Subjects:

Practice & Procedure, Company Law

Contents:

The accountant

The accountancy practice

The accountant and his client

Claims against accountants

Auditors and Reporting Accountants

Claims against auditors

Other Roles of the accountant

The accountant and the courts

Disciplinary proceedings

International practice

Checklists

Precedents

Accountants play an increasingly important and diverse role in society today. Traditionally in the United Kingdom accountants are the first port of call for businessmen seeking any form of professional advice or assistance. They undertake a wide range of functions which stretch far beyond their traditional roles of preparing accounts, financial reporting, auditing and tax planning.

Today accountants also offer management consultancy, give corporate finance advice, offer company secretarial services, undertake financial management, give personal finance advice, advise on computer software and act as trustees in bankruptcy, liquidators, administrative receivers and administrators. In numbers accountants dwarf the other professions: roughly ten qualified accountants to every solicitor and a hundred accountants to every barrister.

This major work provides legal practitioners advising accountants and accountants themselves with clear and practical guidance — from non-contentious but vital practice governance issues to the complex issues pertaining to professional negligence.