Choosing a qualified and experienced accountant is one of the most crucial decisions business owners have to make. It is similar to having a business partner on which you can depend for the success of your business. An accountant is responsible for managing and analyzing the finances of your business to save your hard-earned money.
Whether it comes to preparing accounts, sending tax returns or offering reliable financial advice, an accountant will help your business thrive. However, there comes a question of what makes a good accountant in a place with thousands of accountants around. For this reason, give this post a read to get your answer.
Let’s delve into the details.
What Makes a Good Accountant? Key Traits
Here are some of the main qualities – by financial professionals and business owners – to know what makes a good accountant. These include:
1) Qualification
The first and foremost thing of an accountant is the qualification that must be regulated and recognised by an accounting body. To find out, you can look for the letters ACCA or ACA after his/her name. Additionally, you can review the Institute of Chartered Accountants membership: ICAEW in England and Wales or ICAS in Scotland. In addition to the qualification, choosing an accountant with specialised knowledge in a field is better than hiring a person who performs everything.
2) Field Knowledge
The qualification of an accountant is not sufficient enough to be called as a good accountant. An accountant should be experienced enough to understand the requirements of the client. He/she should be well versed with the economic method or accounting practices applied to carry out a project. Providing tailored advice as per the client’s requirement is an invaluable skill of an accountant.
3) Communication
Like in every field, the accounting field also demands active and responsive communication to provide a bespoke solution to the client’s problem. An accountant must offer assistance to complex tax issues and accounting concepts in an understandable way for customers who don’t have an accounting background. Translating complicated verbiage into simple language will promote and encourage a strong working relationship between the client and the accountant.
4) Attentive to Detail
An accountant must be attentive to detail while undertaking an accounting task to keep everything accurate and up to date. A good accountant ensures that everything is performed correctly and orderly. Bear in mind that clients prefer accountants who value their time and money by managing their tasks efficiently without any mistakes.
5) Up to Date with Latest Accounting Trends
A good accountant should keep up with the latest trends and laws of accounting. Clients like to work with accountants who are well-versed in the current trends of the industry.
Trends and legal rules must keep on changing and without sufficient knowledge, it can negatively affect the daily operation of a business. Knowing the latest accounting trends, an accountant can provide an unbiased opinion for the success of a business.
6) Efficient
An accountant must perform his/her duties efficiently. This means an accountant must take the necessary steps to ensure that everything is done properly under legal compliance.
In addition to that, they need to meet the deadline and avoid indulging in a conflict with the customers. The inefficiency in any accounting practice will lead to potential troubles with the clients.
7) Organization
Being organized is one of the key traits of a good accountant. The organization keeps an accountant aware of the important dates and deadlines while undertaking a certain task.
As a result, it prevents clients from incurring late fees and penalties. Moreover, managing transactions, portfolios and other records requires the services of a highly organized accountant to keep everything smooth.
8) Reliability
Reliability is yet another important quality of a good accountant. An accountant must be there for help, whenever a client needs it. The accountant should adhere to the accounting standards set by the legal bodies.
Clients don’t tend to work with an accountant who doesn’t respond on time or miss deadlines.
Why Accotax?
Our accountants possess all the qualities when it comes to what makes a good accountant. We have a team of chartered accountants in London who are known for their experience, quality services and customer-centric solutions. People keep coming back to us due to our high-end accounting services at reasonable prices.
We offer tech-savvy and tailored accounting, bookkeeping and tax services for all business types whether you’re self-employed, a startup, a contractor, or a landlord.
Disclaimer: This blog is written for general information on the mentioned topic.