How to Appoint an Accountant in Estonia

There are many accounting companies in Estonia. However, you might feel that sometimes their pricing are out of your reach or you would prefer to trust your books to a different person. For small business owners, that can be a pain, especially, if you find yourself in a situation in which you have a limited budget to hire one of the most popular, yet expensive accounting companies, despite the quality of their work is high.

However, there can be other accountants that may offer a more personal service, yet still with high quality. If you’re a small business owner who would like to appoint an accountant you rely on, follow the following guide. By doing so, you’ll be authorising a third person to prepare and submit the annual reports on your behalf.

Before we start, you should be aware of the requirements:

• You need to be an e-resident. This is obvious, as you’re running a company.
• Your accountant needs to be an e-resident too.

Before we continue, if you want to find another accountant of your choice, make sure of the following characteristic:

• Qualified accountant and knowledgeable of Estonian GAAP. This can be difficult, however, an expert in IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) can be sufficient to ensure your accounts meet the required standards.
• Experience: this is very important. Qualifications are really nice, but experience in Estonian GAAP and preparing annual reports is quite convenient.
• Follows a Continuous Professional Development. This is more difficult to investigate, but if somebody graduated 20 years ago, her knowledge might be outdated. It could be good to ask.
• Has a registered company. Also being a freelancer can be, as long as they are legally registered and can issue invoices. Not only will you be able to deduct expenses from her services, but to monitor the company and opinions.
• Offers a written contract/detailed list of conditions. This is business advice in general. Companies that want to avoid contracts or send written conditions via email are usually a red flag. This is because in case of dispute, they can “gashlight” you into making you believe it was you who didn’t understand well the points and not fix their damag

What to avoid

As usual, some accountants may offer you to cheap prices to compete with the big companies out there. The previous points may help you filter out those who is reliant and who is not.

In addition, others may charge you high prices to create an image of quality. However, the same principles described before may help you filter them out. It would be nice to ask for a free meeting and consultation to get to know them better.

Now let’s describe how to appoint an accountant.

Steps

1. Go to the Estonian Business Register

https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng

2. As Business Client, go to E-Services

3. Log in

4. Click on Defining persons entering data

5. Click on Add new person for entering data

6. Fill in my Personal ID Code, Estonia, choose your company and ensure that the field “The person entering data is authorised to submit the report” is ticked.

Then click on save

Once you completed all these steps, your accountant can submit your annual reports on your behalf.

Bear in mind, that you can always revoke these permissions, especially if you decide to terminate your collaboration because you either are unhappy, found another one, or simply for any other reason.

I hope you liked this guide and that it can be a bit helpful for your business. Remember to sign up to the newsletter if you want to receive my latest articles and news.