Accountant for sole proprietors and LLCs Lviv Kyiv Ukraine. Answers to questions.

Entrepreneurs choose between the following accounting options:

• 1. the entrepreneur keeps his sole proprietorship himself;
• 2. the entrepreneur keeps his sole proprietorship himself, and the report is made by an accountant;
• 3. use the services of an accountant;
• 4. use the services of entrepreneur-accountants, with the conclusion of a contract;
• 5. use the services of accounting companies, with the conclusion of a contract;
• 6. use the services of an accountant and at the same time support from an accounting company;

Each of these options is the entrepreneur's choice and his personal responsibility. Keeping an individual entrepreneur's accounting, although simplified, requires the necessary knowledge and practical experience. Often, independent accounting ends with the payment of fines, a forced transition from a simplified system to a general taxation system, the termination of the individual entrepreneur's activities, etc.

If in options 1 and 2 the entrepreneur has the appropriate knowledge of accounting and is ready to devote time, then this is his investment in himself.

Option 4 is more profitable than option 3 when the entrepreneur does not maintain a salary project. In the case of a salary project, he can be paid as a part-time worker. You can conclude a contract with the entrepreneur. There is also the issue of liability, but that is a philosophy. The first and second groups have been on a moratorium on inspections for at least 5 years. The third group, the moratorium has ended, but they have not yet been inspected.

Option 5 is advantageously different from other options in that the company can provide better service for the same money at the expense of its accountants. You do not wait for your accountant to be released and do the work for you.

Option 6 is an ideal option for companies that provide services to a large number of clients. It is very good for such companies to combine the work of a full-time accountant who is responsible for all paperwork and inexpensive support from an accounting company. Especially in the perspective of a possible expansion of the circle of VAT payers.

In our company, each client is assigned three specialists: an executive accountant (with ten years of experience as a chief accountant) and two expert accountants (with twenty years of experience as a chief accountant). These specialists have equal access to the client's database. The client has the opportunity to work with any of the three as an executive, as well as with a group of accountant consultants who are on call 350 days a year, 11 hours a day, from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Any businessman decides on his own whether to hire a full-time accountant or use outsourcing services. For some entrepreneurs, it is important to monitor each process, for others it is enough that the work is done qualitatively, there are no claims from inspection bodies. Especially in the perspective of a possible expansion of the circle of VAT payers. Once a full-time accountant performed many additional functions at the enterprise. He was both a secretary and a personnel officer and replaced managers.

A very good option is to have a full-time accountant who is responsible for all paperwork and inexpensive support for the accounting company. Accounting companies that provide support are interested in having someone to effectively cooperate with on the client's side.

There are recommendations that can help choose a good accountant:

1. Interest in the documentation of the unaudited period. This period is large, from three to six years. If the accountant or accounting company does not show any interest in the previous unaudited period, then in the future this may lead to problems during the audit. A good accountant should have many questions about how the accounting was previously conducted at the enterprise.

2. Previous work experience. Even at the interview stage, you need to ask in what field the accountant worked before. It can be difficult for an accountant to quickly master the intricacies of a complex level if his experience is limited to only a simple level.

3. Order in keeping records and storing documentation. Even at the interview stage, you need to ask how the documents will be stored. A good accountant stores all documents in strict order. Primary documents should be arranged in folders in chronological order and entered into the database. If the accountant cannot promptly provide detailed information upon request, this may indicate problems in accounting.

4. Double control. It is very easy to check the accountant for attention. You can give him an invoice for payment again or with an error in the payment details. The professional will quickly notice the error and eliminate it. If this does not happen, then we can conclude that there is no control.

5. Experience of interaction with control authorities. Even at the interview stage, you need to ask about the experience of successfully passing tax audits. And in everyday work, the accountant must communicate competently with representatives of the inspection authorities and respond to requests in a timely manner.

6. Cost of paying for accountant services. A good accountant should receive a decent salary. If a candidate for the position of accountant is ready to work at a low price, then there will be problems in the future. This may negatively affect the quality of service or lead to staff turnover.

7. Report on the work performed. An accountant must communicate with management and provide information in an accessible form. An accountant must inform management about possible accounting problems and suggest methods for solving them.

Finding a good accountant is very difficult. It is easier for new enterprises and those that are resuming work to find a good accountant, because they do not have a long-term unaudited period and have better development prospects. A good accountant can help avoid a huge number of problems, including tax audits. He must confidently perform his work and be responsible for it. Competent accounting in a company is the key to its prosperity.

Any businessman decides for himself whether to hire a full-time accountant or use outsourcing services. For some entrepreneurs, it is important to monitor each process, for others it is enough that the work is done qualitatively, and there are no complaints from regulatory authorities.

If the budget allows, then a reliable and good option is to have a full-time accountant who is responsible for all paperwork and inexpensive support for the accounting company. Especially in the perspective of a possible expansion of the circle of VAT payers.

It all depends on the volume of office work. If you have 100 hours of real office work and a full-time accountant works 100 hours and another 60 hours the accountant is doing other work (learning something new, reading news on the Internet, etc.), then at a rate of 16 thousand it will cost you less than 20 thousand hryvnias. For 100 hours of real office work, the accounting company will take at least 40 thousand hryvnias. To this cost you will also have to add overhead costs.

