Duties of Accountant

[betst07]

A new accountant has been appointed of the CC during July 2016. He now requires copies from 2009 to present of bank statements, bond statements, all hire purchases and contracts, title deeds of all properties, purchase agreements and vehicle licence certificates. Is this legal? Aren't we suppose to keep records only for 5 years? Why would he require copies of documents going 8 years back?

The new accountant flatly refused to issue us with a letter of engagement. We are stuck with him being the accountant (the majority member of the CC is a trust and that trustees, who are not involved in the running of the business at all, voted him in and he himself is a trustee as well).

Why would he require all those documents when a CC only has to be reviewed and not audited? We passed a SARS audit in February and a VAT review in May. Nothing irregular is going on here. Are the trustees perhaps trying to sell the business? Why waste time and paper making literally hundreds of copies?

What do we answer him as I for one certainly don't feel comfortable...

[Andromeda]

A cc has an accounting officer who must render an opinion on the annual financial statements. The companies act is also applicable to cc's and that basically means a double whammy, but normally (based on usual size of a cc, the accounting officer's report is more onerous.

The record retention in terms of the companies act is 7 years, not 5 nor 8.

Unless there are issues, comply with his request

[Dave A]

The only one that seems potentially excessive at first glance is current account bank statements from 2009 to present, but that probably depends on the nature of the company. The balance seems entirely reasonable.