Is it unrealistic to not hire an accountant and do it myself?

Amanda7326

Hi All,

I hope that I have posted this in the correct place.

I have just started a new business. We are a husband and wife partnership.

I am also working full time in a PAYE job and my husband works 3 days a week in a PAYE job.

Website is almost ready to go and only thing left to sort out is an accountant. Problem is I dont know where to start.

I keep excel files of every expenditure/income/sale/receipt/invoice etc so would it be totally unrealistic to say that I could do it myself and not hire an accountant?

Has anybody been in the same boat? Would love to hear some of the pros/cons if anyone has any advice would REALLY appreciate it.

Cheers.

Keats18

I'm the same re business, have set up my own and want to do all the accounts myself. Only problem is finding a suitable (and reasonable) accounts software for a mac? Not sure I'd be able for it from excel.

Peterdalkey

It should be easy to do all the basic day to day bookeeping accounts stuff oneself. I am currently helping a friend set up a small home based personal services business. I have started looking at small cloud based simple accounting and payroll systems that are available on a monthly fee basis such as www.bigredcloud.com www.sage.ie/sage-one-accounts and http://www.sortmybooks.com/products.html.
It would be great to have any user feedback on these from users and their accountants. Idealy one's accountant should be able to access these for doing tax returns etc.

Deise Vu

Peterdalkey wrote: »

It should be easy to do all the basic day to day bookeeping accounts stuff oneself. I am currently helping a friend set up a small home based personal services business. I have started looking at small cloud based simple accounting and payroll systems that are available on a monthly fee basis such as bigredcloud.com www.sage.ie/sage-one-accounts and http://www.sortmybooks.com/products.html.
It would be great to have any user feedback on these from users and their accountants. Idealy one's accountant should be able to access these for doing tax returns etc.

Just to follow on from this which is good advice very few businesses need an accoutnant on a day to day or even a regular basis but in 99.9% of cases you will need one for income tax returns and for general advice on VAT and other tax issues. He / she will prepare returns from the records maintained by you.

It is a good idea, therefore, to speak to someone before you start. You need to bear in mind that the fee will be based on the amount of time involved. In ascending order an accountant will spend the least amount of time on a well maintained set of records, next where there is no organised records (!) other than, say, bank statements, chq stubs, invoices in a box. Finally there is the accountants worst nightmare where the client produces a half-completed software package, where nothing ties in with bank records. Thats when he has to call in CSI and you are going to pay accordingly. You are also potentially exposing yourself to liabilities if you get a tax inspection and your records are not up to scratch. If a taxman find something amiss he won't try to sort it out, he will just extrapolate from the errors he has picked up and it is up to you to prove him wrong. If your records are crap you will get nowhere.

Hope that helps!

tipptopper

Amanda7326 wrote: »

Hi All,

I hope that I have posted this in the correct place.

I have just started a new business. We are a husband and wife partnership.

I am also working full time in a PAYE job and my husband works 3 days a week in a PAYE job.

Website is almost ready to go and only thing left to sort out is an accountant. Problem is I dont know where to start.

I keep excel files of every expenditure/income/sale/receipt/invoice etc so would it be totally unrealistic to say that I could do it myself and not hire an accountant?

Has anybody been in the same boat? Would love to hear some of the pros/cons if anyone has any advice would REALLY appreciate it.

Cheers.

Amanda

If you do happen to need an accountant, PM me and I’ll pass you on the details of 1 I worked with in the past. Absolutely brilliant and not expensive which seems to be a rarity these days.

publicious

Check out bullethq (cloud-based so no messy installing on machines). An Irish outfit tailored to the Irish taxation system.

Currently implementing this solution into a business of mine. I'll keep ye updated as to how it's going.

Peterdalkey

publicious wrote: »

Check out bullethq (cloud-based so no messy installing on machines). An Irish outfit tailored to the Irish taxation system.

Currently implementing this solution into a business of mine. I'll keep ye updated as to how it's going.

looks interesting, looking forward to your report!!


cheers

peter

Michael_Dare

A good accountant would more than pay for themselves. When you do your own books, you tend to error on the side of caution when it comes to business expenses - what and how much you can claim as an expense. Ireland is far laxer than countries like the UK when it comes to small business expenses. A good accountant will save you a lot of money.

krisj2000

publicious wrote: »

Check out bullethq (cloud-based so no messy installing on machines). An Irish outfit tailored to the Irish taxation system.

Currently implementing this solution into a business of mine. I'll keep ye updated as to how it's going.

Would love to find out how the implementation went. Happy with the system?

bbam

We are in a similar position, two PAYE workers and three small seperate incomes as well, 1 rental and 2 business.

We keep books on excel during the year..
http://www.paylesstax.ie/

For returns just gone bye we used this site above and found it easy and reasonably priced...

booladen

I did a FAS course and the teacher was an accountant who dealt with small/start up companies. It was introduction to self employment in Tallaght FAS and I found it to be really worth doing, also any questions you can ask the teacher without paying for an accountant.

Just thought I'd mention it for anyone thinking of starting a business, they cover a lot in it.

Buttercake

Been in business 3 years as a limited company and the first thing I did before anything else was found a decent accountant. Ask your bank for recommendations - my advice, don't hire someone you know or family friend etc