In these recessionary times small businesses are looking  to cut costs, one area they are looking at is their accountancy fees. It is important to understand that accountants fees are based on time and skill involved in doing your work.  One key way you can reduce your accountancy fees is for you do  the bookkeeping on a computerised bookkeeping software.

It would be best if you use the same software as your accountant. This will reduce his/her time even further on producing  your accounts. You should go as far as asking your accountant to train you how to ensure your bookkeeping is up to the required standard making his/her life a lot easier. The other advantage of this is you will be able to see how your business is doing throughout the year- are you making a profit? You will be able to take action if your profits are not in line with your plans.

The bookkeeping software packages available now are very easy to use. They are designed to be used by non accountants. They are in plain English, some even have videos explaining how to use the software. Here are some the computerised bookkeeping  packages:

Software not (online)

• Cashflow Manager
• Quickbooks SimpleStart
• Sage Instant Accounts
• Tas FirstBooks
• VT Transaction+
  

Online sofware

• Arithmo
• Kashflow
• Liberty
• Liquid Accounts

Other areas you need to ensure are:

• Have a separate business account and make sure only business transactions go through this account. Do not have your personal expenses/income go through your business account.
• Keep all your paperwork in good order. Make it easier for your accountant to track your paperwork from the entries you have made on the computer.
• Make sure you pass to your accountant all the bank statements. If they are any missing order copies from your bank.
• Once the accountant has finsihed with your books, ask him/her what else you can do to help him reduce his time on bookkeeping even further.

Since your accountant will not be using up his/her time on very basic work, it will give him/her to think about tax savings and suggesting some tax saving areas for you.

Virtually every potential client I meet fees are one of the critical factor in employing an accountant. Fees should be a factor in a decision but it should not be an only factor. An appropriately qualified accountant may save you tax that could more than outweigh their fees. His/her advice to further your business could be invalauble to your business.

I have come across many accountants who are incredibly busy since they have to do far more work because they charging fees that are not a reflection of their time and skill involved. This means they are so engrossed in routine accounting tasks, they just do not have the time to be proactive for their clients. Potential clients inform me time and time again – “my accountant is not proactive and I only hear from him/her only once a year”. How can you expect an accountant to be proactive when the fees are so low? We as accountants are not blameless here. We fail to communicate this point to clients. This is because of the fear of losing them to another cheap accountant.

My point is if your are looking for purely compliance (routine) accountancy work, fair enough they are many accountants who provide a low cost service. Southside also provides this level of service as well. If you would like a proactive service providing tax and business advice you will need to pay more. Accountant fees are based on time and skill involved in doing your work.

The old adage applies – You get what you pay for folks. With Southside there are no hidden fees, the fees we quote are the fees you pay.