*This is a collaborative post.
Whether you’re a keen side hustler making over £1,000 per year in extra income, or you have your own small business, accounting and finance can be overwhelming for those without a financial background. While you may use certain tools that help with things like gold price predictions for investment, having an assistant for your overall financial planning can be very beneficial. You may wish to hire an accountant to bring you some peace of mind and ensure all your tax affairs are in order.
Finding the right accountant for your business, within your budget, can be a challenging task. You need to make sure that you hire the right candidate. So, you must have a well-aligned recruitment process and conduct multiple interviews. The candidate’s working methodology should align with your company’s process, and their experience should be relevant to your business. Let’s discuss hiring the correct accountant for your small business.
Identifying the job roles and responsibilities
Before reaching out to candidates, you must be clear about the job roles and responsibilities. Accounting is a very broad term. You need to pick out the domains where you expect your accountant to have expertise. You can even consider hiring candidates who belong to a similar domain. I have worked with the same kinds of companies. If you own a pharmaceutical company, you can look for candidates who have worked with such companies.
Decide if you need a full-time or part-time accountant
Nowadays, it is common practice for businesses to recruit part-time accountants to reduce their expenditure. Even accountants are open to part-time work as they can work for more companies and have a diverse working atmosphere to keep them engaged.
Outsourcing accounting is yet another popular method of hiring an accountant. In outsourcing accounting, you connect with third-party service providers for your accounting needs. You should consider hiring a remote accountant if you cannot provide them with a dedicated workspace or if there are any commutation issues.
Prepare a list of interview questions
You must ensure that you write down all the questions you intend to ask during the interview. This ensures that you don’t forget to ask any important questions and that all the questions are asked correctly, so the candidate doesn’t feel confused while taking the interview. It’s also a good idea to discuss the candidate’s technical abilities and software preferences too.
Post the job on relevant platforms
You should prepare a short job description by adding all the roles and responsibilities, eligibility criteria, and documents required for the job so only eligible candidates apply. This saves a lot of time and energy as you’ll have fewer CVs to review. The better the job description, the more relevant candidates will (hopefully!) apply for the job. You can then post the job advert on all the relevant platforms.
Interview the candidate
You could schedule several interview rounds to ensure that the candidate is well-versed in all aspects of accounting. One of the rounds should be with the direct manager of the accountant, and another could be with the business owner (if different) so that the account can cater to both their needs.
Onboard the accountant
Before onboarding the accountant, you must check all their documents. If the accountant is going to work remotely, you can connect with third-party service providers for background and police verification. You can even summon the accountant to the office once for biometrics and document verification.
Several business accountants in London have a keen interest and are dedicated to working for small businesses. It is very important to discuss with the accountant what kind of work you are expecting them to do and the current financial structure of your business. If your small business has never had an accountant before, you need to mention this to your account and maybe even your recruitment campaign.
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