Just like everything else in life, you get what you pay for. Consider a recent client who paid $550 for his financial statements but paid just over $15,000 in tax. Had he paid for a quality service he would have had tax of $10,980 to pay.  He thought he was getting a great service until we pointed out his mistakes. He is now a client and knows that our fees represent excellent value for service.

A very low price can be a good indicator your accountant is not spending money on training courses to keep up to date with changes affecting business, or they are not employing good quality staff but instead are using junior staff who know or do very little, or they spend little on systems to ensure deadlines are kept, or have little money to afford Professional Indemnity Insurance, or spend little on technology losing any advantage of cost savings associated with modern information technology, or worst of all they take short cuts which will cost you more in the long term.

When looking for a new accountant, low prices are sometimes offered as an incentive to get a new client and their work. It is not uncommon that once the honeymoon period is over the accountant then starts charging ‘normal’ rates.

When it comes to choosing the right accountant for you, it should come down to the value you get for your money and not whether an accountant is the cheapest or not.