Find and Hire Local Accounting Services

Why Your Business Needs Accounting Services?

Accountants are the financial backbone of your business, and they help you organize, plan, and prepare your financial records. Services provided by accountants are generally related to one of these expertizes: accounting services, auditing Services, assurance services, tax services, and advisory services. Within these expertise fields, a wide range of accounting related services is provided for businesses, like preparing a variety of financial statements and reports based on local or International Financial Reporting Standards, performing independent audits of the financial statements issued by companies, provide advice to improve the quality of information processing for decision-makers, corporate finance and risk management services, transaction services, management accounting services, or small business advisory services.

Do You Need Accounting, Audit or Advisory Services for a Specific Expertise?

Our Consultants 500 platform includes many accounting, audit or advisory services across a variety of expertise fields. Find and hire financial experts that have specialized in the following Service Lines:

Accounting Generalist | Full Service Accounting Firm | Administration & Bookkeeping Services | Employee Benefit Plan Auditing | Financial Statement Auditing | Internal Auditing | IT Auditing | Business Restructuring Advisory | Corporate Finance Services | Family Business Advisory | IT & Technology Advisory | Management Consulting Services | Organisation & Control Services | Risk Consulting Services | Strategy Advisory | Financial Services | Financial Statement Reporting | Forensics & Litigation Support | Human Resources Services | IFRS Reporting | US GAAP Reporting | Risk Management Services | Transaction Services / M&A | Valuation Services | Other Accounting Services 

How Much Should You Pay for Accounting, Audit or Advisory Services?

How much you should pay for these types of services depends amongst others on the reason why you need these financial services. Furthermore, determining the average fees charged for accounting, audit or advisory services is very hard to assess as it depends on so many factors and circumstances. Normally, the various types of accounting services are charged by the hour, and factors that affect the hourly rate charged include the region where the service provider is located, the experience level, the type of clients or markets served and last but not least what kind of services are being provided which can be a more standardized routine type of work or highly specialized work.

For example, accounting services such as preparing financial statements may involve fees of less than USD 10 per hour when these services are performed somewhere in Asia while the typical fees involved for providing advisory services on major merger and acquisition type of transactions in the US can easily exceed USD 600 per hour.

Via our Consultants 500 platform, you can search for many types of accounting services needed and fine tune on key factors like region, specialization, hourly rate, experience level and types of clients served. When you have found your ideal candidate for the job to be done, you can directly get in touch via email or phone and start working, without any charges or interference from our platform. Find out how it works.

To get a general feeling about typical fees involved in the accounting, audit or advisory industry you can also check out Robert Walters Annual Salary Survey. This survey gives very detailed insights about permanent, interim and contract placements across most part of the professional services industry, including the accounting services industry, and differentiates on aspects like region, experience level, big firms or smaller ones and much more.

Not Sure Whether to Hire a Freelancer, Advisor or a Firm?

This is not a simple question to answer and depends on a lot of factors. First of all, it depends on your needs and the type of work to be done. Your available budget may play a role but should not be decisive because freelancers have a reputation to be relatively cheap while firms tend to be more expensive, but the same can apply vice versa. As for the quality of work, this fully depends on the freelancers and consultants/firms you hire. A freelancer may provide better quality work in half the time than that a firm could do. But, again the same could be vice versa. Furthermore, each of these service providers come with their own pro's and con's.

An accounting freelancer performs its work independently, selling work or services by the hour, day or job. Both parties involved have no intention to establish a long-term structural working relationship with each other. Often freelancers worked as a consultant for firms in their field of expertise, and at some point, in their career, they decided to do the same as they did but then via the freelancing route.

An accounting consultant or an advisor is a person who is paid to provide professional or expert advice in a particular field or specialty, who is employed by a firm whose business is to provide these services via its consultants.

Professional service firms, like accounting firms, exist in many different industries. They include tax advisors, lawyers, marketing professionals, management consultants, and web developers among others. They can be any firm that offers customized, knowledge-based services to clients. When clients hire advisory firms, they generally do so because of that company's credibility and reputation.

It is common knowledge that a business is only as good as its people. So with that in mind, a good starting point is to try to find the best person for the job first, and this can be a freelancer, a particular employed consultant, or a firm that has specialized in the field you are looking for.

Finally, the good news is that you can search for all these types of accounting experts on our platform (freelancers, consultants, and firms) and compare them on the criteria that are relevant for you. Find out how it works or what other knowledge assets our platform has to offer like Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Sources, and Latest Sector News to stay up to date with the latest news and developments.

