Late spring and the beginning of summer is a busy time for many companies. The time to submit the annual report is here. It is also a

great time to submit your missing annual reports for previous financial periods, so you would not have any issues with the authorities.

This blog post will give you an overview of how to choose an accounting partner who will submit your annual report in due time and do

quality work.

Our previous experience has shown that if your annual report price offer is high, then the best option might be to use the monthly accounting. That way, you can divide the accounting costs over the financial year and have a fixed price every month. At the end of the financial year, you will only pay the base fee for the report. If no accounting has been done during the financial year, you will need to get it done before submitting the annual report. That will cause additional accounting fees and considerably increase your report price.

There are also some situations where monthly accounting is unavoidable:

• If you have an active VAT registration
• If you have local employees
• For some other specific reasons that require accounting on an ongoing basis (even if you don´t have employees or VAT registration)

However, if you are not required to do monthly accounting, then the annual report is still obligational.

7 tips to find a good accounting service provider

Here are some basic rules to follow when choosing a service provider to do your company’s annual report:

1. Choose a service provider who works with documents (invoices and bank statements), not with Excel sheets. Sales and costs summary reports written by the client in Excel are often inaccurate and can include incorrect information, which in return can cause issues with the authorities.
2. The price offer should include communication with the client to get the most accurate financial overview of the company’s situation. Many businesses might offer lower prices at first but might add additional fees later for the communication and consultation. Choose someone with no hidden fees. 1Office’s goal is to issue the most honest and transparent information to the tax office, and that demands more focus on the details, which increases the accountant’s work hours. That will also reflect in the annual report price.
3. Communication is the key element to get an accurate overview of the company’s financial situation. It will later cause issues with the tax authorities in Estonia if something is missing or wrong.
4. High level of expertise regarding accounting and annual reporting is a must. Many companies do “dumping” reports which contain a lot of errors. It can be cheap at first, but you might end up paying extra money later when you get in trouble with the tax office.
5. If you are doing business internationally, then hire a company with international experience. Selling around the world means that many additional accounting details have to be considered and not overlooked.
6. Annual report offers must include missing VAT declarations, share capital declarations, and all other necessary work. Many service providers can send the additional prices after the annual report offer has been accepted. Make sure to ask if the price offer includes everything and no additional charges will be added to avoid any later disappointments.
7. Ask your service provider who will be responsible for the data and mistakes. Some service providers have the approach that the board members and company carry full responsibility. However, in 1Office, we share the responsibility with the client.

When ordering an annual report or accounting, be sure to check the background of the service provider and their experience level. We recommend looking at the price offers critically and confirm that it includes all the necessary work to avoid any unexpected costs.