Do I need an accountant for my small business is probably the question I get asked more than any other. The honest answer is: it depends on your situation, but for most sole traders and small business owners I speak to, the right accountant saves more than they cost.

What does a small business accountant actually do?

The short version is that an accountant makes sure your numbers are right, your tax bills are as low as legally possible, and every deadline gets hit. Beyond that, a good one spots things you’d never catch yourself, because you’re too busy running your business to read HMRC guidance for fun.

In practice, that means preparing your annual accounts, filing your Self Assessment or Corporation Tax return, handling VAT returns if you’re VAT-registered, running payroll, and keeping your bookkeeping tidy throughout the year. For a lot of the people I work with in and around Stoke-on-Trent, it also means being someone they can ring when an HMRC letter drops through the door and they don’t know what it means.

When does it actually make sense to hire an accountant?

If you’re self-employed and earning money, you almost certainly need to file a Self Assessment tax return. A lot of people try to do this themselves, and plenty manage it fine. But if your income is coming from multiple sources, you’ve got expenses to claim, or you’re simply not confident the numbers are right, the cost of getting it wrong almost always outweighs the cost of getting help.

The clearest signs you need an accountant are: you’ve received a letter from HMRC you don’t understand, your records are behind and you’re not sure what you owe, you’ve recently gone from employed to self-employed, or you’re thinking about setting up a limited company. Any one of those is a reasonable moment to pick up the phone. You can find out more about how I work with businesses across the Stoke-on-Trent area on my accounting in Stoke-on-Trent page.

Making Tax Digital is coming, and it changes the picture

This is something a lot of small business owners in Stoke-on-Trent haven’t heard about yet, but it matters. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax requires sole traders and landlords to move away from a single annual tax return and instead keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC. It’s not optional once you hit the threshold.

According to GOV.UK guidance on Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, if your qualifying income is over £50,000, the rules apply from 6 April 2026. The threshold then drops to £30,000 from April 2027, and £20,000 from April 2028. If you’re not already using cloud accounting software and you’re anywhere near those figures, now is the time to get set up properly.

What should you actually look for in an accountant?

Qualifications matter, but they’re not the whole story. You want someone who answers your questions in plain English, responds promptly, and is still the same person you’re dealing with a year later. The GOV.UK guidance on finding an accountant recommends checking for a recognised professional qualification, and that’s a fair starting point. AAT, ACCA, ICAEW are all legitimate bodies with conduct standards that protect you as a client.

Fixed fees matter too. If an accountant can’t tell you what something costs upfront, that’s a sign to ask more questions. The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Economic Bulletin for early 2026 points to continued pressure on local business margins, which means predictable overheads are more valuable now than ever. An accountant should be a cost you understand and a relationship you trust, not a source of extra stress.