Whether you want help with your individual tax return, setting up the legal structure of your business — for example, as a company, corporation, partnership or sole trader, or simply help lodging your Business Activity Statements, we have an array of Accountants ready to get cracking. But before you decide, we have some helpful information to assist you in selecting the right accountant for you.
What makes a good Accountant?
Many accountants are so busy doing the day to day tasks that come in, that they tend to react to requests rather than proactively provide new information. Good accountants, however, keep you informed and go out of their way to provide you with information that may indicate changes to the law or new opportunities that could affect your tax return or business structure.
Using an accountant who is determined to do very best job with their clients means that you are dealing with someone who takes the responsibility of their job seriously. Professional accountants are often thought of as extremely precise, with keen eye for detail and a vast amount of practical knowledge, and rightly so. If they make even a small mistake, it can have a huge impact on your personal taxes and/or business.
The importance of a consultation is your first step to finding a good Accountant—it's your chance to feel things out. A consultation is your chance to see if you feel the Accountant understands what you want and the needs of your business.
Some important things to consider:
- What are their qualifications?
- How many years of experience do they have?
- What industries or fields do they specialise in?
- Are they a conservative or more aggressive accountant? Some accountants want to write off everything they possibly can, while others take a more conservative approach
- Will they give a fixed price per hour, or a set rate per month/quarter and what does that include? Ensure you receive a Scope of Works prior to agreeing to their services. This is vital!
- Who will be doing the work? Accountants will sometimes outsource work to a third party. This doesn't mean their services are bad, but you want to be sure they are forthright about who is doing the work.
- Where will they store your data and what security measures do they have in place?
- How do they bill for their services?
- How do they handle working with clients that have multiple entities?
- Are they available all year around?
Below are some key personality traits for a great accountant:
Excellent organization. Accountants must keep up with all figures, data, and paperwork in their daily jobs.
Excellent time management skills. Today, accountants are playing an increasingly important role in contributing to strategic decision-making, so their schedules are full to the brim. They need to take care of many tasks beyond financial management and should be able to prioritize them to make the most from their time at work.
An eye for detail and due diligence for accuracy should be part of their approach, not something they need to be reminded of, and they should be extremely trustworthy. The kind of information accountants deal with every day is very confidential in nature.
An emphasis on the client. Being an accountant means not only dealing with numbers, but with clients as well. They should always focus on meeting client requirements – they need to understand the industry, and client in detail. Only this helps them to decide which accounting rules would fit the business.
In Summary
It's clear that being a great Accountant requires a lot of effort, they must be a level-headed, creative, and detail-oriented individual – these are the qualities of a highly successful accountant that everyone wants to hire for their business. If it’s purely to find an Accountant that will take the thinking out of your tax return you want one who not only can help save you money and avoid potential trouble with the ATO. We can help you find the Accountant that is the best fit for you.