To whom to entrust your business? Part 1 - Accounting

    The Moscow business services market is extremely rich and rich. We have to carefully study its flora and fauna, because our service company  is not the only way to get good service. Recently, we conducted a small study, google popular accounting and legal support options, studied the proposals of secretaries and  business assistants . Marketers usually keep the results of the research a secret, but we decided to talk about them. I would like to believe that this will save entrepreneurs a couple of hours of time searching for a service option suitable for their company. Let's start with bookkeeping.



    We have explored accounting service options that suit small to medium sized businesses. It turned out only 7 categories, each of which we tried to give an objective description, determine the price plug and highlight the most noticeable (read, advertised) proposals.

    Document Filing


    These tools are quite simple and perform exactly one task: they help you quickly and almost free to prepare standard accounting and legal documents, such as invoices, acts or contracts. One of such stuffing can be shamelessly handed over to your employees: customer service managers, accountants, and in case of urgent need, use it yourself, spending a little time to figure out the details and invoicing.

    The most well-known in the professional environment program Business Pack - A time-tested free utility that allows you to work with a bunch of different forms, starting from the familiar to all the primary ones, ending with checks, prices and payment requirements. You will have to get used to the interface, but this is rather a common problem with freeware software. All data is exported to 1 Sku for further processing by an accountant. The only, but serious enough for 2014 minus is that the program is installed locally and works only under Windows.

    Cloud services that are fashionable in our time are deprived of this minus and give access to created documents from any device and from anywhere in the world. The most interesting are formz.ru and  freshdoc.ru: they allow you to work with a huge number of forms and templates, and the second, in addition, has a fun folder interface with nice animations.

    In the rearguard of cloud work with documents, completely single-tasking account stacks, such as naoplatu.ru and  invoicer.ru, are woven . However, they perform their functions perfectly, allowing you to prepare an invoice for payment in a couple of clicks and send it to your client. There are probably a whole bunch of similar services, but we have chosen the most noticeable ones.



    Who will suit
    Anyone who needs to quickly bill, create a contract or any other simple document. They will help those whom the boss is tired of working with documents, and lazily poking around in Excel.

    How much are
    Free or for little money: from 100 to 1,000 rubles per month.

    References
    Business Pak , formz.ru , freshdoc.ru , naoplatu.ru , invoicer.ru

    Accounting software


    The name of the main domestic vendor of accounting programs is familiar even to those who are far from accounting, business and computers in general. The great and terrible 1C reigns almost undividedly in this market, being in high demand among professional accountants. What a sin to conceal, we ourselves bookkeeping our customers using solutions from the company of Boris Georgievich Nuraliev. 1C is more than a software company, it is a whole phenomenon that has given rise to a separate profession of 1C programmers . Custom builds of this program exist a little less than the installed legal copies.

    Alas, prolonged communication of an ordinary person with 1C threatens to result in sleep disturbances and emotional breakdowns. In addition, the company's sales policy sometimes raises questions, and the cost of implementation and maintenance varies from a couple of thousand to incredible sky-high sums. 1C is installed locally or on a terminal, but there are companies that provide access to this solution through a browser.

    1C has a bunch of followers and analogues: Sail , Best , Contour-Accounting Asset , but they are attracted only at the cost. Unique enterprise solutions like those offered by SAP will find you when you earn your first Instagram.



    Who will suit
    Professional accountants and particularly stubborn business owners who are ready to independently explore the rocky bottom of accounting.

    How much is
    From 3,000 (per version for SP on special modes) to infinity, plus the cost of maintenance and installation of updates. The full cost will help calculate the regional distributor. Or your favorite torrent tracker :)

    References
    1C , 1C Fresh , Sail , Best , Contour-accounting Asset , First online accounting

    Online Accounting


    We are familiar with this phenomenon, which is gaining popularity firsthand. Many of Knopka’s employees in the past worked on Elba  - online bookkeeping from SKB Kontur. Today there are a great many of such services: My Business , Sky , AssistantPro , My Finance , ImBoss and others like them. Their functionality is almost identical: they help to independently keep records, calculate taxes, hand over reports and work with documents. Suitable for small companies on the simplified tax system and UTII and are quite cheap.

