1. An active company that already has an accounting office, or whose financial management is in its own hands
- Tell us why you are changing accounting agencies;
- For example, if the entire financial management is organised in-house, should it be outsourced?
- If you’ve been at cross-purposes with your current partner, tell us what’s wrong and what the new partner could do better.
- Description of the company structure if there are several companies. If the company is part of a group and the accounting firm is required to report to the parent company, please also describe this to the best of your ability.
- Service requests. The main things you need to support your business.
- The company’s sector of activity and preferably a brief description of what the company does. The official business classification in the Business Register may not always reflect reality.
- If there are critical deadlines in the management of the company, list the critical deadlines or preferably include a one-month outage schedule.
- If the company is engaged in foreign trade, please mention this as well and indicate where the trade takes place (outside the EU/EU)
- Turnover; latest financial year ended and forecast for the current financial year
- Number of outgoing sales invoices per month
- Number of incoming purchase invoices per month
- Number of debit/credit cards and the number of transactions on them
- Number of travel invoices
- Which financial management system is in use?
- Are there other systems in place that are linked or would you like to link to financial management? For example, is sales invoicing done in a separate ERP system?
- Number of employees; monthly and hourly employees separately and whether wages are paid more than once a month, i.e. payday(s)
- Which collective agreement does the company apply?
- How is the monitoring of employees’ working time organised?
- Does the company have investment activities? Please describe the type of investment activity; listed shares, mutual funds, debt investments, cryptocurrencies, investments in unlisted companies, etc. How active is the investment activity?
If any of the above is handled internally, please mention it.
Do not copy the current partner’s pricing model into the RFP unless it is as described below. This is because the model may be such that no one else in the industry is using it, in which case you may not get a reasonable offer or even an offer at all. With an hourly pricing model, you will not get comparable bids. You can compare hourly rates, but the pace of work, the characteristics of the software, the responsibilities of the work and the rhythm at which the work is done will affect the total charge. For example, whether employees’ travel expenses are paid weekly or once a month, and whether sales and purchase invoices are booked once a month, weekly or daily, will affect the volume of work.
Transparency pays off
Request a quote for a fixed monthly price, based on the criteria and transaction volumes you provide and including at least the items listed below. In this way, you can, at best, even obtain comparable offers. Do not under- or overestimate transaction volumes, because if you understate the volumes, the accounting firm will find out within the first month. Forget also the idea of a fixed price for, say, the next two years, as the accountancy firm’s “fixed price” is only based on the level of the criteria in the invitation to tender.
The fixed monthly price should include at least these:
- Ongoing Accounting and VAT Reporting
- Recording daily business transactions and preparing VAT reports
- Bank Statement Processing
- Reconciling and processing bank statements
- Monthly Accounting, Accruals and Depreciation
- Monthly bookkeeping including accruals and depreciation entries
- Statutory Reporting
- Submitting official reports to authorities
- Purchase Invoice Circulation and Coding
- Circulation and accounting of purchase invoices
- Note: It is assumed that the client approves and pays purchase invoices. You cannot outsource invoice approval to the accounting firm. However, automation rules (e.g. in Netvisor) can be used for rule-based approvals. Unfortunately, Procountor does not currently support this functionality.
- Accounts Receivable Reconciliation
- Reconciling the sales ledger with bookkeeping
- Note: It is assumed that the client creates and sends sales invoices and monitors accounts receivable. Please mention separately if you would like the accounting firm to monitor receivables on your behalf. This requires a written credit policy, which will guide the accounting firm in monitoring receivables.
- Processing of Bank and Credit Card Receipts
- Accounting (coding) of bank and credit card receipts
- Payroll Services (Priced Per Payslip), Including:
- Maintaining the employee register (e.g. adding new employees)
- Payroll calculation
- Managing holiday pay accruals
- Submitting income register reports and employer declarations
- Financial Statements and Tax Returns
- Prepared either as part of the monthly fee or priced separately at a pre-agreed fixed rate
- Important: Never leave the pricing of financial statements and tax returns undefined — otherwise you may be in for an unpleasant surprise invoice!
If you need a more sophisticated report than the usual P&L and balance sheet reporting, or help in preparing a budget or forecast, for example, or even a financial manager, please also open this need in the call for tenders.
2. Startup company
Describes the company’s activities and operating model. What is the financial basis? For example, has the company received seed round funding and how much was raised? How much money is returned each month (cash burn) and how long will the money last (runway)? Are you planning to apply for funding from the ELY Centre or Business Finland?
If there is no turnover yet and you are in product development mode, please also mention this and how long this phase is expected to last. If there is already turnover, through which channel will sales be made? Will sales invoices be sent to customers and/or is there a facility such as Stripe etc. to accept credit card payments? What is the billing interval for sales?
How many people does the company employ? What are the plans to hire more staff? Will the founders be paid a salary and how many people will be employed in addition to the founders? The Valjaan team has experience of really dramatic growth stories, hiring +100 people in a few months.
If investors are already involved, please explain the reporting requirements. Sometimes the reporting schedule is very tight, which affects the resources of the accounting office. Otherwise, you can make use of the Functioning Company Checklist above for quote for accounting services.
3. New business
A newly established company often does not yet have accurate information on volumes. In this case, estimates are the starting point. For example, an accountancy firm may give you a price for the first 3 to 6 months based on your estimate, and then the price is reviewed going forward. So include at least this in your request for a quote:
- Description of the activity and whether there is already billing and staff in place from the start
- Estimated turnover for the first financial year
- Number of outgoing sales invoices per month
- Number of incoming purchase invoices per month
- Number of debit/credit cards and the number of transactions on them
- Number of travel invoices
- Number of employees, monthly and hourly employees separately and whether wages are paid more than once a month?
- If you have already implemented some systems, for example for invoicing or time tracking, please mention this too.
In summary, you can get a quick and easy response to your request for a quote by providing as much information as possible about your company’s activities and history. Better too much than too little. We hope to hear from you and work with you to develop your business soon.
Written by Pasi Tasanen, Valjas Services Oy CEO.
