Appointing an accountant, auditor and tax adviser
How a consultancy appoints separate firms as its accountant, auditor and tax practitioner in Achekam, and what access each one gets in its books.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Consulting businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A growing consultancy rarely has just one outside firm. A bookkeeping or accounting firm keeps the ledger and prepares the monthly figures. A different firm audits or reviews the annual financial statements. A tax practitioner, sometimes a third firm, handles the tax returns. Each needs to see the books; not all of them should be able to change them.
Getting that right matters for two reasons: the auditor's independence, and plain control over who can post what. This article explains how Achekam lets a business appoint firms in different roles, what access each role should have, and how to end one appointment without disturbing the others.
The roles a firm can be appointed in
In Achekam, a business appoints a firm by the firm's Achekam address or firm code, in a named role:
- accountant;
- auditor;
- tax practitioner;
- payroll provider;
- adviser.
Each appointment carries an access level, and the firm accepts or declines it. Because each appointment has its own role and its own access, a consultancy can appoint one firm as accountant, another as auditor and a third as tax practitioner, and treat each one differently.
An appointed firm works directly in your own ledger. No copy is made, so what the firm posts appears in your own accounting screens straight away. There is one set of books, not one at your end and another at theirs.
Access levels: bookkeeping or review
What a firm's people can do in your books depends on the access level you give them:
- Bookkeeping access covers the accounting, but not your users, settings or payment gateways.
- Review access is read-only.
A sensible starting point for a consultancy:
| Role | Suggested access | Typical work |
|---|---|---|
| Accountant | Bookkeeping | Monthly journals, bank reconciliations, management accounts |
| Auditor or independent reviewer | Review | Reading the ledger, testing balances, year-end work |
| Tax practitioner | Review, unless they post tax journals | Tax computations and returns |
| Payroll provider | As their work requires | Pay runs and statutory returns |
| Adviser | Review | Reading figures for advice |
Neither level gives a firm control of your users, settings or gateways. Those stay with your own administrators.
Why the auditor should only read
An auditor who can post journals in the books it audits is in an awkward position: it could end up auditing its own work. That is a classic independence threat. The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants publishes the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, including the International Independence Standards, its five fundamental principles and the conceptual framework auditors use to address threats such as self-review.
Giving the auditor review access keeps the line clear. If the auditor proposes adjustments, your accountant posts them and the auditor sees the result.
A worked example in words
A consultancy appoints its bookkeeping firm as accountant with bookkeeping access, and a separate audit firm as auditor with review access. Each month the accountant posts journals, reconciles the bank and prepares the management accounts, and the partners see the results in their own screens as soon as they are posted. At year end the auditor opens the same ledger, reads the balances and the postings behind them, and sends a list of proposed adjustments. The accountant posts those it agrees with, the auditor checks the result, and nobody ever exports the ledger into a second system and back. The tax practitioner, with review access, then reads the final figures to prepare the return.
Your sign-in rules apply to their people
When a member of an appointed firm opens your books, they must meet your own IP allowlist and two-factor rules. If your consultancy requires two-factor sign-in, so does the junior at your accounting firm who opens your ledger. Set those rules before you appoint anyone, so every firm's people meet the same standard from the first day.
Firms that are not on Achekam yet
A business cannot appoint a firm that is not already on Achekam. If your auditor or tax practitioner works in other software, they cannot be appointed until they join.
In the meantime, give them what they need from your books. Management accounts show an income statement for a chosen period beside the period before, and a balance sheet at period end, exportable as PDF or CSV. Send those, with whatever supporting schedules they ask for, and keep a record of what you sent and when.
Ending one appointment without touching the others
Either side can end an appointment. When it ends, that firm loses access, and the books stay with the business. Ending the tax practitioner's appointment does not affect the accountant's or the auditor's; each appointment stands on its own.
There is no managed handover between an old and a new accounting firm. To change firms, end one appointment and invite the new firm. Before you end it, ask the outgoing firm for its working papers and any adjustments it has not yet posted, and give the incoming firm a list of what is open. Changing accountants while your books stay put walks through a changeover step by step.
Setting it up
Make a short list of the firms you work with, the role each plays and the access each should have, and agree it among the owners. Then appoint them one by one. Financial services businesses, which often have a compliance officer and an external accountant reading the same books, set up review access in much the same way; giving your accountant review access shows their approach. Once the appointments are in place, the monthly figures each firm sees should match the pack the partners read, described in a monthly management pack for partners.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
