Firm favourite?
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Every haulier needs a good accountant—the right one for your business may save you money and headaches. But how do you make the right choice?
Size plays a vital part in the choice of accountant, particularly for ownerdrivers and expanding haulage companies. Start with someone who's too small and pretty soon you could find you've outgrown them. The risk could be that just when you need help to expand, they won't have the expertise to guide you.
But going to an accountancy firm that's too large for your needs could make you feel a very small cog. A better choice would be a firm midway between the two—but not a larger version of a small firm nor a smaller version of a large firm.
The ideal, not easily found, combines the expertise that small firms don't possess with the more cost-effective and personal services that larger firms cannot match.
Commitment
But how do you find the right firm of accountants or make an informed choice? It's often difficult. Accountants are still learning how to market themselves. How can you possibly judge partners' competence and commitment before you know how they are going to handle your affairs?
Reputation and recommendation are obviously important. What questions should be put to selected accountants to help you make the right choice?
• in a business environment that's daily becoming more complicated, can you work together as a team?
• is the right specialist advice available if you want to streamline internal management accounting, or need advice with tax planning, or raising fresh capital?
• even when the partners make a good impression, are the specialist managers and the back-up staff equally impressive?
• can you count on continuity of service? Are the partners and support team likely to change every year or two?
• how good is the firm's advice on key matters such as taxation, including estate and inheritance tax, trusts and retirement planning and tax efficient investment?
• besides giving specialist advice, are these accountants good business advisers too?
• as well as preparing accounts, auditing, dealing with tax returns and advising, what other benefits should accountants bring to your haulage business ?
1-laying found such a paragon how do you get the best service?
• make sure the partner who impressed you in the first place is the partner you'll continue to see.
• insist that he makes the effort to acquire a thorough, practical knowledge of your business.
• encourage regular contact—phone calls and visits—after hours if need be.
• if you have periodic management meetings let him join and provide objective and financially astute advice.
Use your accountant! They should know and point out what grants are available for your business and how tax and financial planning can increase the total wealth you retain. You may think his time is expensive, but he should also save you a lot of money. Take tax. Many cases depend on the interpretation of grey areas or contentious points. Your accountant's tax partner, with experience of the Inland Revenue, is clearly in a stronger position to assess a relevant problem from your perspective and from theirs and is better equipped to negotiate with them on technical points. As a tax specialist his job is to stay abreast of the latest tax developments and how they affect you.
Use your accountant to show you how to keep your records efficiently. This may sound like a contradiction in terms, but many businesses are inept at keeping proper records. The result is that at the eleventh hour there is a frantic race to collate a mass of papers for the accountant to work on which takes excessive time and costs money. Let the accountant review the efficiency of your accounting systems and propose a stress-free system.
A major issue on which to get professional advice involves the changes that will affect businesses now and in the future, which are outlined in the latest annual Finance Act which has now become law.
Choosing the right firm of accountants is becoming one of the most important decisions a business can make. It shouldn't be because you only have to walk up and down any High Street to find up to a dozen accountancy practices with a brass nameplate outside their doors. There are sole practitioners and three or four partner firms; some are much bigger, and in larger towns or cities one or more of the "big six" firms with national and international coverage are likely to have a local office.
Large firms of accountants are obviously best for large national and multinational clients. For the local business there is a strong case for using a local firm of accountants but well enough established to know the local bank managers, lawyers, tax inspectors and VAT offices.
Smaller independent firms of accountants have simpler structure and therefore lower costs.
Big or small, ask if they have any hauliers on their books and find out what their clients think of them.
Reputation
A good reputation with the tax authorities is clearly an asset, just as a poor reputation can cost money. A smaller local or regional firm will be keener to develop long-term relationships with its clients. Clients should be able to count on partner contact, rather than being relegated down the line according to fee income you contribute to the practice. That may sound unfair to larger practices. The point is that the larger the practice the more likely it will have managers, each dealing with specialised aspects like audit and tax, which reduces direct contact with partners.
Some will still argue whether there is a need for accountants if books are kept reasonably competently and returns are dealt with promptly.
Many people have no difficulty completing their own tax returns, the problems arise when you start thinking of the implications of income tax, capital gains tax, corporation tax, value added tax, inheritance tax. And then you start worrying about the most tax efficient method of buying new equipment, and buying or selling a business, or facing a PAYE or VAT inspection!
That's when you need a good accountant.
LI by Wilf Altman