Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Eighty per cent of small businesses work with an external accountant or bookkeeper. However, 70pc of small business owners would not recommend their accountant to others and more than a quarter said they are likely to switch accountants, according to small business platform Xero.
On top of that, over one third of small business owners would tell others to avoid their accountant, as they feel they don’t understand business challenges, don’t provide the right support, charge too much and aren’t keeping up with technology.
Why small businesses switch accountants
Top mistakes that are causing business owners to switch accountants include: rarely providing support (62pc), limited industry knowledge (57pc), making them feel like a low priority (55pc), being behind on technology (53pc), being unresponsive (52pc) and not providing enough value (44pc).
Nila Khan, business advice manager at industry body ICAEW, says: “Accountants being unresponsive is the major gripe of clients. All they want is a response, it can be as simple as that. It can be a shame to lose a client over something so simple as lack of communication. It’s frustrating because it can be so easily fixed.”
Another reason is that your old accountant either retires or

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