Ann Hawkins from The Inspired Group is currently presenting The A-Z of Business Success and invited me as a guest for letter A (How to find your ideal accountant!)

Thank you Ann for the invite and looking forward to hearing your other guests on there soon

Maxine has spoken with thousands of business owners since 2005 and understands why people select and why they change accountant.

She is group leader for the marketing discussion forum at AccountingWEB, the UK’s largest forum for Accountants and Maxxy can be found at the top of google organic rankings for telemarketing for accountants.

Her finance background enables her to have knowledgeable discussions with both accountants and business owners on what makes the relationship between accountants and business owner successful.

Deciding to expand on her telemarketing business she launched find-me-an-accountant.com a year ago specifically with the aim of matching and introducing accountants and clients to each other. Both parties complete a vigorous survey and telephone interview to capture as much information as possible about what they both want from the working relationship.

She chose the domain name with dashes as otherwise it could have spelt “find mean accountant” and nobody wants one of them!

Accountants are running a business too and it can be more profitable for them to build their customer base in line with their strengths whether that is industry experience, qualifications in key areas, software products, services, or client care.

Business owners often don’t know what too look for when choosing an accountant and so find-me-an-accountant.com points them in the right direction for them.

The “dating agency” approach works as both parties carefully think about what they want from the other party. With valentines day around the corner, find-me-an-accountant.com will be playing cupid to accountants and business owners!

The service is free to business owners as accountants pay for introductions made to suit their practice’s requirements.

She is a prolific tweeter too @maxinemaxxy and also supports clients with social media for lead generation.

If you feel you could help this client please contact me.

A group of qualified volunteer accountants has been established to help those on low incomes affected by the 2010 PAYE underpayments fiasco.

The group aims to provide a tax calculation check as well as general advice and guidance regarding how to handle the HMRC demand for underpaid tax.

The group, set up by Elaine Clark, Managing Director at CheapAccounting.co.uk is made up of accountants who are regular contributors to UK Business Forums where they provide free accounts and tax advice.

UK Business Forums have lent their support to this initiative by providing a dedicated forum for those affected by the issue.

Elaine says

“My view is that the people hit hardest by these demands for underpaid tax will be those who think they have done nothing wrong as their tax is collected via the pay as you earn (PAYE) system.

“In all likelihood these people will never have received a letter from HMRC and the demand will be a great worry.

“I want to offer them a place to get advice and help on this matter and through the UK Business Forums we are able to do just that.”

To contact the group please visit UK Business Forums:

The helpline has now ceased but you can still email checkmypaye@cheapaccounting.co.uk.

Accountants who wish to help can email me at maxine@find-me-an-accountant.com, or checkmypaye@cheapaccounting.co.uk, or leave a comment on this blog, or post a comment at UK Business Forums.

List of Accountant Volunteers

Cheap Accounting, Nationwide

George Hay Accountants, Cambridgeshire

My Accountant Online, Nationwide

Farrant Frost, Wiltshire

Williams Lester, Cardiff

Wellwood Hoyle Associates Ltd, Lancashire

Alpha Business Services Ltd, West Midlands

Related Information

If you get a Tax Calculation you should check that you agree with the information given.  Read the accompanying notes. By the way, HMRC has recently announced they will not pursue amounts owed of less than £300

If you don’t agree with HMRC Calculation you can contact them on 0845 3000 627 and tell them why or you can write to them at the address on the calculation notice.

If the amount owed by you is less than £2000 the amount will be collected automatically through your tax code although you can ask for more time to pay if you need to.

If the amount is more than £2000 HMRC will write to you and ask for a payment to be made directly (not through your tax code).  You can ask to pay in instalments.

You may in some circumstances argue that HMRC had all the information that they needed to calculate your tax correctly and try to persuade HMRC to write off the underpayment.

For more info about this go to www.hmrc.gov.uk/esc/esc.htm.

Credit for part of this article goes to www.citizenadvice.co.uk

Please note that find-me-an-accountant.com is purely facilitating introductions to accountants who may or may not be able or willing to help you. No responsibility is accepted for services after introductions are made.

They have allocated a budget of approx £200 for sole trader accounts to be prepared from a small number of transactions.

This client would particularly like to work with an Accountant who is familiar and appreciative of Network Marketing.

Please contact me for further information.

It is an ideal time to get expert help when thinking about things such as what business structure you will have, what your financial forecasts look like, how to develop your business plan, what you should think about with tax planning and paying staff etc.

The only time you can access information on Accountants who are registered to accept vouchers however is after the vouchers have been issued.

This blog article is for Accountants to self-advertise their participation in the Business Link Voucher schemes so that new start businesses can view a list of Accountants who want to work with Start Up businesses.

The various Business Link regions are listed below with telephone numbers and email addresses so that you can get in contact with them.  You can expect to find out what support and resources they have available to help you with starting your new business and you might also be put in touch with a Business Link Advisor to see if you are eligible for vouchers or other schemes that would benefit you.

Business Link do not share any information on Accountants who have registered with the scheme with any third parties although you may be able to contact your Business Link region and ask for information to help you directly.

We are building up our Database of Accountants throughout England and Wales who want to work with Start Up businesses and as soon as this exercise is completed it is our intention to make this available via this site.  There are no advertising or other costs for Accountants to do this with us and we are offering this service purely to make it a bit easier to find an Accountant supplier who accepts Business Link vouchers.

