When do you need an accountant – and when can you manage yourself?
No law requires the accounts to be outsourced. With few transactions, no employees, simple VAT and a real grip on the deadlines, you can keep them yourself. The value of an external accountant grows with employees, VAT complications, inventory or projects, and with how expensive a mistake would be. What decides it is the division of work – not how much is outsourced.
There is no duty to outsource the accounts
No general law says a business has to use an external accountant. With enough knowledge, time and control of the deadlines, you can keep the accounts yourself or have your own staff do it. The bookkeeping and accounting obligations sit with the business whoever does the work. Outsourcing moves the work, not the responsibility.
When can you keep the accounts yourself?
Typical signs: few transactions, no employees, simple invoicing, uncomplicated VAT, no inventory or project issues – and an owner who actually understands the bookkeeping and meets the deadlines. That last point is what decides it. A modern accounting system makes the bookkeeping easier, but it does not judge whether a cost is deductible, whether an invoice belongs in the right period or whether a distribution is lawful.
When does it start to pay off?
The value rises clearly once the business gets employees – payroll, the a-melding, advance deductions, holiday pay and employer's contributions are a body of rules of their own with monthly deadlines. Also when the business gets VAT complications beyond ordinary sales: cross-border, mixed activity, property, cash sales. When it gets inventory or projects with accruals and cut-off. When ownership events arrive – dividends, share issues, a change of ownership or a conversion. And when the consequence of a mistake becomes large enough that control is worth paying for. See which deadlines are actually involved in The annual cycle for a Norwegian AS
The engagement agreement is required by law
When an accounting firm takes on an engagement, section 5-2 of the Accountants Act requires a written engagement agreement. It has to make clear what the engagement covers, how the work is divided, and what duties each party has. This is not a formality. It is the agreement that decides who does what as a deadline approaches – and that is where most misunderstandings between client and accountant arise. What the agreement should contain, point by point, is in The engagement agreement with your accountant
Who is responsible?
The business still has the bookkeeping and accounting obligations, and the duty to inform Skatteetaten sits with the company's management. The client is normally responsible for providing a complete and correct basis: records, timesheets, contracts, information about ownership and changes – and doing it in time. The engagement agreement should therefore also set delivery deadlines from the client. Those are agreed working deadlines – not universal statutory ones that apply to everyone equally. Accounts cannot be reconciled against records that have not arrived. See what happens when things have been left: Accounts missing for several years
What the accountant is required to do
An approved accounting firm has to carry out the engagement in accordance with good accounting practice (GRFS), which sets requirements for engagement management, documentation, quality assurance and reconciliation. GRFS is not a set of voluntary guidelines – it is the standard the work is measured against. That also means an accounting firm cannot deliver whatever is asked for: the reconciliations and the documentation actually have to be in place.
Does everyone at the firm have to be state-authorised?
No. The requirement is that the engagement has a responsible person with state authorisation, and that the firm is approved by Finanstilsynet. The work can be carried out by staff under that person's supervision. Note the terminology: a firm is an approved accounting firm, while only a person can be a state-authorised accountant. The old term «autorisert regnskapsfører» was replaced when the Accountants Act came into force on 1 January 2023.
Accountant or auditor?
An accountant keeps the accounts, reconciles, reports and helps with deadlines and the year-end close. An auditor checks and confirms the accounts afterwards, as an independent third party. The two roles cannot be combined for the same business – independence is the whole point of an audit. Whether the company needs an auditor at all is in Statutory audit
What the client has to sign themselves
Some things cannot be outsourced. The annual accounts have to be signed by every board member and by the general manager where there is one. The duty to inform for the tax return sits with management. Board resolutions on dividends, capital changes and other corporate decisions are taken by the company's own bodies. Authorisations for the bank, Altinn and the public registers also have to be written and limited. Giving an accountant broad, undocumented access is in nobody's interest. When an engagement starts we also need identification and information about ownership and beneficial owners – that is part of the ordinary establishment of the client relationship.
The biggest cost driver is disorder
This is worth saying plainly, because it is the one thing the client controls. Missing records, receipts arriving in March for last year's purchases, private purchases mixed into the company account, unreconciled inter-company balances and a bank that does not balance – all of that is work that has to be redone or reconstructed. A fixed price that looks low can end up more expensive than a higher one if it triggers large add-ons through the year. It is not the monthly price that decides the total, but how much extra work arises. Who carries the risk for the time spent in the two pricing models is in Fixed price or hourly rate. Our prices and what is included are on Accounting prices
What you should ask about
Who is responsible for the engagement, and who does the day-to-day work? What is included, and what is priced separately? What deadlines apply to my deliveries? How are deadlines and quality assurance handled? Which system is used, and who owns the data? What happens if I want to leave? That last one is worth settling in advance – how a change is actually carried out is in Switching accountant
The best solution is not to outsource as much as possible
The more employees, transactions, VAT questions and reporting obligations the business has, the greater the value of someone who both meets the deadlines and quality-assures the figures. But the aim is not maximum outsourcing. It is a division of work where the business does what it can do efficiently itself, and the accountant takes responsibility for the tasks where expertise, control and deadlines actually add value. How that division is set up in practice is in What do you do yourself, and what do you outsource? Greenleaf is an approved accounting firm and can take the whole of the accounts or part of them – see our services
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This is general guidance, not advice on your specific case. Deadlines, rates and amounts change – always check the current rules, or get in touch with us.
More on starting up and choosing a company form
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- How to start a limited company – step by step
- Share capital – what can the NOK 30,000 be used for?
- Contributions in kind – can a car, equipment or a business be used as share capital?
- NUF – what is it, and when does it make sense?
- ANS or DA – what is the difference, and how large is the personal liability?
- Your first year with a limited company – which deadlines and tasks matter?
- The shareholders' agreement – what should it contain, and when do you need one?
- Winding up a limited company – how to dissolve and delete it
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