    Online accounting - This is a great solution for aspiring entrepreneurs. If the service is done well (like Elba), then after 15 minutes a person who is new to even the very term “accounting” will be able to get used to it. Another nice side effect: after a couple of months of work, the businessman will begin to understand a little about the intricacies of tax accounting and reporting, which will not hurt at all when the business begins to grow, and the owner will have to communicate with a living accountant or accounting company.

    Some services, for example, My Business and ImBoss go a little further and offer the user a partial accounting outsourcing. In this case, they themselves keep records and submit reports on the basis of documents and operations reflected by the user in their personal account. The rest of the online bookkeeping while limited to expert advice and useful educational content in their blogs and social networks.



    Who will suit
    Small companies will be helped to save some money at the start, accounting course graduates will be made to feel like real professionals who do everything accurately and on time.

    How much are
    • from 400 to 5,000 rubles per month, depending on the set of options (for example, online reporting, payroll, work with documents);
    • from 1,000 to 10,000 rubles in excess of this amount for accounting outsourcing;
    • many services have free tariffs for the smallest, but we recommend supporting the guys with hard currency - they deserve it :)

    References
    Elba , My Business , Sky , AssistantPro , My Finances , ImBoss

    Community Access Points


    What if there is no time or desire to mess with the services, there is no need to wait for help, but you need to hand over the reports right now? This situation is familiar to many, so enterprising colleagues came up with a PKD - a place where you can come with your digits and pieces of paper, bob in the queue a bit, conjure an item with the employee over the report and send it by proxy via the Internet, breathing out easily at the exit. The situation is saved!

    Some advanced PCDs can receive reports by e-mail: this eliminates the need for walking and long queues, but you have to generate reports yourself. In this case, it’s easier to use any of the  web services.described above, but for many it’s still vital to get an analogue carrier on hand, confirming the sending of the report, and in case of problems come to the office of the service provider and have a good scandal.



    Who will suit
    The main contingent of such establishments is lovers of deadlines, accountants to whom the evil boss does not give money for a system for sending electronic reports, and Old Believers who are afraid to entrust such an important matter to our Internet.

    How much are
    From 300 rubles per report (depending on complexity). Add the monetary equivalent of the time spent here and get the final price tag.

    References
    Agneko , Google Moscow does not give other options. The fact is that these guys are much more effective in offline promotion, catching a stream of taxpayers right next to the tax one.

    Freelance Accountant


    This representative of the world of accounting services is found on hunting portals and  freelance resources . Knows everything that a regular full-time employee, but does not shy away from one-time work. For 10,000–20,000 rubles, he will conduct accounting, calculate taxes and submit reports all year round. You just have to send him pieces of paper and periodically monitor the work so that the regulatory authorities do not have a desire to monitor the activities of your enterprise.

    The risks of this option are obvious - relations with a freelancer are built on parole, salaries are sometimes paid in black cash, and professional qualities are assessed by the number of unfamiliar abbreviations in the resume. If you are lucky, you will come across a good accountant who simply cannot work full time for reasons related, for example, to a sudden and rapid reproduction. Otherwise, you can come across an ordinary lover of easy money. Be careful, ask contacts of trusted people from friends or on thematic forums.



    Who will suit
    Everyone who prefers to communicate with a specific living person, albeit a stranger, loves a personal approach, but is not yet ready to hire an accountant in the staff.

    How much is
    • 1,000–5,000 rubles for the preparation and sending of one report;
    • 10,000-30,000 rubles per month for accounting support;
    • when your business grows, the amount may increase. We could not find the upper bar.

    References
    free-lance .ru , HeadHunter , superjob.ru

    Accounting company


    Outsourcing non-key business functions is the trend of the twenty-first century. You will definitely not have problems finding a company: the market is full of such offers a little more than completely. Outsourcers will be happy to take your accounting, preparation and sending of reports, keep documentation, help with tax optimization and advise you by telephone and email.

