Advice for new contractor

[Dabbishing]

Hello all,

I will be starting my first of hopefully many contract jobs in pharmacovigilance in over a month. I will be planning to learn as much as I can in this time and as I go along so I can keep an eye on everything however I would be extremely grateful if anyone had any advice for me, things to look out for, good practices to start with, that type of stuff.

Also I was hoping someone could tell me the name of a trustworthy accountant firm in London that they have had good experience with, ideally one that can help or provide advice on setting up a limited company. I do realize that there will be none that will have a glowing reputation but I would greatly appreciate if someone could provide a few names so I can phone/meet them myself and pick one.

Thank you for the time to read this and please know that if you leave a comment, it is gratefully appreciated.

[SueEllen]

Your accountant doesn't need to be in London.

Your accountant needs to answer telephone and email queries quickly.

[northernladuk]

Surely this would have been better posted in the accounting section? If you had you might have seen a stickey with tons of information about recommending accounts that should help you.

[PerfectStorm]

I'm London based, my accountant isn't (Nixon Williams) but it doesn't matter, they're on the phone and email and pretty much respond same day unless it's late afternoon. You don't really need to 'see' them for anything and doing everything electronically, making scans etc is useful as you quickly develop an electronic copy of your documents.

[NotAllThere]

Moved. Best advice I can give is read the first timers guides and if you've any specific questions, search for an answer in the forum before posting.

[garethevans1986]

Your accountant doesn't need to be in London.

Your accountant needs to answer telephone and email queries quickly.

+1 to this. Not seen our accountant in a few months.

[northernladuk]

+1 to this. Not seen our accountant in a few months.

Not seen mine in 7 years.

[LondonManc]

I used SJD when I started out. They were really helpful, set the limited company up, advised about insurance, helped set up a company bank account, etc.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

With modern IT location of accountant is unimportant - I think we've probably eye balled less than 5% of our clients.

[jmo21]

+1 to this. Not seen our accountant in a few months.

Not seen mine in 7 years.

I've never met mine, and they are based only a few miles from my house.