BIR and other government compliance are huge issues when you’re a business owner. I don’t have any background with accounting and finance so I opted to hire an accountant to prepare my business’ compliance.
How do you hire your accountant and where?
1. Recommendations – ask your businessmen friends on leads. They are your best source of information because they are probably working with one.
2. Post an ad– I use craigslist and so far it’s working well. A word of advice though, make sure you agree to meet with your applicants to get to know them better. Best to bring someone with you to protect yourself from scammers and shady people.
I have a prospect accountant, What’s next?
1. Schedule a face to face interview with your applicants/prospect. You can either ask them to visit your place of business or a nearby coffe shop.
2. Bring your documents as they will need to see this to have a better understanding of the scope of work expected from them.
3. Have an agreed monthly retainer’s fee and a clear run down of the accountant’s deliverable.
What should my accountant do for me?
1. Depending on your agreement, your accountant can either do ALL the leg work or he/she only prepares the forms and somebody from your office will pay and submit to the BIR or any other government office.
2. Financial Statement is usually not part of the retainer’s fee.
3. Your accountant should be able to organize your filing system. If your accountant is disorganized, run….run…run…!
4. Your accountant should send you a monthly billing statement of all the expenses that incurred.
5. Ask if he or she is a certified public accountant.
Personally, I prefer my accountant to just prepare the paperwork and send to me for checking. This way, I am aware of everything that’s happening. I also have one of my staff to pay for the taxes and fees since we are located near accredited banks.
This way, I don’t lose a lot of my sales to my accountant’s retainer’s fee. I really feel bad about the fees and taxes my small business has to pay to the government only to find poor returns from them. I don’t want to spend more than what I already do for that matter.
I hope this has helped you in any way!
