How to Pick a Good Accountant in Your City
For most people, the deadline to file your income tax return is April 30th of every year. Doing your taxes is a time-consuming process, so many opt to hire a chartered accountant. There are many accountants in your city, but you need to pick someone who you can trust – and you need to start early. Apart from filing your taxes, a good accountant can help you with your personal finances and all the good ones will be gone if you wait too long. But how do you pick the right accountant for your needs?
There are approximately 200,000 search results for chartered or certified accountants in your city; this is a daunting figure, so you need to narrow down your search before you do anything else. Start with talking to your friends and family. Who do they use for their accounting purposes and ask them good questions to gain a better understanding of the quality of their accountant.
Gathering a contact list and opinions about accountants from friends and family is indeed an important step in deciding on who you choose, but it is far from the last step in your journey. Look up a few other accounting firms in your city area – build your own contact list separate from your referral list.
Obviously the general reputation you gather from your friends and family is necessary, but you need to talk to these accountants yourself. You can’t just hire an accountant without talking to them yourself, so you need to call everyone on your list. Find out what kind of work they do; whether they deal only with personal accounts; are they private or public accountants? What kind of certification do they have?
Some additional questions you may want to ask include when they’re available (do they have too many clients to deal with you on a personal level?), how long they’ve been in accounting, what kind of licenses they have, what are the fees, and so forth. If there’s anything you don’t know, ask them. The accountant has to work for you, and handle your personal information, so you need to know as much about them as they will about you.
When making your selection, keep in mind all that you’ve learned throughout the selection process. If there are any points about a specific accountant or accounting firm that stick out in a negative way, then move on to the next one. Think about the kind of relationship you would have with your accountant, and what you would like. Which one fits best?
In the end, go with a choice that makes you feel comfortable, and safe. Remember, you’re going to trust someone with your personal finances; you need to trust your accountant 100%.
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