Do you give your accountant access to your bank account?
Discussion
Just wondered 
The situation is that I run my business on my own and employ a professional Chartered Certified accountant company to do the VAT & tax returns. They already have access to the PP account and It would take some of the load from me if I just let them use the bank account (online) to get what they need. I'm wondering if the girl doing it could take the details home and empty my bank account, but will have to check if that is possible as I have a bank supplied card reader in order to set up new payments.
Would this be rather silly? Just wondered what the norm was in these situations.
The situation is that I run my business on my own and employ a professional Chartered Certified accountant company to do the VAT & tax returns. They already have access to the PP account and It would take some of the load from me if I just let them use the bank account (online) to get what they need. I'm wondering if the girl doing it could take the details home and empty my bank account, but will have to check if that is possible as I have a bank supplied card reader in order to set up new payments.
Would this be rather silly? Just wondered what the norm was in these situations.
I'm in a similar situation to you but only send my accountant bank statements.
You have no idea about their control structures so I wouldn't be happy giving them access.
What do they need access for and how will it help you? A halfway house may be to take on a freelance book keeper who are likely to do a lot of donkey work for much less than an accountant would charge.
You have no idea about their control structures so I wouldn't be happy giving them access.
What do they need access for and how will it help you? A halfway house may be to take on a freelance book keeper who are likely to do a lot of donkey work for much less than an accountant would charge.
227bhp said:
Just wondered
The situation is that I run my business on my own and employ a professional Chartered Certified accountant company to do the VAT & tax returns. They already have access to the PP account and It would take some of the load from me if I just let them use the bank account (online) to get what they need. I'm wondering if the girl doing it could take the details home and empty my bank account, but will have to check if that is possible as I have a bank supplied card reader in order to set up new payments.
Would this be rather silly? Just wondered what the norm was in these situations.
Depends on yuor account typeThe situation is that I run my business on my own and employ a professional Chartered Certified accountant company to do the VAT & tax returns. They already have access to the PP account and It would take some of the load from me if I just let them use the bank account (online) to get what they need. I'm wondering if the girl doing it could take the details home and empty my bank account, but will have to check if that is possible as I have a bank supplied card reader in order to set up new payments.
Would this be rather silly? Just wondered what the norm was in these situations.
We used to bank with RBS/Natwest and you could setup diferent access and control levels- from just being able to see transactions to being able to self authorise!
trickywoo said:
I'm in a similar situation to you but only send my accountant bank statements.
You have no idea about their control structures so I wouldn't be happy giving them access.
What do they need access for and how will it help you? A halfway house may be to take on a freelance book keeper who are likely to do a lot of donkey work for much less than an accountant would charge.
I tried that a few times and it didn't work, getting someone to come in and sit in my crappy little office is hard. Everyone wants to take everything away and back to the comfort of their own houses, then they just bombard me with questions via bloody text and email so I may aswell have done it myself!You have no idea about their control structures so I wouldn't be happy giving them access.
What do they need access for and how will it help you? A halfway house may be to take on a freelance book keeper who are likely to do a lot of donkey work for much less than an accountant would charge.
Simpo Two said:
Or print off 12 statements? Sorry, being old-fashioned.
Already doing it. I sent them everything by courier, they then ask me for statements I haven't even got yet so i'm going to have to do it all again when I get them (or print off and send). I'm spending far too much time doing book work when I should be earning money.PugwasHDJ80 said:
Depends on yuor account type
We used to bank with RBS/Natwest and you could setup diferent access and control levels- from just being able to see transactions to being able to self authorise!
Lloyds business account. Something worth looking into - thanks.We used to bank with RBS/Natwest and you could setup diferent access and control levels- from just being able to see transactions to being able to self authorise!
Thanks for your thoughts and ideas. I just need to streamline things, as per above I'm just spending too much time doing this. I think a call to the Accountants to ask them not to demand paperwork time and time again before I even have it myself is probably a good start.
Other than formerly set up client accounts where we operate them on behalf of the client we don't have access to accounts just for book-keeping and accounts preparation.