In the meantime, please view our categories organised geographically in line with the current Business Link regions.

If you are an Accountant reading this and you are registered with Business Link to accept vouchers, please feel free to advertise this here as a blog comment with your contact details and we will add you into our list free of charge.

Regional Business Links: Telephone and Email List

North East: Middlesborough, Durham, Tyne and Wear, Tees Valley, Northumberland: 0191 426 6408

enquiries@businesslinknortheast.co.uk

East Midlands: Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicester, Northampton, Lincolnshire & Rutland: 0845 058 6644

info@businesslinkem.co.uk

East of England: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk: 08457 17 16 15

info@businesslinkeast.org.uk

questions@businesslinkeast.org.uk

London: 08456 000 787

info@bllondon.co.uk

South East:

info@businesslinksoutheast.co.uk 01444 259261

Hampshire, Berkshire, Isle of Wight: 0845 458 8558 info@businesslinkhampshireiow.co.uk

North West: Lancashire, Cumbria, Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside: 0845 0066888

info@businesslinknw.co.uk

West Midlands: Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Black Country: 0845 113 1234

info@businesslinkwm.co.uk

South West: Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Bristol, also field calls for Dorset: 01275 370 896

info@businesslinksw.co.uk

Devon, Cornwall: 08456 009966 info@bldc.co.uk

Somerset: 08457 211 112 enquiries@blsl.co.uk

Yorkshire and Humberside:

York and North Yorkshire: York 01904 686000 info.centre@blyny.co.uk

South Yorkshire: Rotherham 0800 073 7474 info@businessguidance.co.uk

The Humber: Hessle 0845 124 33 33 info@blhumber.co.uk

West Yorkshire: Leeds 0845 833 6000 info@blwy.co.uk

Our service has been more popular than we originally thought and it helps to save time with introducing clients to accountants who we think are suitable for them.

However, it can be difficult for us to get to speak with everyone that we wish to speak with by phone, and since we are making sales calls effectively to sell our service we also have a bit of a problem with around 35% of accountants being on the TPS.

We know that lots of people ignore TPS but we are professional and always adhere to this so this is a possible reason that we haven’t called you, just in case you are wondering.

Twitter is a great tool for us to find accountants who are interested in purchasing highly targeted leads for them on a pay-per-lead basis and we get lots of responses usually to the tweets we make canvassing certain types of accountants.

So thank you for retweeting, you really are helping us, your accountant colleagues and twitter followers, and our clients!

Please keep RT these.

Thanks and kind regards

Maxine  Twitter: @maxinemaxxy

25% Admit they haven’t got the first clue!

A further 50% approx are not sure but think they have some sort of recognised qualification but don’t know what.

We are asking this question not because we advocate that qualifications are the be all and end all of supplying accountancy services, but because we are evaluating where the perceived benefits are from particular qualifications.

It goes without saying that experience and recommendation are usually important when selecting an accounting, but to not have any idea whatsoever of qualifications can make certain people in certain industries more vulnerable and exposed than others to areas such as large tax bills, financial surprises, weaker financial performance etc. To build on this having someone with the appropriate qualifications (plus experience, personality etc) can make a huge positive impact to financial performance.

Personally I am surprised that the levels of ignorance around qualifications was as high as this.  I expected there to be a large number of people who were not so sure but 25% without the first clue is a bit worrying don’t you think?

Here, our author Frank gives some general and advice for more meaningful and productive discussions with your accountant…

·      Be cautious of tales from the pub!  People can be notoriously inexact about their earnings, keen to boast and don’t usually understand the detail of their tax bill. Their circumstances may be very different to yours.

·      Tax planning should happen during the year, not after, and certainly not just before the tax payment date.

·      Good bookkeeping will give facts to help reasonable discussions about tax to take place. Waiting for draft accounts to be prepared may result in it being too late for tax planning.

·      Well organised records will help keep track and claim all business expenses.  You are much less likely ot have unexplained expenditure that cannot be claimed because you cannot remember what it was for! It’s not vital that every expense is supported with a receipt provided you can demonstrate it was a reasonable business expense but this should be an exception and you should have receipts for the majority of expenses.

… and finally… tax planning does not mean failing to put all your takings through the books because “that is what everyone does”.  That’s isn’t tax planning, it’s fraud.

You can leave a comment for Frank below or you can contact the author via our contact section.

Do you operate a small business either as a Sole Trader, Partnership, Charity / Non for Profit, or Limited Company?

Have you been with the same accountant for years and not sure if you can get better value elsewhere? Business Link suggest on their site that businesses review their relationship with their accountant every 3 years.

Are you or a family member struggling to do your accounts yourself or do you think your time may be better spent doing more profitable things in your business? Are you finding it difficult to keep up with accounting changes? Or need support to help cover sickness and holidays?

Are you looking for someone to act as a Part Time Finance Director say on one day per month on site?

Are you looking to slim down the amount of accounting work that your accountant does for you and bring your bookkeeping inhouse and use an accountant for year end and tax advice?

Are you looking for an accountant who provides excellent customer service and who is proactive in their approach to improving your business? Perhaps you need someone with specific industry experience and qualifications?

We have some lovely accountants in Cardiff who are looking to take on more of the right type of clients for them so if you feel that this is a good opportunity to review your accounting set-up, please get in touch!