What is the difference between a good accountant and a bad accountant? Watch our video for some useful information.
Well, a generally bad accountant misses deadlines, they cost you fines and they never get back to you.
I suppose it’s rare to get a bad accountant. It’s more common to get a mediocre accountant who just does the minimum and only when you ask. But a good accountant will depend on you and your business.
At its core, a good accountant is reliable. A good accountant’s responsive. A good accountant is proactive. They explain the numbers to you in language that makes sense to you. You should understand your accounts and tax. It’s up to your accountant to explain them in plain English.
Beyond that, all businesses are different, and many have different needs, so good accountants can mean different things to different business owners.
If you’re new or a small business, you might just want compliance from your accountant. The stuff that keeps you legal and keeps your tax bill down. So, the set of accounts, the tax return, the VAT, the payroll, perhaps processing your records.
But, if you’re on a growth path, you might want to get your accountant to be actively monitoring, provide you management accounts, key performance indicators, with advice on your marketing as well.
You might want an accountant who specialises in your sector and therefore can give you specialist advice. As you grow near larger profits, you might need more detailed tax advice. And also as you grow, it might be more complex over strategy and also the different tax things that happen in your business.
Now a good accountant understands you and understands your business. They’re going to send you goals and they’ll help you get there. They’ll give you the right services at the right time for you, and they’ll adapt as your business develops.
So, as you are a start-up, they’ll give you support to get going, but realise you only need compliance services.
As you grow, they’ll start to give you more support, help with your business plans, and then as you’re larger they’ll start to give you monthly meetings, act as a non-executive director for your business, there for you whenever you need them.
Now that level of service is probably too much for a start-up. The semi-large client needs more than just the compliance.
So, a good accountant does depend on what you’re looking for and a great accountant will explain what you need now and then look ahead to what can help you in the future.
They’ll then develop the services with you to make sure that you get what you want from your business. That’s more profits, less tax, and most importantly, they’ll help you hit your business and your personal goals.
If you would like to learn more about who we are as a business, feel free to contact us on gr****@*********************co.uk or by phone on 0151 380 8081.