WHY YOU NEED AN ACCOUNTANT

Accountants can help out at various stages during the

growth of your business. They can handle much more than just your payroll and tax returns. So when should you consider hiring an accountant for your small business?

When your business is your livelihood, you’ve simply got to get it right. If things start going backwards, the tough times get tougher, so in a down economy, making good decisions is even more critical. Unless you are a financial wizz, an accountant you can rely on is worth their weight in gold.

All your financial decisions should be made by using accurate financial numbers to determine the levers to pull to increase your profits. Your accountant understands what these numbers mean, determines if the figures are correct and evaluates the best plan forward.

It’s important for you, as the business owner, to maintain your business mindset and mental health and focus on what you do best. Handing the

numbers over your accountant means that everyone is playing to their strengths - and that’s good for business.

You don’t necessarily need to employ an accountant fulltime or hire one on a retainer basis. Sometimes just a couple of hours of their time will be enough. Like all small business owners who are looking to save money, you may think you can’t afford an accountant. But look at how long it would take you to do certain tasks (such as taxes), and ask yourself, is that a good use of your time?

For example, let’s say it takes you 10 hours to do your taxes, and your time is worth $100 an hour. That’s a cost of $1000 to do your taxes yourself. And there’s always the risk you’ve made errors – especially if you’re multitasking like most business owners.

Getting an accountant to take care of time-consuming tasks like taxes, it’s quite likely they will cost less per hour than you would pay yourself. You’ll not

only have extra time to free you up to generate revenue, but you’ll have peace of mind that an expert is taking care of the details.

Sounds like a no-brainer? They will also figure out where your business related stress points are, so they stop having power over you moving ahead. Waiting too long to decrease costs after revenue has gone down, is a primary cause for companies losing substantial amounts of money. Keeping on top of your financial records is vital in enabling you to react quickly when revenue drops

and an accountant will review financial statements regularly, in order to tackle issues that are adversely affecting your business early on.

Small business accounting can quickly become complex if you do it on your own. If you feel you’re losing control of who owes you money and how much, an accountant can help you get back on track.

You might want to measure key business metrics, such as the ratio of salaries and other employee payments to total revenue, which an accountant

will help with by managing your payroll and producing graphs so you can see how the ratio changes over time.

Having an accountant manage your balance sheets will show the liquidity and sustainability of your business as well as an accurate profit and loss statement to show how your business is doing and what room you have to move.

Business owners often become overworked, which is partly due to a reluctance to asking for help. You might feel that no one knows your business as well as you do, however, an inability to delegate can mean you’re left feeling overworked and stressed.

Try to let go a little and trust others to handle some parts of your business so that you can look after what you do best. Some of the most successful business owners in the world are experts at delegating work to the right people – so try to learn from them.