How to work with an accountant

Certified Public Accountants (CPAs or CAs) can be beneficial to your company in many ways you may not have considered. Your accountant will serve as your primary source of financial guidance for your business, offering assistance in a variety of areas that your business may or may not need. Before you begin to work with your new accountant, it is important to have an idea of what duties you will primarily need them to perform in the short term, keeping in mind that you can always ask more of them in the future.

Advisory Services

Your accountant will soon come to know your particular business very well, and can advise you on all manner of financial decisions. Entrepreneur Magazine reports that an accountant can bring a fresh perspective to common business problems and uncover money saving opportunities you may not be aware of. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, “Accountants can offer advice on everything from insurance (do you really need business interruption insurance or is it cheaper to lease a second site?) to expansion (how will additional capacity affect operating costs?).” Depending on your needs, your accountant can become more than just a bookkeeper, they can help guide you toward sound financial management and make a meaningful contribution to your bottom line.

Preparing Business Plans

We're hoping you're not using a pen and paper

If your company is looking to acquire funding for expansion, an accountant can help you prepare a professional financial business plan to give to a bank for a loan. Whether you want to grow your current business or launch a new product, a bank is primarily concerned with making sure that they can get their money back. Some entrepreneurs choose to cut costs by trying to exclude detailed financial projections, but this can be off-putting to someone with a lot of money to invest. On the contrary, having a certified professional who knows your company, and the industry you service, construct a dynamite plan that speaks to a bank in their own language can go a long way to getting you the funding you require.

Make Sure All of Your Books Are Accurate

Who uses a calculator?

Before you call your accountant in for tax preparation, you need to prepare a your financials for the accountant to work with. The biggest and most time consuming part of this process is ensuring the accuracy of your books. This involves getting full bank statements for every month of your business year, and comparing them to your own independent records and receipts to make sure there are no big, unaccounted for charges that can not be explained.

The reason for this step is that an accountant can only work with the numbers you provide. If you have thousands of dollars in expenses but no documents or ledger to account for what they are, you may miss out on important tax breaks and end up paying much more to your government than you would have. As mentioned above, if you have not been keeping up on your books, an accountant can put one together for you but keep in mind that it will require more work and result in a higher bill.

Prepare Your Write Offs In Advance