The chartered accountant is an accounting professional whose role goes much further than the establishment of the company’s accounts: He is a true partner of the manager who will provide advice on legal, tax, social, accounting and even asset matters. The role of the chartered accountant is very important for companies, whether during its creation, development or transfer. Role of the chartered accountant for business creators The chartered accountant can play an important role by intervening in the creation of a company, and he can intervene well beyond the framework of the production of the entrepreneur’s forecast balance sheet. By relying in particular on the numerical data from the forecast documents, the chartered accountant will be able to advise the creator or buyer of the company on several decisive stages of the project: • Advise the entrepreneur on the choice of his legal status; • Guide the entrepreneur on his social status • Participate in the tax optimization of the project; • Advise the entrepreneur on his choice in terms of financing… The chartered accountant can therefore play a much more important role than just producing the entrepreneur’s forecast balance sheet; he is a real support for the future business leader. Of course, it is up to the entrepreneur to define the points on which the chartered accountant should intervene or not, because it should not be forgotten that in return, a remuneration proportional to the services requested will be due to the chartered accountant. Main missions of the chartered accountant: The main mission of a chartered accountant is of course of an accounting nature, and it can be broken down into three missions: Mission of presentation of annual accounts The business leader chooses here to entrust all or part of his accounting to his chartered accountant. This will notably involve keeping the accounts, auditing the accounts, preparing the annual accounts, and preparing tax and social declarations. Limited review mission of the annual accounts As part of the limited review mission, the chartered accountant must certify that he has not noted any element that calls into question the sincerity and regularity of the annual accounts, and the true and fair image of the company. Legal and contractual audit mission As part of a legal and/or contractual audit mission, the chartered accountant must certify that the accounts concerned are regular and sincere and give a true and fair image of the company. Other roles of the chartered accountant In addition to these main missions, a chartered accountant may carry out other missions on an ancillary basis, i.e. these missions will be complementary to a main accounting mission. It is therefore common for a chartered accountant to carry out legal formalities for the head of the company: Holding annual general meetings, transfer of registered office, capital increase, etc. or personalized services in tax or social matters. In addition to keeping the company’s accounts, the main role of the accountant is to be the partner of the business manager, whom he advises astutely from the creation or takeover to the transfer of the company. Compensation of the accountant In return for the mission carried out by the accountant for the company, the latter will receive compensation which will depend on the scope of the missions entrusted to him. Generally, the rates of an accountant are set in two ways: • The accountant charges an hourly rate and therefore invoices the client according to the time spent on the file; • or the accountant offers annual, quarterly or monthly packages to the business manager, for the completion of the missions entrusted to him. It can also be observed that the rates charged by an accountant are generally higher when he is located in an urban area (City of Casablanca for example) than when he is located in the provinces. It is difficult for an entrepreneur to judge the rate proposed by an accountant, and I think that the best solution is to approach several accountants before making a choice (which will allow you to have an overall range). Training of accountants Accountants are highly qualified professionals, who obtain the national diploma of accountant generally after eight years of study (including 3 years of internship and studies at ISCAE after passing the competitive examination for access to the CEC cycle) In addition to chartered accountants, they are the only professionals authorized to keep your accounts externally. They are the only ones who can carry out statutory auditing missions. It is advisable to systematically check that your accountant is registered with the order of accountants.