1 Jul
Choosing a good and trustworthy accountant is critical to the success of any organisation. As court cases have illustrated, veterinary practices are not exempt from being a victim of criminality committed by those associated with them, especially where finance is involved…
Image © jamesbin / Adobe Stock
To begin this article, it is worth considering the example of a finance assistant at a Northumberland veterinary practice who amended client invoices to make more than £37,000 in fraudulent pet insurance claims.
Helen Pearse had been employed at Robson and Prescott Vets, which has branches in areas including Morpeth, Alnwick, Blyth, Ashington and Bedlington, since 2016 and was a trusted member of staff.
However, in January 2018, she began adding her own name to client invoices and making false claims on pet insurance policies.
Pearse was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
Clearly, practices need to be careful who they hire – internally and externally – in finance-linked roles.
It surprises most, when told, that anyone can call themselves an accountant – the term has no legal protection in the UK. However, certain accountancy roles can only be performed by qualified accountants.
By extension, terms such as “chartered” or “certified” are protected titles and can only be used by those who are genuinely qualified.
All of this means that if a practice is looking for an accountant to work with, it must be very careful who it engages because bad – unqualified – advice can be very much worse than no advice at all.
As with Helen Pearse, the accountant may also have access to both confidential information as well as tax and bank accounts.
Simply put, practice owners need to choose the right person to take the accountancy drudgery away, so that they can concentrate on running the business.
Before a practice can know who to engage, it needs to understand what it wants an accountant to do.
The only way to answer this is to note down the role that needs fulfilling and the tasks the practice will undertake and those tasks that will be devolved to the accountant. Whether it’s the compilation of the annual books, completion and submission of tax returns or PAYE and payroll, everything will have a time and cost impact.
Will the practice also need day-to-day advice and interaction? What about active help in raising finance? Is the proposed accountant equipped to help with this? Practices should have an eye to the future in terms of how it may grow and what other accountancy help it may need, especially if finances continue to be squeezed.
It’s worth remembering that size isn’t everything; that big isn’t always better. A small accountancy firm will be able to help just as well as a large firm and will be more personal too – indeed, they’ll have a greater understanding of what it’s like to be a small enterprise. Alternatively, the practice may feel more comfortable knowing that it has the back up of a team at a larger firm. It’s a very personal decision.
To an extent, any qualified accountant worth their salt should be able to do exactly what the practice wants – at least in mechanical terms. However, nothing beats experience and that’s why some business sectors have accountancy (and legal) practices dedicated to them – the veterinary profession is no exception as a search on Google shows.
Having an accountant with specialised knowledge will help the practice navigate any specific tax rules for the sector. By extension, probing to see how extensive the accountants contact list is could be valuable – they may be able to help with services not (yet) thought of.
It’s essential that when engaging an accountant the practice doesn’t take the “warm body” approach – that it doesn’t hire the first person or firm that seems to match its needs.
Instead, the advice is to draw up a shortlist, arrange to meet accountants that are in the frame while noting the services they offer, their terms of business and the fees they charge.
While monetary cost is clearly an issue, the deciding factor really should be whether the accountant provides value for money.
Image @ iStock.com / Jolygon
As noted earlier, some individuals and firms in the marketplace aren’t properly qualified, nor purport to offer expert services. It’s therefore essential qualifications of any accountant are checked, as well as whether they are members of a professional body. Membership means abiding by rules to defined standards while also offering a degree of protection that should reassure; it also removes those with a criminal nature from the body.
Unqualified, non-member, accountants are unlikely to carry the insurances a practice may need should anything disastrous happen.
Further, a requirement of being a qualified member of a professional body means having to undertake CPD. By ignoring this and by failing to act professionally, the accountant risks sanctions and even removal from membership.
When searching for accountants, practices should go to the professional bodies and their websites; qualified accountants won’t be shy in promoting their membership. Links to professional bodies can be found at tinyurl.com/yc6wh9xx
Once an appropriate accountant has been found, the next step is to get a reference from other clients. The accountant should be checked for response times, errors made or the extra value they have offered.
Before the final decision is made, and the accountant is engaged, the practice should ensure that the accountant is somebody it can work with. They’re effectively going to become a trusted business advisor with a view on the practice’s innermost secrets, so it’s critical to have a good working relationship. Most importantly, it must be able to trust them with the finances and tax affairs, because it’ll be left picking up the (expensive) pieces if not.
One useful tip is to ask for a free initial consultation. See if the response times work; there’s nothing more frustrating than slow communication when an instant answer is needed.
The next task is to understand and agree fees upfront, noting method and due dates for payment – the answers should be benchmarked against the others on the shortlist. It’s advisable to work on the basis of “no surprises”, so ask if ad hoc advice is included or chargeable by the hour? Can the practice pay smaller amounts monthly to ease its cash flow?
At the end of the day, engaging an accountant is a very personal decision. There’s no need to rush, so practices should take time to investigate the options and choose an accountant accordingly. But whatever is decided, it’s key to use an accountant who is qualified and a member of a professional body.