Our methodology

Pick My Accountant is an independent comparison service operated by Elite Digital AI Solutions Ltd. This page explains exactly where our data comes from, how ratings and rankings work, how we make money, and how to correct something we've got wrong. Ratings and rankings on this site are our editorial opinion, formed using the process below — they are not financial advice and not a guarantee of any firm's service.

Last reviewed 8 September 2026.

Where listings come from

Firms appear on Pick My Accountant through two routes, and every profile states which applies:

Editorially researched listings — practice information checked against official websites and other identified sources. Source links and dates accompany the available contact details, services and pricing. Researching a practice does not create a commercial relationship or verify ownership of its listing.

Companies House register imports — firms added from the official Companies House bulk register (SIC codes for accounting and auditing activities). These profiles show factual register data — incorporation date, registered address, filing status, company number — and are labelled with their data source and snapshot date. Register-imported firms start unrated, with no pricing, and gain those fields only after verification. Inclusion from the register is free and does not imply any relationship with us.

Verification

Qualification entries show information on file, which may be supplied by the practice or supported by a cited source. A supplied membership number alone does not establish independent verification. We do not scrape the eight-thousand-plus Companies House imports against membership registers. Absence of a badge is not a finding that the firm is unqualified — always confirm credentials on the relevant body's official register before engaging, and treat our badges as a starting point, not a substitute. Companies House data is reproduced from the public register as of the stated snapshot date and may have changed since.

Title law: “chartered accountant” is reserved for ICAEW, ICAS and Chartered Accountants Ireland. ACCA members are chartered certified accountants. We do not use those titles interchangeably.

What we do not verify

A listing on this site is not a practising-certificate check, an AML-supervisor check, or proof of professional indemnity insurance. We do not confirm that the company name on Companies House is the same person who will sign your work. SIC 69201 “accounting and auditing activities” is a classification, not a registered-auditor licence. Statutory audit is reserved work. Always ask the firm for the named individual, their practising certificate, their AML supervisor, and a written engagement letter before you sign.

How ratings work

A client rating is the average of approved review ratings, shown with its review count and source. We verify the client relationship before publication. Where no approved reviews are available, no rating is assigned. Missing prices, qualifications or contact details are not numerical assessments of quality.

No pay-for-score. No firm can pay to obtain, raise, or protect a rating, and no firm can pay to suppress a low one. Advertising status is invisible to the rating process.

No fabricated reviews. We do not write reviews, commission reviews, or count reviews we cannot attribute to a source. Client reviews can be submitted on claimed profiles only; they stay off the public page until we verify the client relationship. Register imports stay "Not yet rated" until then.

Opinion, honestly labelled. Reviews describe individual client experiences and may not reflect the service you will receive. Source dates and review counts help you assess the evidence available.

How rankings and matching work

The directory puts firms with published contact details first, followed by available review ratings and established dates. Users can sort by published starting price or distance. The comparison journey begins with contactable practices and ranks them using service overlap, location and your preferences. Required services must be listed by the practice; inferred register categories do not satisfy that requirement. Required budget, qualification and local-distance filters exclude unknown or unsuitable records. If nothing meets every requirement, broader results are available as an explicit choice. Relevance is explained through facts rather than an undefined percentage score. Payments do not influence this matching order.

Pricing data

Fees shown are indicative starting prices and benchmark ranges based on our market research, and are not quotes. Your price will depend on turnover, transaction volume, and scope, and firms change prices without telling us. Always confirm fees directly with the firm before engaging. Where a firm has not supplied pricing, we invite you to ask the firm. A separate expandable fee guide on comparison results is clearly labelled as a UK benchmark. Package scope, VAT treatment and source dates are shown where available.

How we make money

Pick My Accountant earns revenue from optional paid listing tiers, referral partnerships, and pay-per-lead fees paid by accountancy firms. Comparison is free for users. Paid status is disclosed on profiles and listing cards. We are not affiliated with ICAEW, ICAS, CAI, ACCA, AAT, HMRC, or Companies House.

Corrections and complaints

If you are a firm and your listing is inaccurate — or you'd like a register-imported listing updated, claimed, or removed — email hello@pickmyaccountant.co.uk with the firm name and company number, or use our contact page. We aim to respond within five working days and to correct verified factual errors promptly. Users can challenge any rating or data point the same way; where we agree, we fix it and note material corrections on the profile.

Updates

Each source has its own check date. Register records over 31 days old are marked as awaiting a fresh check. A deadline passing after an old snapshot is not evidence that accounts are overdue. Our refresh tooling identifies stale records and prices for review; a failed refresh never advances a check date. Claims and reviews pass through an evidence-based approval queue before a separate editorial publication step. Last methodology review: 8 September 2026. Our broader editorial commitments are set out in the editorial policy. Material corrections are dated on /corrections/.