Accountant for new small Company?

E

Elena1x

Registered User
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2
Hello,

Could anyone help with recommending a good accountant experienced
in Small business/limited company accounts and business/tax/vat advice? location doesnt matter


Appreciate a reply and PM if you wish
Thanks
 
Hi Joe,

Well not yet but thinking would probabley do this myself with registering it with CRO , its mainly to have someone who would know and advice how best to organise things starting off and would be able to discuss questions on how best to structure things etc and handle receipts say on a quarterly basis or as required ..

The hope would be that the company would grow quickly and accounts would change
accordingly ...

Thanks
Eileen
 
That's an important starting point.

company v sole trader needs to be teased out first.

In principle the other stuff is similar enough VAT employees ect.
 
Elena1x said:
Could anyone help with recommending a good accountant experienced
in Small business/limited company accounts and business/tax/vat advice? location doesnt matter
Click to expand...

Just one point: "location doesn't matter". It almost certainly does: it'll be a lot easier for you if they are close enough to meet up for whatever reason should the need arise then relying one someone at the far end of the country.

My advice would be to ask around small businesses in similar though not directly competing areas in your local area.
 
I have never met my Accountant face to face, all done via an initial telephone introduction, then by e-mail, I keep good accounts and supporting documentation and submit all to him to prepare my Ltd Co accounts annually, could not be easier, if your business is straightforward then don't complicate it, it does sound like you need a lot of advice so in person might be the way for you, just saying that it is not essential.

This site should provide you with good responses to any questions you may have.
 
Palerider said:
I have never met my Accountant face to face, all done via an initial telephone introduction, then by e-mail, I keep good accounts and supporting documentation and submit all to him to prepare my Ltd Co accounts annually, could not be easier, if your business is straightforward then don't complicate it, it does sound like you need a lot of advice so in person might be the way for you, just saying that it is not essential.

This site should provide you with good responses to any questions you may have.
Click to expand...

Well given that your accountant is legally obliged to verify your ID it seems somewhat unusual that they have never met you.
 
Palerider said:
''all done via an initial telephone introduction, then by e-mail..''

As I said all above board, I was introduced and verified, e-mail is a wonderful tool especially when you have a scanner, all done in a jiffy and without fuss.
Click to expand...
 
We do a lot of work online and have several clients we have never met.

Our requirements are to do as much as possible to verify that someone is who they say they are.
There is no requirement to meet a client.

By all means meeting someone can help, but if someone is going to deceive you, they will do so anyway!

We have sought advice on this from Chartered Accountants Ireland on this issue and the advice was as above!
 
Info from Chartered Accountant's website:

6 I have been approached by a potential client who resides a distance from my office to provide tax advice. He does not plan to visit this area for a number of months. He has provided me with copies of his passport and some utility bills as evidence of identity. Is this sufficient?

No. Where a client is not being met face to face, there is a higher risk posed to the process of correctly identifying the client. Regulation 14 requires you to carry out enhanced CDD and on-going monitoring. In this case you could ask the client to take his original passport and utility bills to an appropriate independent individual such as another accountant, a solicitor, a member of the PSNI or a bank official and request that the latter copy the documents and certify that they are true copies of the original documents. You will need to consider in circumstances whether it is necessary to seek further evidence of the integrity and reputation of the certifying individual.

http://www.charteredaccountants.ie/Members/Technical/Anti-Money-Laundering-NI/FAQs/
 
Anyway we're going off-topic here

OP, unless you are operating in a specific area which requires specialist advice then any decent accountant worth his/her salt will be able to help you. It's not essential to use an accountant close by but it does usually help in things like this to have some sort of personal relationship with people who are advising you. Meet up first to have a chat etc (usually free of charge by most accountants, if not all) so you're happy enough with them and then go from there. After that you should be able to do virtually everything by email anyway and it doesn't kill anyone to meet their accountant once a year to go through the accounts etc.
 
Wow - I didn't mean to start a storm!

It mightn't be essential to meet, but all I was suggesting is that it is hardly the case that it doesn't matter at all as the OP seemed to think. At the very least some thought to be given to whether location can indeed be dismissed so casually. It's one thing to deal with an accountant on the phone (maybe never having met), if you both live in Dublin and know it's easy enough to meet up if the need arises, but I'd think twice about doing that if I lived in West Cork and was thinking of hiring an accountant in Donegal.
 
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