Independents in the Accounting, Audit, or Advisory Industry

There is no strict definition of what an Independent is in the professional services industry, including the accounting industry. In general, Independents are independent firms that are owner operated, they tend to work in their own country only and the bigger the standalone business is, the more different types of services provided. Boutique firm or agency is also a commonly used name for these types of entrepreneurial businesses. They tend to provide highly specialized niche services, but they may very well also directly compete with the major international firms in their industry. Strictly speaking, freelancers also qualify as Independents.

It happens very often that experienced senior professionals break away from the major players that hired them to set up their own independent firm and start a more entrepreneurial journey. Besides autonomy and more control, the ability to better define personal purpose is a typical driver to work for Independents or to start one yourself.

Due to their size, market power, and marketing budgets, larger international firms are usually easily found in the market. Small independent types of businesses do not have this luxury, and as such, they need to be more creative to find new work on a continuous basis. Using platforms like Consultants 500 is a perfect way to create extra opportunities because our primary focus and purpose are to help clients find independents in the professional services industry, including independents in the Accounting, Audit, or Advisory Industry.

Accounting, Audit & Advisory Industry

Professional Service Firms are organizations that exist primarily of professionals who provide advice to business. They include all sorts of businesses, like tax advisory firms, accounting firms, law firms, management consulting firms, web development firms, and much more, most of which are listed on our platform.

Compared to most organizations, professional service firms, including Accounting, Audit & Advisory firms, lack hierarchy, are decentralized and have diffuse authority structures. They are knowledge-intensive, and their primary currency is intellectual capital and expertise.

A services-dominated economy is characteristic of developed countries, while in less developed countries primary activities such as manufacturing, mining, and agriculture provide for most employment. According to Britannica, the services industry account for more than three-fifths of the global GDP and employs more than one-third of the global labor force. Therefore, Professional Service Firms now rival their Fortune 500 counterparts in nearly all measures of size and some of these firms, in all sectors, including the Accounting, Audit & Advisory industry, have become truly global players.

According to a November 2016 research from The Business Research Company, the global professional services market in 2015 amounted to USD 3,750 billion. The Americas are the largest market and account for USD 1,500 billion or 40% of the global professional services market. Europe is the 2nd largest market accounting for about 1,300 billion or 35% of the world market. Asia is the 3rd largest market, accounting for USD 750 billion or 20% of the global market. The Middle East & Africa account for 4% while Oceania accounts for 3.5% of the global professional services market. The Accounting, Audit & Advisory Industry is an important and profitable sector that is part of the global Professional Services Industry.

Accounting, Audit & Advisory specialists and advisors typically work in the following sectors:

• Accounting Firms - A significant portion of Accounting, Audit, or Advisory professionals work for large or smaller accounting firms. The four largest accounting firms, also known as the "Big Four" and some other large international partnerships that provide Accounting Services have many offices across the world. In addition to the Big Four and the larger international firms, there are millions of other accounting, auditing, or advisory firms ranging from small firms to bigger local firms with multiple offices in one country. The difference between the Big Four and the smaller local firms is mainly size in revenues and number of professionals employed. The primary service products of accounting companies are General Accounting, Auditing, Assurance Services, Tax Services, Corporate Finance Services, Risk Management Services, Transaction Services, Business Process Outsourcing, Management Accounting, and Management Consulting.
• 100% Accounting, Audit, or Advisory Firms - Some firms have fully specialized in providing only one of the typical primary services to their clients. A large portion of these type of firms provides a broad range of services part of that primary services category, like all sorts of financial reporting services, while others have fully specialized in one service category, like forensic accounting.
• Freelance Experts in Accounting or Advisory - Some professionals perform their jobs as a freelance accounting or advisory specialist. These freelancers are typically hired as an in-house accounting or advisory specialist by companies for a period to provide all sorts of specialist services. These freelance accounting or advisory specialists may partly take over the work that is usually done by the professionals of the accounting firms. However, it is also widespread that these freelance accounting or advisory experts operate as the link between the business that hired them and the accounting firm enabling the accounting advisory firm to focus more on highly specialized accounting or advisory services at a more senior level.
• Corporate Accounting, Auditing & Advisory - Accounting, Auditing or Advisory experts also work for private or public companies performing most or part of the work that was traditionally done by external advisors. Many companies have their own accounting departments that prepare financial and management reports and work with management on issues like acquisitions, large transactions, and many other operational issues. Most smaller to medium-sized companies have at least one or more financial specialists in-house. Generally, the larger the company, the bigger it's financial supporting teams.

