FAQs

The main two components of accounting services pricing are working hours and wages of the chief accountants. These are intellectual services. As you might be aware, the salary of finance and accounting professionals is among the top 5 in the market, so low-priced yet professional services are not to be expected in this field. In addition to the payroll, the hourly rate includes the costs of the accounting software, servers, office maintenance, professional risk indemnity insurance as well as qualification and further training of the accountants.

The clients of Žinius UAB are offered two types of accounting service contracts: either a fixed monthly price contract or an hourly rate based contract where they pay for the hours actually used. The fixed monthly price includes a fixed number of documents and transactions, mandatory tax returns, as well as specific contractually defined scope of work. If you choose a variable price contract, the contract defines the preliminary scope of work only where the specifics of the activity, seasonality, number of employees and other important factors are taken into account.

In either case, we will set the lowest price limit as regardless of the size of the client’s company or non-performance, each client causes us to incur fixed costs for the space they occupy in our accounting program and on the server. In addition, we maintain their document archive and have to reserve the chief accountant’s working time for them.

The decision basically depends on the size of the company. If the company has more than 50 employees, it is very likely that the flow of accounting documentation and information is high, and accounting can be better organised on site.

If there are fewer than 50 employees, another important factor is the nature of the company’s activities. For example, in retail or manufacturing, a very large number of primary accounting operations related to the quantitative accounting of goods are generated in retail outlets and warehouses. If you wish to debit accounts, list goods for sale and monitor the exact balance of the inventory straightaway, the accountant or chief accountant needs to debit accounts and adjust the balance on a daily basis. Therefore, it is easier for at least the accountant to work on site.

Žinius UAB will provide the potential clients with the optimal and most economically advantageous service offer that corresponds to the size and specifics of their operations. If the client decides to hire an accountant or storekeeper directly, we can provide the chief accountant service only. In this case, the chief accountant performs the supervision and controlling, and the internal and external accountants cooperate within the limits of their responsibilities.

First of all, it is important to realise that the history of the client’s company as well as various statistics are stored in the accounting program. The longer the company is active, the more important and necessary these data become for the client. This is also a customer and supplier database that includes their contact details as well as purchase and sales turnover history. In addition, this is the history of goods turnover and price changes as well as that of the performance results of various projects or subsidiaries. So please always think at least 5 years ahead when making this choice.

At the beginning of the activity, it is of course cheaper to use the accounting software of the accounting service provider in order not to incur any additional costs. However, as the business grows and expands (roughly 3rd to 5th year of operation) or at the time of migrating to a different accounting service provider, one has to come back to this question again. Other important factors to consider are the market acceptance of the program, the availability of professionals who know how to work with it, as well as the availability, service and timely updates of the program itself.

Žinius UAB provides its clients with rational solution offerings that include the possibility for clients to log into the accounting program, issue invoices, monitor debts or analyze activity data as desired. We also offer training on how to use the accounting software. As the client progresses, we enable the migration of the database stored in the accounting program to the client’s program (data can only be migrated to the same program), as well as the integration of the client’s CRM programs with the accounting program. We also offer automatic data import from electronic trading platforms (Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Pigu.lt) to the accounting program.

The contract for accounting services with Žinius UAB provides for price adjustments due to changes in the scope of the client’s activities, both in case of an increase as well as decrease in activities, and also for companies affected by the seasonality of their operations. Therefore, if the activity level decreases, please feel free to contact us and we will review the price that applies to you. In the event of a drastic reduction in activities, we generally recommend our clients to switch to a variable contract and pay at an hourly rate for hours actually used.

If the company has submitted an application for suspension of operations (temporary non-performance of activities) to the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI), it has no employees and does not conduct any economic transactions (i.e. no monetary transactions are carried out in the banking system, no purchases or sales take place, and no contracts are concluded), such a company is temporarily exempted by the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) from the obligation to file monthly returns. The obligation to file all annual returns with the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI), such as the corporation tax return (even if it is not filled out), however, remains. The annual obligation to file all annual returns with the State Enterprise Center of Registers (VĮ Registrų centras) after the completed calendar year also remains in effect. If you “forget” about this obligation, you risk earning a fine of up to EUR 3,000. After the suspension of operations, we recommend that you make an appointment with the accountant in advance for the fulfilment of these obligations for the completed calendar year.

