Last updated on November 20th, 2017 at 04:10 pm
Accountants help companies, organisations, government agencies, and even individuals plan and oversee their financial operations down to the last penny, often saving tax or improving profits for businesses along the way.
Accountants are professionals who are specially trained to work with numbers, money and finance law so they can advise and help business owners or managers and individuals to make the right financial decisions, whether it is about savings accounts, investments, spending, taxation rules (making sure that you only pay the tax you have to) or increasing profits.
Nowadays sophisticated computer systems do all the complex accountancy calculations in areas such as payroll, tax calculations and investment returns, so accountants have much more time to focus on the personal side of accountancy and can therefore provide a much fuller range of accountancy and business services, gone are the days of an accountant sitting amongst a pile of ledgers making sure that everything balances. Among the accountancy services offered by many firms of accountants in the UK are auditing, tax advice, book-keeping, cash flow projections, management information and payroll. Some may even offer investment or pension advice to individuals looking to save money for their retirement or a rainy day.
There are several types of accountants in the UK with the two main ones being chartered accountants and certified chartered accountants, these usually deal with all financial aspects of running a business or organisation on a basic level. However there are also specialist chartered accountants, who work in specific areas such as taxation, insolvency and forensic accounting (used in fraud cases amongst others), many of these will cover professional indemnity insurance to give you peace of mind in the event of a problem
Your accountant may have a title such as chartered accountant, certified accountant, personal accountant or even tax accountant. These may all seem to be different roles but many offer similar accountancy services, and if you are at all unsure all you have to do is ask if they are experienced in the jobs that you want them to do.
This section of our site is aimed at helping you find a local accountancy firm that will help you no matter whether you are an individual or a business.