Become a Freelance Accountant | What you need to know in 2022!

Accountant is an important participant in any business. He performs major missions for the company and is a privileged advisor to business leaders. More than half of accountants decide to be self-employed during their career. Want to become a freelance accountant? In this article, we give you all the important information to get you started.

What are the Duties of an Independent Accountant?

First of all, know that if you want to become an independent accountant, you need to be a Chartered Accountant to reach the position. As a freelance accountant, you will have 3 main missions:

• Practical Accounting: These are pure accounting missions such as recording accounting functions, processing payroll and invoicing, ledger keeping, preparing accounting balance sheets as well as tax and social declarations.
• Inspection of accounts: You will be asked to conduct an audit mission or accounting review on client accounts. You will be asked to issue an opinion on compliance with the accounts.
• Tip: The Chartered Accountant is a privileged negotiator of business leaders. Your account management will prompt you to advise on optimizing cash flow, tax implications of an operation or settlement/acquisition.

Depending on your experience, you may have a generalist role or you may specialize in a single field. You should also know that the profession of freelance accountant will require you to travel a lot to meet your clients. It is a job that requires a very good understanding of rigor, organization, methodology, stress management and interpersonal skills.

Which degree to become an independent accountant?

As mentioned earlier, to become an accountant, you need to possess Diploma of Chartered Accountant (DEC) which corresponds to BAC +8. To achieve this, you need to follow a training course consisting of 3 main steps.

After your graduation, you can take a number of courses such as BTS Accounting-Management or a DUT in Business and Administration Management. At the end of this training, you will be able to attend preparatory classes for the DCG (Diploma of Management Accounting) or pass the diploma at the end of your license years. This diploma leads to Bac+3.

In the Master, by following the training of the Master in Accounting, Control and Audit, you will be able to obtain the DSCG (Higher Diploma in Management Accounting).

Finally, after obtaining it, you will have to follow a course consisting of 3 years of internship as well as training and a written test to obtain the DEC.

What are the legal steps to become an independent accountant?

declare your activity

As a self-employed individual, you are dependent on URSSAF. That’s why you should declare your activity online or in an agency. You will have to fill up a form and attach some supporting documents such as an identity document. Then INSEE will issue you a SIRET.

Choose legal status

If you wish to operate as a Chartered Accountant on your own account and without a partner, there are two main legal situations available to you. Each summarizes its advantages and disadvantages below:

So you have a choice between multiple legal positions and their versions with partners (especially SAS or SARL). Before choosing, we recommend you consult with fellow accountants to better understand which legal position is best suited for your project.

What are the rules to become an Independent Chartered Accountant?

Chartered Accountancy is a highly regulated profession. An accountant cannot practice under self-employed status subject to a fine of €15,000 and one year in prison.

It is mandatory to be a Chartered Accountant to practice the profession. Consequently, to be able to practice, it is necessary that you have a Diploma of Chartered Accountant (DEC) and that you are registered with the Order of Chartered Accountants. It is also imperative that you respect professional confidentiality.

With regard to your civil status, you must be of French nationality or a citizen of the European Union and have a clean criminal record.

What are the formalities to become an independent accountant?

choose the right equipment

To start your practice, you’ll need to choose the right equipment, including:

• accounting production software : This software is the pillar software of your entire company because it is what is at the heart of your mission. It is important that you choose the software best suited to your needs and your profile to take full advantage of the time and energy savings provided by this software.
• a collaborative forum With the pandemic even more so, collaboration platforms have become essential tools to be able to communicate with your customers. They will allow you to create internal social networks, collect invoices, and create work groups to streamline your work.
• a document management tool : As a Chartered Accountant, you have to manage a substantial flow of documents. A document management tool that will profitably manage the flow of documents within your company will be a valuable asset.
• OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software: Thanks to optical character recognition, these software allow digital transcription of handwritten or scanned data. These software can save you a lot of time.

To promote your practice, it is important that you have a website as well as a business card.

open a business bank account

It is essential that you be able to open a business bank account. We recommend you to inquire from traditional banks as well as online banks.

Subscribe to Good Insurance

To be able to practice as a self-employed individual, it is imperative that you take professional civil liability insurance, which will cover you against damages caused to your third parties like your customers. Liability is valid only for this type of insurance. However, we recommend that you also get professional multi-exposure insurance to protect your premises and professional equipment in the event of a claim. You can get information from traditional insurers, but also from online professional insurance who may provide competitive offers.

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