What is a fair amount to pay for an accountant?

[kernel32]

I currently pay R3,500 for completion of my tax forms (or whatever you call them) for my business. This seems like a load of money, as the business is still quite new and we hardly make enough money to cover the normal expenses. Does this sound like a reasonable amount for a small start-up to pay?

[duncan drennan]

What structure is the business, PTY, CC, partnership?

[kernel32]

What structure is the business, PTY, CC, partnership?

It's a cc

[Marq]

I don't believe the structure of the business is relevant. What is relevant is the amount of work that goes into producing the end goods.

So when you say completion of tax forms - what is done by your accountant to get to this completion point? Many businesses give their accountants a load of paper at the end of the period and expect this to be sorted , analysed and captured - and then the tax forms can be done. The end result seems to be disappointing and this small fortune paid to insert of a couple of numbers and a signature seems exorbitant.

I think the question should be - how much time has the accountant relieved me of this dreary work and if I tackled the job myself, would I save that much in costs and lost opportunities out there? If the answer doesn't add up then the solution could be, to do it yourself, get a new accountant, have an admin person rather than accountant do the mundane work, talk to the accountant to reduce the fees accordingly.

I don't believe there is a direct answer to your question as everyone has different circumstances. I do think that you should maybe look to the accountant as a finance and administration partner with a specific role instead of a grudge payment.

The monthly fee may also include the year end AFS's and other services. You are just being billed an annual fee monthly. Check with the accountant what you are paying for.

In that role as a partner, I think you should discuss this matter with the accountant and look at resolving this issue quickly before you concentrate on the problem and not at getting new business and growing your self onwards and upwards.

[kernel32]

I don't see this as a grudge payment. It's work that needs to be done by someone with the required skills and knowledge. I won't be able to do it myself, no chance of that. Even if I did know exactly what to do, I still wouldn't be able to do it because of time constraints.

What I want to know is if this guy is ripping me off. I know nothing about accounting or tax, and he could have easily told me it's R20K and I wouldn't have known any better. All I need is a basic guideline of how much is too much.

I've got a stack of invoices, and some slips. It's for the past year, but the invoices total about 200 creditors and debtors combined.

[Marq]

Accountants usually charge by the hour. An estimate would have been made of how long they would spend on your accounting work. Rates vary but I believe an average rate for an accountant would be between 250 to 350 an hour depending on the skill level and expertise (If anybody knows this answer - please let us know what he current going rate is). So R3,500 probably represents in the region of 10 to 14 hours work.

If you have a years worth of paper - 200 creditors and debtors and some slips - my guess is that sounds like a lot more hours than 15 or so. More likely double that.

So on that simple view - I think you are getting a really cheap deal.

[Dave A]

If you are hardly doing anything towards preparing the final accounts, R3500.00 per annum sounds very reasonable, regardless of the size of your business.