Most newly established companies rely on the support of a trustee at an early stage of their activities. This allows young companies to focus on their core business, rather than having to struggle to acquire the necessary expertise internally.
This outside support entails additional costs that are not always easy to bear as a young company. For this reason, start-ups pay particular attention to the price when choosing a trustee.
The problem: many do not consider all of the relevant criteria when calculating the effective costs. This leads not only to the wrong decisions, but expensive ones in the medium to long term.
After all, what if you pay too much tax for years? What if countless hours are lost coordinating things with the trustee? What if there are inadequate answers to important questions?
Once a trustee has been selected, it is difficult to change – and usually involves considerable additional costs.
Those who heed important criteria right from the start avoid unnecessary changeover costs. When selecting a trustee, young companies should pay attention to the following:
1. The price offered says little about the final costs
Most trustees bill their services on an hourly basis. Some also offer packages with clearly defined services. Anything over and above this is then charged according to time and effort – in other words, via an hourly rate. Offers with low hourly rates can be tempting, but it is not enough to merely compare hourly rates.
As with other services, in fact, what’s the point of a haircut for 10 francs if the hairdresser gives all customers the same haircut?
Often, the trustee's expertise in trust and tax matters, their experience and focus on serving their client's needs are an indication of higher hourly rates.
A trustee with a low hourly rate may need much longer for a complex enquiry than a recognised certified fiduciary expert who has a higher hourly rate.
The quality of the response delivered may also affect the costs. Anyone who has to ask their trustee five times and only receives a satisfactory answer to specific questions regarding the fiduciary matter is wasting time that would have been better invested in other things.
In addition to the expertise of the trustees, the nature and form of cooperation also has a direct effect on the costs. With the right software and tools, accounting processes can be made more efficient. Digital workspaces such as MS Teams or Abacus Deepbox with artificial intelligence make it easier to communicate and share data. Accounting tools such as Bexio or Abacus, which can serve both the trustee and the company, significantly reduce the time and effort required for bookkeeping.
In this way, both the trustee's working time and the time and effort required for coordination are reduced for young companies and start-ups.
Be wary of trustees who rely on stand-alone solutions or incompatible tools. A potential change becomes unnecessarily expensive as a result of time-consuming data transfers.
Unlike the price, the services offered by trustees are often very similar. The usual services include accounting work, annual financial statements, VAT invoices, tax compliance as well as payroll accounting and personnel administration.
Just as important as the question of what services a start-up needs today is what services will be needed in the future. This is because the processes and structures in young companies become more complex as they grow. The initial brainstorming phase without any commitment and the management of a
growing company with several employees and a broad customer base are two very different starting points.
Especially during growth phases, companies must be able to rely on their trustees to provide support for growth and change processes. If, on top of this, trustees have an in-depth understanding of the industry environment, this offers significant added value for young companies.
If these conditions are not met, start-ups are forced to devote resources to accounting tasks at a critical phase for their company or even to change trustees.
Young companies do not have to accept this balancing act. They should therefore, from the outset, rely on trustees who offer a broad portfolio of services that can support start-ups through all phases of entrepreneurship.
There is a simple online test that allows start-ups and young companies to evaluate how well placed they are for growth plans.
Sounds logical at first – what start-up or young company does not want to work with trustees whose work stands for expertise and quality? However, these two criteria usually also mean higher costs. As is well known, quality has its price.
Companies entrust their trustee not only with many decisions, but also with the sensitive data of their company. Incorrect or incompetent advice can lead to costs, for example in the form of higher tax levies, even before a change is made.
Arranging a non-binding appointment with the potential trustee is therefore recommended. This enables companies to get a feeling for whether the chemistry is right and whether there is mutual trust.
Conclusion: thinking about tomorrow today
In their efforts to grow, start-ups are also well advised to rely on the support of trustees. Ultimately, they need the certainty that their trustee can accompany and support them through all phases.
KENDRIS offers both the k-start-up offering with various service packages as well as tailor-made solutions for companies – whether newly founded, currently in the process of expanding, or already established in the market.
Are you one of the companies already thinking about tomorrow today? Then we look forward to hearing from you.
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