The entire cycle of production and manufacturing to offer services to the customer’s accountancy plays a critical role in the whole process. All the prudential demands and financial investments made in the company are all maintained under this recording of the history in numbers. It is known that accounting firms have a basic structure that they work on like bookkeeping, auditing services, tax advance, etc. well, this is just the basic idea of what an accounting firm looks like. But there’s a lot more to this when you plan to have an accounting firm of your own. Not just the tenure of three to five years of professional education; instead, you will also need to go through a series of processes before starting a firm.
Here’s the step by step points that will lead you to open a successful firm just like the Accounting Firms in the Sunshine Coast :
● Qualification as a Chartered Accountant: Opening an accounting firm is not a business. It’s professional work that requires a professional degree. So the first step is to qualify as a CA, and only then, under the legal code of conduct, you shall be eligible to have an accounting firm. Well, to get this degree, there are two ways: (i) Common Proficiency test Route (CPT) (ii) Direct Entry Route.
Both these routes would require complete dedication, as the first one is for students just after 12th grade. While the second is for the students who have a degree in CS or Cost Accounting.
● Register as a member in ICAI: It is the experience that will count. Now, if you have passed the first requirement, the next step is to work under the ICAI as a registered CA for a certain amount of time. Remember that the licence for opening an accounting firm is not provided to inexperienced Chartered Accounts even if you have been the topper of your batch. Therefore, your infield experience matters the most. You can register as a fellow in ICAI after completion of the course or 3 years of Articleship. To apply as an associate, you need to have experience of 5 years of continuous practice.
● Get the certificate of Practice: After you are done practising for getting your firm’s licence, you will need a certificate of practice that will prove your authenticity as a CA. Remember that you will have to keep paying the membership fee and the certificate fee every year to ICAI, or else they will cancel your certificate. In addition, at any point in time, if you cease to practice as a CA or plan to shut your accounting firm down, you will have to inform the board and hand over the certificate to them.
● Decide the structure of your Firm: After all the reading and official works are done, you now can move ahead to plan the structure of your firm. For example, think if you want to open a sole proprietorship or a partnership firm. For that as well, you need to do your research to know how other firms function globally. In places like the Sunshine coast, accounting firms have both sole and partnership ways of doing business. So you can read about them and choose what you want your firm to look like. If you choose to start a partnership firm you will have a shared responsibility and the burden on you will be less, whereas if you think that you are capable of dealing with all the responsibilities alone then you can start a solo firm. Also, you need to make sure that if it’s a partnership firm then all your partners should also have the required certificate of practice before they settle for the agreement.
● Get clients: Once you have all the plans ready your accounting for is all set to take off. Though if you are functioning from India the ICAI prohibits the accounting firm from doing advertising for the competitive market which in turn will affect the possibility of clients who get to know about your accounting firm.
Follow the steps:
If you stick to the steps that are mentioned here, opening an accounting firm will be very easy. As a bookkeeping or accounting firm, the certificate of practice is the most important thing that will keep all hindrances away from your firm. Apart from all this, you need to have all the necessary plans ready and without hard work, it will not be possible for you to keep a hold on the clients. Also, your accounting methods and technologies should be modernized because to keep working the time invested in one client should not be very long. Well, that does not mean that the work that you do should have no precision because then also you will lose hold over your clients.
