Accounting rms come in all shapes and sizes.
Tier 1 rms – international rms who tend to work with large businesses.
Tier 2 rms – international rms operating throughout the world who tend to prefer to work for businesses of a reasonable size.
Tier 3 rst – rms with several partners, sometimes with national and international afliation who tend to work a lot more with
small businesses.
Smaller rms – rms with one, two or maybe three partners who specialize in small business or with people who earn salaries and
wages.
When selecting an accountant, you should be looking for someone who specializes in your size of business, has some experience
in your industry and who gives timely, pro-active and useful advice at a fair and reasonable cost. It is also someone who shows
they care for you and your business and who you feel you can build a longer-term relationship with – someone you are
comfortable with and can come to trust.
You need,therefore,to put some effortinto selecting the right person and rm.
Step 1: List What You Need from an Ideal Accountant
What do you want from your accountant?
Is it just to complete your annual accounts and tax returns – or are there other matters that are important to you?
Make a list of the services that you think you might want from your prospective accountant. This way you can draft some
questions that are relevant and
pertinent to your specic needs.
Step 2: Lookout for the Credentials of Certied Public Accountants
Make a list of say 4 or 5 rms.
Check their web sites – how informative are they? Do they seem to provide services for a small business like yours?If they have
no web site – ask yourself –
how progressive and up to date are they likely to be?
Step 3: Evaluate the Reputation of a Good Accountant
Ring each of them (or reduce the number to 2 or 3 rms) and ask to meet with a person who might be able to help you, or speak to
them immediately if they are available. Explain who you are and ask if they can offer their services to a business such as yours, and
whether you meet to discuss those services and costs. This meeting should be at no cost to you and be, perhaps, about an hour in
length.
Assess your experience with them so far – how were you greeted – Were they pleased to talk to you – Where they friendly and
helpful?
Step 4: Discover your Needs with the Accountant by Asking Specic Questions
Make a list of your questions.
Use the following as a guide only – add or subtract anything that you want to ask of the accountant you are going to meet.
- Do they handle small business clients?
- Explain your business and your current situation and plans for the future
- Ask for examples if they have identical or similar businesses to yours and ask what they have done to help them – especially
businesses of your size and stage of development. Ask about, say, nancing the buying of Plant and Equipment, or how they might
assess whether those businesses should be sole traders, a partnership, company or a trust? Are they able to explain to you why
such a structure was right – and (briey) how that might apply to you? Can they give examples of how they have improved the
protability of some of their clients’ businesses, or, can they set up a record keeping program that ts your needs. - Can they give examples of where they have been pro-active with their small business clients – say end of year tax planning,
business improvement planning, newsletters, client seminars, sending business or tax articles to clients…? - What is their response time policy – to questions and queries from business clients like you?
- What other services do they offer
- How do they operate? Meaning – who is that you are likely to talk to if you have a simple processing problem? What about if you
have a more complex problem? Who do you deal with and how will they process your end of year tax and accounting work? - What are their fees likely to be? What are their charge out rates? Do they offer a xed annual fee for end of year tax work? This
should be a “value” question for you rather than just a cost question – especially in regard to planning and problem solving work.Will they travel to your business premises if you want them to? Will they charge for the travelling time? - Ask – “why should you use your rm?” This will test them as to whether they have been listening to you and can tailor their
- response to answer any queries or issues you have raised during your meeting.
- Step 5: Do a Reection on your Face to Face Meeting Experience with your Accountants
- How did the meeting go?
- Did you feel comfortable with the people that you met?
- Did they show a genuine interest in you and your business?
- Did they demonstrate that they understood your business?
- Did they show initiative in answering some answers to your questions – or discuss or raise some issues that you did not ask
- questions on?In other words did they show they might really understand your business and how to give you useful advice?
- Are their costs likely to be acceptable? Costs are always an issue – but if you are getting good timely advice that is helping you to
- grow your business and/or saving you business costs and keeping your taxes to a minimum – then you are probably getting value
- for your money.
- Remember – if you want more it will cost more, and, good advice rarely comes cheap.
- If you are having trouble deciding – then rate each key issue (you have to decide what is key) out of – say – 10 and then mark each
- rm on each issue – the highest score should give you an indication as to who you want to do business with.