After a month-long search, I still have not found an accountant. Although I received an initial reply to my query from one in Osaka, there has been deafening silence ever since I asked for clarification on a few points – and a possible meeting. A friend of mine promised to bring me into contact with his accountant, and we have made an appointment on next Friday. It seems that this accountant only speaks rudimentary English though, so working with him might be difficult.
In any case, I was asked to bring my files and paperwork for the meeting, so he can check the current state of the accounts. And I’m thinking: What accounts – what state? Does this mean the large envelope into which I stuffed all my bills so far? And that single piece of paper on which I scribbled my income until now (and a number of assorted other stuff)? Somehow I have the feeling this will not entice him to work for me…
So, I will have to sort out all the papers and bills and at least make a neat list somehow. Obviously, I am not using any accounting software yet, but I hope that either my spreadsheet version will do for a while, or that the accountant will provide me with some software – and an explanation on how to use it. You can probably guess how much I am looking forward to using Japanese only software to track my money… Well, this is something that needs to be done in any case, so I better get going with it. I love paperwork, I love paperwork, I love… Ommmmmmmm….
Somehow related to this was today’s excursion to my bank: I wanted to know how to transfer money from abroad onto my company account. Yes, I anticipate lots of international clients… and as I know how terribly nitpicky Japanese banks can be, I wanted to make sure I get information that is 100% correct. Interestingly, they already had a paper ready with the necessary information, but then I wanted to double check how my company name transliterates into the Roman alphabet, and whether I can omit anything, which made it a bit more complicated. The clerk I asked did not know for sure herself, and I even saw her making a phone call. Well, given that she could not even read the Kanji correctly, this was probably a good idea…