Bureau Work

How Accounting Bureau's Work!

• They retain fresh tertiary/university graduates
• Train the graduates in accounting and book keeping skills
• The skills are acquired in use of all accounting packages such Pastel, ACCPAC, Quickbooks, Sun Accounting, etc.
• The clients transact and call in accounting bureau staff to maintain books of account on a regular basis, say daily or weekly
• An agreed reporting schedule is agreed to by both parties. It can be daily, weekly, monthly etc.
• At the end of the financial reporting period the accounting bureau prepares and submits the final reports
• These reports are signed and remitted to tax authorities together with tax declarations.

The accounting bureaus employ and train highly skilled accounting professionals who use efficient financial accounting software. This helps the business community to expect significant cost savings.

Author: Norbert Kagoro FCCA, CPA (U), CPA (R)

About Accounting

The leaders of East African Countries signed protocols creating the East African Community.  The ease with which the business enterprises are operating within the East African Community has seen the growth of a number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the region.  Furthermore to ensure smooth operations under the East African Community, the member countries have had to streamline a number of laws so as to be in line with the Protocols signed.

The changes in Income Tax and Company laws of Rwanda require SMEs to maintain books of account and to have these books audited if the SME has a turnover in excess of the limits as established by law. Some of the SMEs have been complaining about being subjected to audits as a result of changes in the laws.

The background of most of these enterprises is that were modest family owned general merchandise and hardware shops.  Some other middle sized enterprises have been created to provide services in legal and information technology areas.  As a result there incomes have grown over the years and now they have to work hard to ensure they produce books of account that comply with the legal frameworks established by the country.

About SMEs

These SMEs are therefore facing a daunting task of preparing books of account.  The main reason given by all of them is that they cannot afford to recruit and retain a full time accountant of a monthly basis.  Furthermore, the fresh graduates coming out of most tertiary institutions who would take up such jobs are not skilled enough to prepare books of account. 

As a result a number of SMEs are complaining about :

• Failure to concentrate on other business priorities
• The need to automate complex and voluminous processes
• The increase in operational costs associated with employment of accountants
• The problems associated with access to large, skilled, and viable labour pool
• Not having a competitive advantage arising from increased costs
• The tight deadline to comply with the tax requirements for the year

The use of these bureaus’ accounting services is equivalent to finding the right staff with the right skill levels. Hence, your worries about staff recruitment, training and retention are eliminated translating into cost savings.