Why your accountant can be your best friend or best enemy...

In discussing business with many companies I'm  always struck with the expertise that the owner or owners have about their business.  However they are not accountants, much the same as I am not a mechanic or a hairdresser. These are skills that must be learned and if you are running a successful business you don't need another full time job nor do you have the time to learn the skills that an accountant has. That's why I titled this piece “Your accountant can be your best friend or your best enemy.” If your accountant is your best friend, he or she is there for support, for accuracy, and for explaining what the numbers mean as they impact your business. The accountant should be the person that you rely on for honesty in explaining the temperature, good or bad, of your financial reporting because this leads to what your tax liability will be. That also is a serious conversation and one that you have to rely almost entirely on an accountant that you trust.

I know there are various programs developed that claim that you can do your books yourself or your taxes. I have used these products as well, and what I will tell you is that you will get the basics but you won't understand the process and that is triple for tax reporting. You need a professional who does taxes who specializes in small businesses and who really understands where you need to go or want to go in the future with your business. Making the mistake of trying to do another person’s job can be very very costly. You might decide to hire a person to do your accounting or bookkeeping in-house and then have an outside accountant CPA do your work at the end of the year for your taxes and final financial reporting. However this has become very costly. If you hire an experienced bookkeeper to work in your firm you are responsible for the salary of this individual depending on your area this can be anywhere from 40,000 to $80,000 a year plus employment taxes plus workman's comp, vacation time, insurance etc. Hiring a remote accountant however, allows you to save approximately 50% of that cost which should be around 30 to 40,000 dollars. Using a remote accountant also allows you the ability to always get an answer in a timely fashion with secure technology. Technology, good internet technology has become very user friendly. There is no need for you to take up office space for a service that you can easily utilized outside the office. The remote accountant is available to ask questions, to do extra work as needed, and to advise and consult with you about growth potentials.

 Your remote accountant should be a person that you can relate to, that you can rely on, and that fully understands your business

 Your remote accountant should be a person that you can relate to, that you can rely on, and that fully understands your business. There are many services available on line now for remote accounting. However, most of them offer bookkeeping services and very little consulting and tax analysis for you. So be sure if you are entertaining the idea of utilizing remote accounting firms to talk to them very frankly about what your needs are and what you expect from them on an on going basis. I think that once you jump into the technological pool of the new CAS client accounting services on the Internet you will be very satisfied.