Picking An Accountant You Can Trust
Starting a business and not sure how to go about finding a good accountant? Maybe you’ve been trading for sometime but had a poor experience with your current provider. Unfortunately, in our line of work we hear about these situations all too often! To help you out we’ve put together our three top tips on what you should look for when picking an accountant that you can trust with your business.
Availability
It’s essential that your accountant is on hand when you need them, for when HMRC letters appear, for when you have a tax query or simply to help you understand your numbers better. When you sign up with a new accountant ask them about their customer service availability. If they don’t have a specific policy for call back times then this could be a red flag. Here at Mazuma we have a policy with each of our Accountants to respond to customer enquiries the same day, or by noon the next day if it’s received after 4pm.
Quality
Many clients come to us after having their books done by a friend of a friend and it turns out, their accounts are in a right pickle. It’s essential that you use a fully qualified accountant to ensure that whomever you choose is acting within the law and is super knowledgeable about what is best for your business. Look for accountants who are ACCA or AAT qualified – just like all of our accountants here at Mazuma.
Security
Unfortunately, the world of accounting isn’t immune to cyber crime. Accountancy firms hold high volumes of sensitive data on clients and are therefore likely targets for hackers. Accountancy firms such as SJD Accountancy and even industry giant Deloitte have been victims of cyber attacks. For clients, a hack could mean consequences such as system outages or sensitive data being leaked. Ask your accountant about the Cyber Security measures that they have in place and whether they run frequent tests on their systems. And whilst you’re at it – make sure you have some decent passwords in place on your own systems too – online banking, social media and email accounts should all have secure and above all different passwords as well as two factor authentication.