    Unlike a freelancer, the accounting company will give more confidence, backed by a normal competent contract, but in most cases it will not be able to provide that individual approach. A lot of accountants work in such institutions, they exchange experience and help each other, so you will not find yourself in a situation where the accounts are already tomorrow, and the bukh went to justify his abbreviated name, got sick with inflammation of procrastination, or even disappeared in an unknown direction with the originals of accounting documents.



    Who will suit
    Outsourcing accounting is an ideal solution for the price / quality ratio, if you are not Yandex or Mail.ru yet. Feel free to recommend, but we advise you to responsibly approach the choice and, if possible, seek advice from acquaintances of acquaintances.

    How much is
    • 2,000–7,000 rubles per month for small SPs in special modes
    • 10,000–20,000 for normal-turnover businesses
    • 30,000–70,000 will be given away by successful businesses (or those who don't count money very well)

    In addition to the base rate, there are decreasing and increasing ratios. You can reduce the cost of servicing if you take part of the operations on yourself or entrust your own employees (for example, warehouse accounting or part of accounting documents). If the organization conducts foreign economic activity or, for example, sells excisable goods, the cost of services will be increased.

    References
    your-bugalter .ru , stnalog.ru , financeconsulting5.ru , tby.ru  - thousands of them .

    State Accountant


    A caricature aunt with colored letters, busily correcting glasses with a huge diopter to better see the layout of cards in solitaire - this is a myth. These also occur, but if you properly hunt through the portals, you will find a sweet and sincere person who will spend all his time only on your business. We are skilled in hiring class accountants and will easily give a couple of tips if you ask in the comments.

    The advantages of the accountant in the state are obvious: he is always at hand, you can talk to him, hold his hand or hit the keyboard painfully for an untimely report. He (and more often - she) always prompts and advises a winning option, because his success in your business directly affects his peace of mind, stability and salary. A happy accountant will reciprocate. This level of service for other categories, unfortunately, is unattainable :)



    Who will suit
    The chief accountant is vital for successful businesses with vibrant activities, a large number of operations and sophisticated accounting cuisine, which requires a deep immersion of a specialist in  business processes . Small businesses need an accountant only if kinesthetics and warm, friendly gatherings over a cup of tea are important.

    How much is
    Looking at the salaries of Moscow accountants, we envy a little and shyly count the bills in our wallets. A competent chief accountant will take from 70,000 to 150,000 rubles per month (or even more) for full time, require a comfortable workplace, good 1C assembly, electronic document management system, love and recognition. And sometimes it can ask a couple of assistants who will work with pieces of paper and bring hot tea.

    References
    headhunter.ru , superjob.ru

    What place does the button take?


    A button is an accounting company. Looking at our mobile application or web interface , you might think that we are doing a web service , but this is not so. Button accountants are served by live accountants, and applications are needed only to make it convenient for entrepreneurs to communicate with them. In the same application, you can ask a lawyer a question, entrust something to a business assistant , and, most importantly, this application is also an Internet bank .

    We like to joke that in the Button “ everything is together, fashionable and  western .” Otherwise, we look like a regular accounting company :)



    How much is
    12,000 rubles per month - this cost includes processing 20 lines of a bank statement (+150 rubles for each additional line), calculation of salary and taxes for 1 employee (+400 rubles for each additional). We do not limit the rest of the operations in any way and do not make extra charges for foreign trade activities and excisable goods. This approach to pricing seemed to us the most transparent: knowing the approximate number of transactions on the current account, the number of officially employed employees and the multiplication table, you can easily estimate the cost of the service.

    Link
    knopka.com



    That's all the options that seemed relevant to the query “accounting services”. If we  missed something , share your options in the comments - we will definitely add them to this post and say thank you very much :)

    UPD: read the continuation in the article “ To whom to entrust your business? Part 2 - legal support

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