What we need in terms of accountant?

ecaf

Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but we are just about to venture into the world of setting up a new business (haulage), I assume it is going to be a Limited company.

We have some figures back from the people my OH will be driving for, and now we need to go and see an accountant. We have a few names, but I'm not really sure what we should be asking them? And do we have some sort of consultation or meeting with them first without a fee, to find out if they are suitable, or is it just straight in with the $$$?

Also in terms of company accounts, I will be the secretary, and a few people have said for a small company it shouldn't be too difficult to keep the books and give them to an accountant at the end of the year, as long as you keep up to date with all transactions, etc. Is this true? Can someone with very little accounting experience keep the books, based on the spreadsheets available on www.startabusinessinireland.com (which I haven't read yet)? I did a bit of accounting as part of my college degree, but I'm sure I might need to brush up on that.
The other option it seems is that you give your books every month to the account, but I'm sure the costs of this would add up a lot, and we would like to keep the costs down as much as possible, if I were able to do part of the work myself.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this before we head off to the accountant office. Thanks.

Kauto

Very few if any firm will charge you for a consultation. Ours certaintly wont. They will talk you through whats needs to be done in setting up a limited company. As an accounatnt i am telling you not to get the Accountant to write up the books as its a waste of money and anybody can easily do it. Use excel to record all lodgements, cheques and direct debits going through the bank. Anaylse them into to columns. Such as Diesel expenses, Repairs, Insurance Etc.

The Buster

ecaf wrote: »

I assume it is going to be a Limited company.

Think carefully about if you want to setup a Limited Company. What size business is it? If it is a one lorry business you are probably better of looking at the sole trader option. Less compliance etc. Just my two cents worth:D

Also I know you didn't ask about it but are you aware that you probably will need a haulage license

Also agree with other reply. If it is a small operation you should be able to do a lot of the day to day books yourself. If you are not to sure what to do I am sure some body will give you a Excel template o use

ecaf

Thanks for responses, I think it will be a limited company because he will also be employing his father to drive the lorry too. Not sure about it, but I'm sure when we get a good accountant they will advise us.

Thanks for the tip about the haulage licence, we knew about this already but it is not urgent because we checked it with the company we will be driving for and they have said that we can drive under their haulage licence, but if we wanted to use our lorry for our own purposes then we should get one.

I'm going to give the book keeping a go, it should be fairly straight forward because we will be only getting incomings from one source. I have a lot of reading to do first!

Wealthcare Irel

Can I recommend you read the Emyth revisited by Michael Gerber
costs about 10 euro max on amazon

It will help you as your business grows
I am a CA based in Belfast

Make sure you do not go down the cheap route when it comes to accountancy ..otherwise they will never want to help you as costs escalate !

professore

Wealthcare Irel wrote: »

Make sure you do not go down the cheap route when it comes to accountancy ..otherwise they will never want to help you as costs escalate !

Why not? That's an odd remark. A startup company needs to cut costs to the bare minimum to have any hope of survival, especially now. Every purchase should be examined with the question "will this save us more money than it costs or will this make us more money than it costs".

As the business grows surely you can get more fancy accountants as needed ?

Wealthcare Irel

A client comes to me and screws me to a fee of say 4OO EUROS
A few forms come back and forward ,half year accounts are done and a meeting is held at your bank ,help with a few questions and maybe a chat about business risks or a session on how to get more business

Whoosh the money is gone ..the accountant passes you down the food chain to be dealt with by the cleaner

Agree a realistic fee of max say 1000

The acct will love you and value your business

I have been looking after clients for 30 plus years.
Looking back the start ups who tried to play hard ball over fees all crashed and burned
You want the accountant to take your calls !
Also as you expand do not think using a top 10 firm will help you one bit !

crazzzzy

Surely the accountant wouldn't take on the job if it wasn't worth while so there shouldn't be a problem with them taking calls down the line. Get some recommendations from people you know in business and go meet the accountants to discuss what they think is best for your business and how much it will cost. You should be able to keep records yourself as there won't be too much activity. Keep record of all income and expenditure. Will you be registered for VAT? You will have to do PAYE returns if there is an employee but you can get free payroll software and figure out how to use it.