As per posts above, we just rely on the client sending or emailing actual statements or internet prints.
You could ask the bank to send copies of the statements to your accountant the same time as they send copies to you, but if they did agree to this I imagine they would charge extra for it.
As per posts above, we just rely on the client sending or emailing actual statements or internet prints.
You could ask the bank to send copies of the statements to your accountant the same time as they send copies to you, but if they did agree to this I imagine they would charge extra for it.
My accountant introduced me to Xero, which auto-slurps my bank accounts and generates all the reports they (and I) need - VAT, Corp Tax, invoices etc. It makes reporting dead easy, and they can go in and figure stuff out in the middle of the year if they need to. The assumption is that, having given online access to my bank accounts to a third party, they're not going to get hacked or willfully do something nasty. On the defensive side, they'd still need access to the security gizmo my bank supplies to move any money to an account not already set up for payment.
Tuna said:
My accountant introduced me to Xero, which auto-slurps my bank accounts and generates all the reports they (and I) need - VAT, Corp Tax, invoices etc. It makes reporting dead easy, and they can go in and figure stuff out in the middle of the year if they need to. The assumption is that, having given online access to my bank accounts to a third party, they're not going to get hacked or willfully do something nasty. On the defensive side, they'd still need access to the security gizmo my bank supplies to move any money to an account not already set up for payment.
Same (ish.Bank feeds go into Xero (bank feeds only have read permissions). Accountant has access to Xero to do anything they need to do. They don't move any money for me though, so Xero access is all they need.
Never in a million years would I give access to my accountant to my bank accounts and nor would I use there address as the ltd company address.
I had bad experience with an accountant who went to prison because of it, I didn't lose any £ myself as his staff gave me the heads up of what was going on (they reported him to police). The accountant in questions managed to do what he did as many clients had there ltd addresses registered to his office, also he had developed very close relationships with some of his clients + dodgy HMRC system. Link to the story > http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098810/Ma...
People did lose lots of £ but HMRC didn't care the people who lost the money still had to pay HMRC, as though there your accountant your ultimately responsible at the end of the day for anything they do on your behalf. Unless you trust them 100% don't do it, not saying all accountants are the same but you need to be careful.
I had bad experience with an accountant who went to prison because of it, I didn't lose any £ myself as his staff gave me the heads up of what was going on (they reported him to police). The accountant in questions managed to do what he did as many clients had there ltd addresses registered to his office, also he had developed very close relationships with some of his clients + dodgy HMRC system. Link to the story > http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098810/Ma...
People did lose lots of £ but HMRC didn't care the people who lost the money still had to pay HMRC, as though there your accountant your ultimately responsible at the end of the day for anything they do on your behalf. Unless you trust them 100% don't do it, not saying all accountants are the same but you need to be careful.
Edited by PostHeads123 on Thursday 15th October 11:30
AMDB9 said:
What's the drawback of using your accountants address? Many people seem to be doing this (including me) 
Just that most of your letters from HMRC etc will go to the accountants address rather than yours, then your dependent on the accountant making you aware of things etc. It all comes down to trust at the end of the day, as I mentioned your accountant in the eyes of the law is an extension of you so if the accountant does something screwy / doesn't pay your corp tax bill / runs off with the money, it's still your problem. Personally I like to keep an eye on things some people don't but then you have to be 100% sure of the person you are trusting with your ££.Edited by PostHeads123 on Friday 16th October 17:53
PostHeads123 said:
AMDB9 said:
What's the drawback of using your accountants address? Many people seem to be doing this (including me)
Just that most of your letters from HMRC etc will go to the accountants address rather than yours, then your dependent on the accountant making you aware of things etc. It all comes down to trust at the end of the day, as I mentioned your accountant in the eyes of the law is an extension of you so if the accountant does something screwy / doesn't pay your corp tax bill / runs off with the money, it's still your problem. Personally I like to keep an eye on things some people don't but then you have to be 100% sure of the person you are trusting with your ££.Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff