CHOOSING an accountant is like choosing a dentist. You want one who will make things as painless as possible, but you won’t find out if you have made the wrong choice until it is too late.

If you run a small business, making the right choice is particularly important because at the outset your accountant is likely to be your only professional adviser.

He or she will not only assist with preparing your accounts, but can also help you to comply with legislation, raise finance, manage growth and even give a hand with setting prices and profit margins.

The good news is that there are a few key steps you can take to maximise your chances of finding an accountant who meets your needs.

First, make sure that he or she is a member of one of the three main professional bodies — The Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Anyone can call himself an accountant or bookkeeper even if he has no professional qualifications. But if any laws are broken, it will be you, not your accountant, who pays the penalty.

Choose someone who already deals with companies of a similar size to yours so they will have experience of the problems you are likely to face and will be accustomed to claiming any tax breaks that may be available.

Then meet several accountants in person until you find one you trust and can work with.

Les Clifford, head of entrepreneurial growth markets at the accountants Ernst & Young, said: “Decide what your business requires from an accountant — do you need tax advice, do you need auditing, do you need support for transactions such as buying a company?

“One of the best ways of choosing an accountant is to speak to similar businesses and find out who they use. Then find out their credentials — who have they worked with before and if you can take up references from those people.

“Accountants can tell you what they can do, but what’s important is how good they are at doing it,” he said.

“There are legal requirements for filings and if these are not met, you will be fined. So you want somebody who can deliver.”

It is also important to find out at the start exactly who you will be dealing with. Clifford said: “Find out who is going to be your point of contact at the accountancy firm and decide whether you get on with this person, because it is a close relationship. In a small business, the accountant can end up acting almost like a finance director, so you should take up references, speak to previous employers and find out what he or she has done before.”