A few years ago we did a blog asking the question “Do I need a bookkeeper?” – today’s blog is looking at this from a slightly different perspective, you’ve decided you need or want to use a bookkeeper/accountant but now need to choose one! There are a lot of accountancy practices around and with the ability to work remotely with the use of cloud technology being proven because of the COVID-19 pandemic, distance is less of a factor than it previously was.
There’s a number of reasons why you’ve decided to get yourself an accountant, your last self assessment could have been harder than usual, maybe you are spending too much time on the bookkeeping or maybe you’d like to get something more out of the figures than just the figures for your self assessment – whatever the reason it’s important you find an accountant that is a good fit for you.
First off, you need to make sure your accountant understands your business. Here at PBATS, we’ve got a number of specialities when it comes to business types, ranging from building contractors to application designers, engineering to make-up, so we’ve got a wide range of businesses that we’re in a great position to help.
One thing we pride ourselves in is not being stuffy accountant types – we talk in English, avoiding accounting terms wherever we can (sometimes it’s unavoidable!). We want you to understand the information we give to you.
One time you might have to talk in accounting terms is when you have a problem that needs to be addressed by HMRC – we’ll register as your agent with HMRC which will then allow us to talk to them on your behalf, saving you the time and avoiding a lot of backwards and forwards between us, them and you to get an issue resolved.
We like to think that we go above and beyond what other accountants do – it’s certainly the feedback we’ve had recently on our COVID newsletters! We won’t just crunch your numbers for you, we’ll help you save on your tax bill (in ethical and legal ways!) and ensure you’re up to date on the latest changes through our newsletters (which we only issue when there’s something to say, we won’t clog up your inbox!), we produce these after government announcements such as the budget and coronavirus support updates.
Finally, we know that people like to know what they’re spending and dislike a big bill – that’s why almost all of our services are available to pay for over 12 monthly instalments at a fixed fee.
Hopefully that highlights why we should make your shortlist for your new accountant or bookkeeper, get in touch to have an informal chat about how we can help you.
