Many of our Robina bookkeeping clients ask how accountants offer their services, what they will ad not do, what an accountant expects and what other help they can give apart from just keeping your books and accounts.
People rarely see eye to eye about service provision and what is realistic, and accountants are no exception. People often think an accountant will put in all the work necessary to save them significant amounts of money for just a few dollars. Or they may think their accountant will allow them to evade paying tax.
It’s not possible to meet these expectations! Chartered Accountants are professionals, who have a duty to maintain professional standards, so they certainly will not ‘encourage’ tax evasion and will actively tell you that you are breaking the law if you do evade due taxes.An accountant will also charge at a professional services rate, which isn’t going to be the smallest of fees.
You should expect a good service to include maximising your money so you avoid overpaying tax, and take advantage of any possible savings.
Chartered Accountants abide by professional ethics and codes of conduct, service agreements, so you can expect your accountant to return phone calls, be reasonably available and give you advice about the state of your company or your books, how things are going and perhaps offer some directional advice about ensuring that you maximise profits for the year ahead.
Almost all accountants will argue that a good accountant will save you money. They will ensure that you do not have to pay too much tax and you do not have to lose out on any tax breaks that may be available. They will also help give at least some advice about money that should be invested or so on.
Accountants do not have a crystal ball, so they are not able to tell you what is a ‘safe place’ to put your money and what is not, although they may have a fair idea, the recent recession ahs shown that suddenly investments can become precarious, without anyone thinking that this was indeed the case.
