A few weeks ago we looked at the more basic questions: why hire an accountant? Why not do it yourself? This week we’re being a bit more future-facing and asking what the benefits are in hiring an online accountant. As you’ll see, they’re many and varied.
It’s personal…
The first thing to say is that not all online accountants are the same. What you get varies from package to package, although one fairly common consistency is the fact that most companies won’t give you a dedicated professional to deal with your business on a day-to-day basis. You’ll invariably be given a digital ticket, and then a random person who will need to get up to speed on your situation before they can help you.
Not so with My Accountant Friend. We pride ourselves on doing precisely the opposite. With us, you’ll get a single, friendly, go-to accountant who can talk you through any issues that may be concerning you, who knows the ins and outs of your specific business, and who lets you know promptly and with plenty of time to spare whenever action is required on your account.
…but with the benefits of a bigger business
An individual, independent accountant will have multiple clients to deal with on a daily basis while at the same time having to keep on top of all the latest accounting legislation. That’s a lot of work for someone working alone. With a company like My Accountant Friend, you get all of that under one roof.
Our accountants work together to stay informed and bang up to date, which also means that they can bounce ideas off one another in order to work out the best course of action for your business. In short, you get the personal approach with the support of a large team – a great combination.
Helping hands
You’ll also get your business set up and incorporation taken care of as part of the service. This is incredibly useful to anyone starting out on their own. We’ll deal with the nuts and bolts of registering the company, helping you set up business bank accounts, etc, while you do the stuff you’re good at – getting elbows deep in the work that you love.
Future-facing
With My Accountant Friend you get all the techie tools you need to do your book-keeping and get as involved with your accountancy as you might like. Our cloud-based dashboard allows you to do your invoicing, store your receipts (using our smartphone-friendly receipts-saving app – simply snap a pic and upload) submit your tax returns to HMRC, as well as a number of other things. However, if you don’t feel tech-savvy, you can simply pick up the phone and ask your dedicated accountant to help you through it all.
We’re also pretty good on being light on the jargon. We know that most people don’t speak Accountese, so we’re really pleased when you pipe up with questions and concepts that we can help you get your head around. (Of course, if you prefer the jargon, that’s fine too. We’re fluent!)
It’s cost effective
How much should an accountant cost? It’s a time-honoured question and one that comes with a handful of return questions:
- What do you expect your accountant to do for you?
- Are they available as soon as you need them, or do you have to spend time tracking them down?
- If they’re an online accountant, will they leave you hanging in a ticketing system?
- Do they get overwhelmed at self-assessment time? (We’ve heard some proper horror stories here!)
- Are they on top of the latest news from HMRC?
- Do they give you a transparent explanation of what’s going on?
- Will they incorporate your company for you, or will they only do it at extra cost?
It’s worth asking all of these questions when choosing an accountant, as well as mulling over how comfortable you are with the notion of an online accountant (while we do everything we can to make people feel comfortable, we accept that some simply prefer spreadsheets and paper trails).
We feel that our packages give you all the right answers to the above questions at a really cost-effective price. If you want to know more in detail, simply take a look at the chart below, compare packages here, or get in touch for a chat. We’re always happy to talk things through.
