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If you have ever started up a business the you probably know that in the beginning you usually end up doing everything yourself This generally involves everything from answering the telephone, invoicing, to cleaning the office not to mention actually doing the work that your clients pay you for.

If your business starts to grow, you can find yourself with less and less time to carry out all of these extra tasks and at some point you get to the situation where you are no longer able to do everything yourself and you stat looking around for people to help out. The first person that you should consider hiring is an accountant. But choosing the right accountant for your business isn’t as easy as you might think. Here are a couple of things to think about before you make your choice.

Make sure that you select a qualified accountant for your business. There are always people that have done some accounting work in the past and are able to do it very competently but until the Inland Revenue ask to have a look at your books you will never be sure that they are doing the job correctly. If this happens then you really want the security of knowing that your accounts have been professionally prepared by a qualified accountant who is up-to-date with current tax laws and allowances.

Choose an accountant that you are sure that you can have a strong professional relationship with. When you start looking around you will possibly find a divide in the type of accountants you are able to find. One one side will be the bigger accounting firms where you generally don’t speak to the same person twice. On the other side will be the small accounting firms that tend to deal with businesses in their local area. For small to medium sized businesses, it is often easier to build up a strong working relationship with a small accounting firm also the service fees of a smaller accounting firm are also liable to be much more affordable.

Choose someone that understands your business. Most smaller accountants tend not to be specialised in a certain area of business and have much more diverse accounting experience. Ensuring that your accountant knows how your business operates is essential to them being able to carry out a good job for you so make sure that your accountant understands your industry and business set-up.

Select an accountant that offers a broad range of services. There is much more to accounting than just bookkeeping and at a basic level your accountant should be able to file your tax returns with the Inland Revenue, prepare your financial statements and if the need arises they should be able to present all of the relevant documentation for auditing. Many accountants will also measure your business performance, help with business and growth planning and support your management team.

Make sure that you interview the accountant before choosing and don’t just interview one. Always compare the services that you get for the money that you are paying and compare a few accountants like for like. Check to see if they already have clients in your area of business and see how deep there understanding of your business is.

Bristol Accountant Neil Houghton provides a broad range of accounting services and has over 25 years of experience looking after the accounting needs of a varied range of businesses. Bristol Accountant