, etc at first hand and we are always happy to invest our time without charge to show you what we can do. Of course, if you prefer to visit us, that’s fine too. We aim to make using us an your accountant as easy as possible, so we are always flexible.

Q: Is your fixed quote guaranteed for more than one year?

A: We’re not in the business of providing low quotes just to get your business for the first year and then raising the fees. We want you as a long term client who trusts us to do what we say we will do. We quote what we anticipate to be a fair fee for the value provided and would only anticipate normal inflationary increases if the work stays the same. Very occasionally there may be reasons why the amount of work involved exceeded what was expected but we would sit down and discuss these with you. In some cases, where it is clear exactly what work is involved we can guarantee the fee for more than one year.

Q: Aren’t all accountants the same?

A: While many accountancy practices may have a similar approach and could be deemed “all the same”, we are definitely not. Although as accountants, numbers will always be important, equally as important is the relationship with our clients, working together to achieve the businesses goals and delivering fantastic customer service.