As a result of technology developments globalization, business developments, continuous changes in government regulations and many other factors, the accounting industry is in a constant state of flux. Accounting firms now compete with non-accounting service providers and some accounting services are offshored to foreign countries.

The way the professional services industry works, including the Accounting, Audit & Advisory Industry, has changed dramatically during the past few decades. Technology developments enabled working with massive amounts of data, work remotely, and deal with clients and colleagues at any place at any time. These technology changes are expected to continue at a fast pace in the future, and some experts predict that the traditional professional services industry will likely be radically different in ten years. We have further outlined the main causes and the main sectors impacted by ongoing disruption in our analysis: The Future of the Professional Services Industry.

Looking for Local Accounting, Audit, or Advisory Services?

The global professional services industry is good for more than USD 3,750 billion revenues on an annual basis. The accounting services industry is a significant sector of the global professional services industry.

As such, it is not hard to imagine that there are literally millions of accounting firms and professionals who provide accounting and financial services to individuals, small businesses, or the worlds leading corporations, each of them having their own specialization.

These accounting and financial experts can either work as a freelancer, or they can be seasoned professionals who work for small or large professional service firms that provide accounting services.

As said earlier, via our platform you can search for local accounting services in any location, fine-tune on criteria like specialization, hourly rate, and what type of clients they typically serve. And if you are looking for a particular accounting expertise you can just fine-tune your search criteria.

Discover the Latest News, Developments, Resources, and Community Knowledge in Accounting

Knowledge is a fundamental cornerstone of our society. Without the ability of knowledge being gathered, shared and passed on to the next generation our world would look entirely different today, and we would be re-inventing the wheel again and again. Throughout human history, the capacity to gather and analyze information has existed and has been a key driver for further evolvement.

As a result of rapid technological developments in the last decades, and much more to come, knowledge and information have been put in another perspective. There has been a vast increase in data creation, and the way knowledge is obtained and shared in society has totally changed.

Still, the primary currency of an accounting expert and all other professionals in the Professional Services Industry is knowledge. Staying up to date with the latest accounting developments is also key for businesses in need of an accounting specialist. As we all know, the internet is an invaluable resource for knowledge these days. The only problem is that there are tons of sources for learning and staying up to date with the latest developments.

Via these knowledge sources on our platform you can learn more and stay up to date with the most recent accounting developments:

• Knowledge Sharing - Via our Accounting Community Forum all visitors can raise and answer questions about any accounting subject you can think of. Here you can sort and follow accounting posts to stay informed with the latest updates. Via up-voting and down-voting, the most relevant answers are highlighted. All our Business Services categories have their own Community Forum.
• Knowledge Resources - As said earlier, the internet is loaded with valuable information, the only problem is how to find it. Via Accounting Knowledge Resources, the best accounting sources on the web have been organized in a structured way. Think of best blogs, the biggest firms, industry overviews, salary surveys, infographics, handy tools and much more, all related to accounting. Via the ability to make comments and online surveys on each subject, our users and visitors can share their best sources. Because we update all Knowledge Resources categories on a regular basis with the best sources shared by our users and visitors, the knowledge-power continually improves and keeps up to date with the latest developments.
• Latest News & Developments - Via our Accounting Briefing Room you can stay up to date with the latest and most shared content of the best accounting resources on the internet. This Briefing Room follows the top accounting resources on the web, which includes the best sources as suggested by our users and visitors. Only the most shared content is shown, and you can filter all the content for the last 24 hours, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, etc. so you can easily find and stay up to date with the latest accounting developments. All our Business Services categories have their own Briefing Room so you can stay up to date on any subject you want without seeing publications that are not relevant to you.

On our Blog, you can read about a wide area of subjects that are relevant for the Business Services covered by our platform, like Checklists, Best of Lists and many more topics. For instance, in our article The Future of the Professional Services Industry you can read more about the current age of disruption, the role of technology, the main sectors impacted and the main causes and disruptors. Finally, here you can see the top 15 accounting books recommended most times by business owners, students or accounting pro's.

Other Relevant Resources

• Tax Global: Tax Services | Freelance Tax Consultant | Tax Consultant | Tax Firm
• Tax Country: US Tax Services
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• Accounting Global: Accounting Services | Freelance Accountant | Accounting Expert | Accounting Firms