A Guide to Understanding What a Limited Company Accountant Does

Why should you hire an accountant for your limited company?

Unless you have some experience in these matters, you will find the numbers’ dance to be a stressful job. It will also be extremely time-consuming and impede your daily business management. Therefore, outsourcing these tasks to a specialized professional is the way to go, especially in the early days.

A good limited company accountant can be of great help during the initial phases of setting up your business, and afterwards you can entrust them with overseeing your accounting and tax processes. With the recent proliferation of online accounting systems, it has become much more cost-effective and overall convenient to hire an accountancy firm or an individual accountant.

What can the accountant do for your limited company?

Well, it would depend on your specific needs and their specific expertise level, but there are some staples to the service. When you are just setting up your business, they can help you handle tax registration of all sorts (like Value Added, Corporation, etc.).

They can also navigate you through registering your business as an “employer” legal entity. This is extremely important because otherwise you will not be able to pay your employees and director (if someone other than yourself is filling that role). You will also likely need a hand with processing the salaries through a payroll system.

Your accountant will also be able to properly set up a limited company-specific bank account for you, and provide you with tenancy references and mortgage paperwork (though they might charge you separately for this). For a more detailed look into accounting services for small businesses, check out this informative article: https://www.companybug.com/accountant-service/

Bookkeeping services may or may not be included; sometimes you have to specifically request them. A good accountant will, however, do your Company Tax Return, Personal Tax Return, Annual Accounts, and quarterly VAT. Keep in mind that the Personal Tax Return service may cost you something extra.

How much would it cost to hire one?

Unfortunately, there is no fixed answer. Costs will vary. However, there are some common factors that influence them, so consider the following to predict your approximate expenses. What level of expertise and specialisation will you expect from your accounting firm? How much work will they need to do for you?

Will you need only core monthly support for a straightforward series of transactions? Or will you need a flexible worker for more delicate money management? You can expect their monthly or annual fee to rise with every added service you require, such as keeping your books, inclusive insurance, and so on. Read more about cost factors for small business accounting services at this link.

What should you do for the accountant?

There are a few things that you ought to take upon yourself, to ensure smooth communication and good cooperation over an extended period of time. First up, keep your numbers wizard up to date with any changes in the company structure which might affect its fiscal processes. This includes adding or removing any personnel, changing people’s salaries, giving or revoking bonuses and so on.

If they ask to see any kind of tax-related paperwork, or your bank statement, or other similar records, accommodate those requests in a timely fashion. Also, make a point of regularly providing them with your income and expenditure records. Finally, keep in mind that meeting tax return deadlines and confirming paperwork accuracy before submission is your responsibility. After all, even though an accountant does the pedestrian work, you are the director. You are responsible for everyone’s work quality, and that includes the numbers work as well.

How do you choose a good one?

Since you will be entrusting them with a lot, choosing the right person for this job is important. Probably your best way to go is to get recommendations from living, trustworthy acquaintances, as opposed to online reviews.

Decide by quality of service rather than price – remember you get what you pay for. Also, confirm in advance if you will be directing your query to one individual, or several accounting company representatives. In either case, always have detailed communication records duly saved!