The legal acts on accounting and individual company forms entitle the owner or manager of the company to keep the accounts themselves. The owner of a Sole Proprietorship, shareholder of a Small Partnership, the head of a Corporation or even the managing director of a Limited Liability Company can keep accounts themselves, provided that they have the necessary qualifications as an accountant and demonstrate required knowledge, skills and sufficient professional experience, as well as have enough time for this type of activity. The Law on Financial Accounting of the Republic of Lithuania stipulates that the accounting of a company is managed by the head of the company who is responsible for the following: appointing the accounting officer and ensuring that the accounting officer is provided with the correct, accurate and detailed information on business operations and assumptions used in determining the value of assets and liabilities in a timely manner; defining internal controlling measures and ensuring their use in practice; ensuring that in the event of a change of the accounting officer or the head of the company, the accounting documents, accounting records and other relevant accounting information are handed over to the new accounting officer or the new management of the company in a timely manner, etc. Are you sure you can do the accounting yourself?

In 2022, the Authority of Audit, Accounting, Property Valuation and Insolvency Management under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania (Audito, apskaitos, turto vertinimo ir nemokumo valdymo tarnyba prie Lietuvos Respublikos Finansų Ministerijos or abbreviated AVNT) has published guidelines entitled Choosing an Accounting Service Provider. Chapter V of the Guidelines states: “When deciding on a legal entity to manage accounting under the accounting service contract, the head of a company is recommended to consider the following:
✓ the experience of an accounting company in the accounting service business (by the experience of a legal entity, the Guidelines understand the actual and legitimate professional experience of the legal entity in the field of accounting and/or auditing services that is based on business relationship between the legal entity and other companies);
✓ the membership of the accounting company under consideration in professional associations of accounting service providers. Such a service provider [with an active membership] is considered to be the provider of accounting services or accounting functions that demonstrates a high level of professional competence (more information can be found in Chapter VII of the Guidelines);
✓ whether the accounting service provider has a professional risk indemnity insurance (knowing this, the head of the company could take out insurance that protects against possible professional errors and the consequent risk of possible financial losses);
✓ the professional competence of the accounting professional who is to be in charge of the company’s accounting (competence is understood as the actual and legitimate work experience in the field of accounting);
✓ are the principles of professional ethics observed;
✓ the scope of other accounting projects managed by the accounting professional who is to be in charge of the company’s accounting as well as their busyness in order to assess whether the person will be able to properly perform the assigned responsibilities of managing the company’s accounting;
✓ the accounting program and other systems used by the accounting service provider in order to assess their capabilities and compliance with the specifics of the company’s business;
✓ references from other companies regarding the quality of services provided by the accounting company;
✓ other factors according to the company’s individual needs and expectations of the services as well as of the accounting professional.”

The Guidelines entitled Choosing an Accounting Service Provider indicate that any accounting professional managing the accounting of a company must follow the basic principles of professional ethics, i.e. the principles of honesty, objectivity, professional competence and due diligence, confidentiality and proper professional conduct. In all professional and business relationships, an accounting professional who manages a company’s accounts must be fair and honest, not allow bias, conflict of interest, or undue influence of others to affect their professional or business decisions, and strive to maintain such a level of professional knowledge and competence that ensures a high-quality professional service provision to the clients. They must act diligently and comply with the relevant applicable laws and other legal acts, be careful not to disclose information obtained in the course of their professional and business activities and avoid any behavior that could discredit their profession. See Guidelines PASKELBIMUI_Rekomendacijos_Apskaitą tvarkančio asmens pasirinkimas_03_31_švarus.pdf (lrv.lt)
Žinius UAB can assure its clients that all members of our team responsibly adhere to the principles of professional ethics.