With over thirty years of experience as a chief accountant, I can briefly describe the situation with the concept of a full-time accountant. Once upon a time, a full-time accountant performed many additional functions at the enterprise. He was also a secretary and a personnel officer and replaced managers. But a lot has changed in thirty years. Mobile Internet, electronic document management, digital signatures appeared. Software now requires good computers. In 2019, the concept of remote work appeared and many good accountants moved to accounting companies. In 2022, many accountants went abroad and have a very good salary there.

Now it is difficult to find a good accountant even for accounting companies. This is despite the fact that many accounting companies are ready to hire specialists remotely. If an accountant knows English well, he will find remote work abroad for a very decent salary.

Once upon a time there was a kind of school of professional growth. There was communication between accountants, exchange of experience. Accountants had a place to learn, grow and gain experience. Now we have videos on YouTube. There are nuances in every case. And they are not shown in the videos. For example, a friend did an independent repair of the washing machine tank, having watched many videos on this topic. He did everything as described in most, but water was seeping from the bearings. And only in one "primitive" video did the master show why he had glue on his table.

I was also fined once for keeping my own company's records. Beginning accountants learn by starting with an accountant for a condominium association at a minimum wage or start managing entrepreneurs. Then they move on to better working conditions. And then those from whom they learned sometimes need an internal audit service or accounting restoration. The cost of an accounting restoration service is usually equivalent to the cost of accounting services for the same period. Therefore, in time, a full-time accountant and inexpensive support from an accounting company are much better options.

There is a list of signs that indicate that it is time to entrust accounting to an outsourcing company:

• The business is expanding and it is necessary to effectively organize the flow of funds.
• There is an ineffective division of responsibilities in the office.
• There is no backup plan in case of losing a full-time accountant for one reason or another.
• As a manager, you spend too much time on accounting issues.

Among accounting outsourcing companies, things are not so simple either. There are cases when a manager increases the staff, and an employee may not do the job well. There is no expert accountant or controller over him. We once worked with one expert accountant. And the expert accountant "hoped" that the contractor with ten years of experience in the company would do the job well. And the contractor pretty much "crashed" the work. And then there was an unscheduled inspection. We had to urgently finish the work. Now we have an expert accountant from management in the company and we close the quarterly accounting period "for inspection".

The optimal time to outsource accounting is when you notice stagnation in the accounting and paperwork of your own company, inefficient accounting. Cooperation with outsourcing accounting companies involves the full or partial transfer of functions in order to establish and systematize the business processes of the enterprise, and will also contribute to the financial development of your company in the future.

This option is optimal for companies that provide services to a large number of clients or have a large number of employees. The next question analyzes the option of effective work of the market administration with more than 300 tenant-sellers. The option is considered the most complex for accounting for services with a large number of clients.

To service the market without automation, two accountants, a legal clerk and an administrator are required. The legal clerk prepares and prints transactions, conducts personnel work. The administrator takes meter readings, distributes transaction invoices, provides consultations. The accounting department carries out accounting. For 4 staff units with salaries from 16 to 20 thousand hryvnias, you need to have a budget of 90 thousand hryvnias.

With effective accounting, you can get an economic effect of almost double, as well as a significant increase in the quality of service. We automate the work of the administrator and lawyer and the work of the accounting department. By reducing the load on the accounting department, we load it with the functions of the lawyer and administrator. If you completely outsource the accounting department of the market for 300 places, then this, together with the preparation of contracts and maintaining electronic offices, will cost 20 thousand hryvnias. A full-time accountant, whose functions include monitoring the work of the accounting company, effectively cooperates with it and maintains documentation.

Why can't you completely outsource all the work to the accounting company. In reality, it takes from 210 to 340 hours of work to complete the work, depending on the qualifications of the performers. The work is distributed as follows: 160 hours per full-time employee, who gets paid 100 hryvnias per hour, and 50 hours per accounting company. An accounting company cannot significantly reduce the price of its services, because it also has overhead costs. In fact, its 20 thousand hryvnias for services includes a maximum of 50 hours of 400 hryvnias. If the accounting company pays all 400 hryvnias as wages, then no more than 270 hryvnias will be left. If you try to transfer the volume of work for 210 hours to an accounting company, then this work must either cost accordingly (at least 80 thousand hryvnias), or somehow decrease in volume. And it cannot decrease, because someone must also work in the office for a whole month for 160 hours, doing various ongoing work. Print out one-time documents, give the client finished documents, consult the client, prepare one-time orders, sign various reconciliation acts and documents in the office, and at the end of the month organize the documents.

This option is optimal for companies that provide services to a large number of clients or have a large number of employees. Let's consider it on the option of servicing a market with more than 300 tenant sellers. On our website, this option is considered as an example. My twenty-year experience in servicing markets allows us to describe in detail the option of automating processes.

To service the market without automation, you need two accountants, a lawyer-administrator and an administrator. The lawyer-administrator prepares and prints transactions, conducts personnel work. The administrator takes meter readings, distributes transaction invoices, provides consultations. The accounting department carries out accounting. For 4 full-time employees with salaries from 16 to 20 thousand hryvnias, you need to have a budget of 90 thousand hryvnias.

When using the automation system, meter readings are provided similarly to electricity suppliers via chat bots or in the personal account. If no reading is provided, the average value is taken. Once a quarter or when closing a deal, a photo of the meter with seals is uploaded for control. Bills are uploaded to the personal account, to chat bots. Those who need a paper bill are printed out. These are mainly entrepreneurs and legal entities, with whom Privatbank generally allows document flow to be established directly in the client bank.

When using the automation system, contracts and contract attachments are generated in an array (not individually) based on the client database.