Most people change accountants once or twice in a working life, usually after one has quietly stopped fitting. Knowing how to choose an accountant well the first time saves that. What separates firms is not the logo or the fee, it is who holds the relationship, and whether the firm's interests sit alongside yours or across from them.
The questions worth asking any firm
Put these to any accountant you are considering, including us. How readily a firm answers them tells you almost everything.
Who will actually do my work, and who reviews it?
In some firms a partner wins the engagement and a junior does the work. In others, the person you meet is the person who handles your file. Neither is wrong. It is worth knowing which you are getting.
Who owns the firm, and do you sell financial products?
A firm owned by its working directors answers to its clients. One owned by an outside group, or earning commission on products it recommends, has a second interest in the room.
How many clients like me do you look after?
A firm that regularly handles businesses, family groups or a sale like yours has seen the patterns before. One that mostly files salary-earner returns will be learning on your file.
How do you charge, and what sits outside a fixed fee?
The number that matters is not the headline rate, it is what the fee covers and what it does not. A clear answer here is a good sign in itself.
If I call with something urgent, when will I hear back?
Tax questions arrive with deadlines. The firms that serve clients well answer inside a useful window, not a fortnight later.
Who picks up my work if my main contact leaves?
Good firms have an answer ready. It is a fair question, and the way it lands tells you how the firm is run.
What actually separates one accountant from another
Once you know how to choose an accountant by asking the right questions, the real differences become easy to see. Most firms can prepare a return. Underneath that, three things vary.
- Who holds the relationship. The best sign of a firm that will suit you long term is that the same experienced person stays across your affairs year to year, and knows your business without being reminded of it.
- Independence. A firm owned by its working directors, that does not sell financial products alongside its advice, gives advice with one interest in mind, yours.
- Reach and pace. When something is time-sensitive, a business owner needs an answer, not a queue. How quickly a firm responds is part of the service, not separate from it.
In good company across Sydney
How accounting fees usually work
Fees fall into a few shapes. Compliance work, your annual return and financial statements, is often a fixed fee tied to the size and complexity of the entity. Advisory work, such as planning a sale or a restructure, is usually scoped separately, because the work varies with the situation. Ask what a fixed fee covers, and what falls outside it, and you will rarely be surprised by an invoice.
Where Murchisons fits
Murchisons is a North Sydney firm, owned by its working directors, advising businesses and families since 1984. Because the directors own the practice, the firm answers to its clients rather than to an outside owner, and it does not sell financial products alongside its advice. The director you meet stays across your work. Whether that suits you is exactly the kind of thing the questions above are there to surface, and we are glad to answer every one of them.
Frequently asked questions
How do I choose the right accountant for my business?
What questions should I ask before hiring an accountant?
Does it matter who owns an accounting firm?
How much does a good accountant cost in Sydney?
When is the right time to switch accountants?
Looking for an accountant who fits? Let us talk.
If those questions point you our way, the next step is a conversation with a director, not a form to fill in. Call, or send a line to hello@murchisons.com, and ask for the director who handles work like yours. The first conversation is no charge.
No online form needed. Call, or email hello@murchisons.com and a director will reply, usually the same day.