Avoid these 3 mistakes when hiring a qualified accountant

If you are looking to hire a qualified accountant, here are the 3 most common mistakes companies make and how you can avoid them to save yourself time, money, and staff turnover.

Mistake Number 1

Thinking that all accountants are the same because numbers are numbers.

Not necessarily grossly wrong, however, the more specialised your business is and the more stratified your structure is, the nuances between different types of accounting professionals become more pronounced.

If you operate in a highly specialised sector and you have subsidiaries within your structure, it's important that you work out the profile from there and then list the day-to-day duties that an accountant would normally hold.

Doing so will help you recruit the skill set that you most need and won't create an unfair entry for someone who would have a steep learning curve with no support in place or expectations that don't match the reality.

Mistake Number 2

Have your qualified accountant do everything under the sun, from journalising to management reporting.

Whilst, most businesses, would find themselves in such a situation at one point during their business life, it's important to rectify this sooner rather than later and have it be a temporary situation, rather than a permanent one.

Not only you are wasting valuable skills and budget on transactional tasks, but you are most likely frustrating the professional who will end up leaving where they can focus on work that is in line with their professional expectations.

Mistake Number 3

Not considering technology.

Having your accountant manually log every single entry is a sure death sentence. There are many tools out there, very reasonably priced, that can help your accountant to automize tasks, which in return will reduce human error, will increase productivity, and ultimately, give you more for your buck.

It's ok if you don't have the means to do so immediately, but sit down with your accountant and together, make a plan of what is palatable to automate, set a budget, and do it.

If you are a business in Malta looking to hire a Qualified Accountant or any other role within regulated entities, please reach out for a free, informal, nonobligation discussion to Fran Moisa on fran@fmsearch.eu