I finally took the plunge and started my practice last year after 8 years working in a large accounts department and having several different volunteer roles in accounting to gain as much experience as possible. I have been fortunate in that I have already picked up a few clients and have meetings booked in with a couple more potential clients.
In order to get organised I have been working on a checklist to give my self assessment clients to ensure that they provide me with the all the documentation and information needed. I was just woundering if any one else has done this and if you had any tips on putting one together? Or if perhaps there is someone who would be able to give it a once over just to ensure I haven't missed anything glaringly obvious off?
Any help/advice anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.
When I first arrange the meeting I always tell the potential client to bring along any paperwork that they feel is relevant to their business as this will usually give me some idea of how their business is run as well as how well their accounts are kept, I do not use a generic checklist as such but what I tend to do is at the initial meeting I will have an A4 pad that I will use to make notes and at the end of the meeting I will make a list that I give to them of all the further information that I require, what I do have is a Client Information sheet for all their personal details that I get them to fill out if we are both happy to continue.
The notes I have made will then help me make any adaptions necessary to my engagement letter.
I am sure that everyone has a different approach to the initial meetings but this seems to work for me
Good luck with the new venture
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Doug
These are only my opinions of how I see things and therefore should not be taken as advice
I just want to thank you for your reply and apologize for lateness in getting back to you. Unfortunately my laptop has picked the opportune time to break & I have only just got a nice shiny new replacement.
I was worried that I had to go to all of my meetings knowing all of the answers so to speak to any question that might arise, but your post gave me the confidence to make notes as suggested and then go away and give the client a bespoke list of everything I need from them instead of just a document that may have lots of irrelevant bits and pieces, as well as find out the answers to any tricky questions that might arise which are out of the norm.
