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Accountancy insurance

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Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do I choose insurance?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Why do you need accountancy insurance?

Your clients rely on you to take a big job off their hands. Accountancy is the beating heart of any company’s operations, but things can go wrong, especially in a world of increasingly complex tax requirements. From the invoicing to bookkeeping, malpractice knowledge to HMRC expertise, accountancy insurance protects what you do.

  • protect yourself against big claims for errors, malpractice and accidents
  • cover for the essentials plus specific accountancy risks, like your client files
  • feel confident in your cover with a policy built around your business

Start your quote

What does accountants insurance cover?

We help you build an accountants’ insurance policy that suits your firm. Professional indemnity insurance will be key, and if you employ anyone you’ll need employers’ liability cover – it’s a legal requirement. Along with these, many businesses take out public liability insurance, plus specific cover for things like equipment and legal expenses.

Public liability insurance

In case someone is injured or property gets damaged because of your accountancy business.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for accountants?

Claims against your business for:

  • property damage caused by your business
  • someone being injured as a result of your work, or while you’re working
  • accidental damage or injury caused by your employee (if you do employ anyone, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance)

For example:

  • during a client meeting in your office, you spill hot coffee over someone, causing a burn
  • while visiting a client’s office you trip and knock a computer monitor off the desk, cracking it in two places

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case something happens to an employee while they’re working for your firm.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • an employee (including temp staff and casual workers) suing you because they fell ill through working for your firm
  • employee injuries resulting from their employment with you

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

  • one of your employees suffers back problems after sitting at their desk on a poorly set up chair
  • an employee trips over some new computer equipment you’ve left on the office floor, fracturing their wrist

Professional indemnity insurance

In case you’ve made a mistake in your accounting, or provided a service that didn’t meet the expected standards.

What’s typically covered by professional indemnity insurance for accountants?

Claims against your business for:

  • professional negligence, causing your client to suffer a financial loss
  • advice you’ve given which turns out to be incorrect
  • other errors in your accounting or activities which end up costing your client money

For example:

  • you use out-of-date information to advise a client on their tax payments, causing them a financial loss
  • a client makes a bad investment, and claims you’ve been negligent in the due diligence process

Trading without adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance is a serious breach of regulatory requirements in a professional service like accountancy, as well as poor business practice. Your firm could be prevented from trading and closed down if you don’t arrange adequate cover.

Read more about professional indemnity insurance

Business and office equipment insurance

In case something happens to the equipment you use to run your business.

What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

  • theft of the equipment you use to run your business, while at work or out and about
  • accidental loss, flood, fire or damage to your equipment

For example:

  • during a break-in, your laptop is stolen
  • a leak in your office ceiling damages your computer monitors beyond repair

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case your accountancy firm is faced with legal costs.

  • legal expenses resulting from your day-to-day accounting activities, like employee disputes
  • the costs of making or receiving legal claims relating to property damage, nuisance or trespass
  • HMRC investigations, or tax and compliance disputes
  • includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline and crisis PR support to help protect your firm’s reputation

For example:

  • a client is over two months late on their contract payments, resulting in your business taking legal action
  • HMRC investigates your business tax accounts

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

  • injury or death at or outside of work, for anyone covered by the policy
  • lost income, medical costs and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

  • you trip over the curb on your way to work, breaking your arm
  • an employee twists their ankle at a wedding, and can’t drive to the office as usual

Read more about personal accident insurance

How much does accountancy insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £1.90 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

Start your quote

*How we work out example prices 10% of our customers paid up to £22.81 a year for a professional indemnity insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £1.90 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Example accountants insurance quotes, real prices

maltings insurance

£13.41 /month

£114.09 /year

A self-employed accountant working for sole traders and small firms in the local area

  • 3-4 years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Warrington
  • Public liability

    Not included

  • Employers’ liability

    Not included

  • Professional indemnity

    £100,000

maltings insurance

£58.02 /month

£515.75 /year

A small accountancy company working for small and medium-sized businesses

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Limited company
  • 2 employees
  • Based in Northampton
  • Public liability

    £1,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Professional indemnity

    £1,000,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 23/09/2020). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Professional indemnity

No excess

£2500

Public liability

£200

£750

Portable equipment

£100

£500

Employers liability

No excess

No excess

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

    Get your documents the same day

Start your quote

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How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

Does accountancy insurance cover my work correctly?

Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect you properly. It's important to know that if you have another trade or job, you'll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider consultant - financial or consultant - tax?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

Other types of insurance

Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am - 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am - 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am - 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am - 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive. The figure below is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,755 reviews

  • Here to help

    Help from UK-based experts

  • 24/7 claims

    Make a claim any time

Accountancy insurance FAQ

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about accountants insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 043 8527 to update your policy before you take on this new work. If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.

  • You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

    • one-off credit or debit card payment
    • BACS payment
    • Direct Debit

    If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly installments.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

Helpful articles for accountants

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6 Apr 2018 • 5-minute read

Starting an accounting firm: a guide

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