What your typical "small business accountant" typically does now bears little resemblance to what one would typically do 15-20 years ago.
Back in the day, the accountant would have none of your business data unless you went out of your way to provide it to them. Any time you did, it would clearly be because you wanted something from them, and they'd charge you accordingly.
If you were VAT registered, or had employees, you'd typically have a bookkeeper to help with that, or a junior member from your accountants coming out to you regularly, at significant extra cost.
Hence most small clients looking to keep costs down would just bother their accountant once a year for year end accounts/CT.
These days with FreeAgent et al, the data can be at the accountant's fingertips throughout the year. Got a quick question? Call/email your accountant, they can see your live data, and respond/tweak accordingly. Because accountants have realised it's quicker/easier to check/fix little things as they go, rather than unpick a big mess after year end, they've drifted towards fixed fee/pay monthly models and get involved regularly throughout the year.
So no, accountants aren't generally cheaper than they were before the likes of FreeAgent, but mainly because they're offering far more help than they used to. Yes, you're doing the donkey work of raising invoices etc (no accountant ever realistically did that!), but they're periodically checking it all looks ok, answering your queries if you're unsure what to do etc. Accountants didn't offer that service before, at least not as part of their basic accounts/CT production offering.
Back in the day, the accountant would have none of your business data unless you went out of your way to provide it to them. Any time you did, it would clearly be because you wanted something from them, and they'd charge you accordingly.
If you were VAT registered, or had employees, you'd typically have a bookkeeper to help with that, or a junior member from your accountants coming out to you regularly, at significant extra cost.
Hence most small clients looking to keep costs down would just bother their accountant once a year for year end accounts/CT.
These days with FreeAgent et al, the data can be at the accountant's fingertips throughout the year. Got a quick question? Call/email your accountant, they can see your live data, and respond/tweak accordingly. Because accountants have realised it's quicker/easier to check/fix little things as they go, rather than unpick a big mess after year end, they've drifted towards fixed fee/pay monthly models and get involved regularly throughout the year.
So no, accountants aren't generally cheaper than they were before the likes of FreeAgent, but mainly because they're offering far more help than they used to. Yes, you're doing the donkey work of raising invoices etc (no accountant ever realistically did that!), but they're periodically checking it all looks ok, answering your queries if you're unsure what to do etc. Accountants didn't offer that service before, at least not as part of their basic accounts/CT production offering.
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