5 Ways to Partner with Your Accountant

Nowadays, there are ways you can partner with your accountant. The days when you only saw them once a year to complete your small business financials and tax return are in the past. Accounting firms are interested in helping you better control your finances to grow your business as well as help you meet your tax compliance requirements.

Making a profit should be high on your priority list as a business owner. If you want to make a profit you need to monitor the money coming into the business as well as the money going out. If you partner with the right accountant who can offer you a range of flexible value-add services they can help you improve your business’s financial performance in both the short and long term. Your accountant can put your back in the driving seat to improve and grow your business.

What are the key ways your accountant can enhance your business’s financial performance?

IN THIS ARTICLE

Tax advice and planning
Cashflow management advice
Cost control management advice
Forecasting advice
Better management reporting

TAX ADVICE AND PLANNING

Tax expenses can be one of your business’s biggest costs, so your accountant should focus on regular tax planning meetings to review the current ‘state of play’ of your profit and loss statement to ensure that you can take the appropriate actions to get the best tax outcomes. They can also take your own personal finances into account and look at expected dividend payments or trust distributions to determine what you might owe and the best ways to minimise the tax you pay.

CASHFLOW MANAGEMENT ADVICE

For your business to succeed and grow you need to have the cash to pay your operational expenses bills and your regular payroll costs. Working with your accountant you can regularly monitor the cash coming in and out to analyse the cycles in your business so that you can achieve the ideal positive cash flow position all year round. You can also take your earnings in the most efficient way to manage your own personal wealth as proactively as possible.

COST CONTROL MANAGEMENT ADVICE

To improve your cash flow position, you may need to focus on managing or reducing the expenses in your business. Your accountant can help you understand where you are spending your money and why you aren’t reaching your profit targets. If you don’t have a budget, they can help you develop one to suit your business and meet with you regularly to review whether you are achieving your budget or not and why.

FORECASTING ADVICE

When accountants understand the key financials of your business, they can provide financial forecasts and modeling and run a variety of scenarios for future paths for your business. You can use financial forecasts to project revenue and expenses in the future which can help you estimate your cash position. Financial modeling tools use different scenarios and conditions to help you understand the impacts of decisions on future business performance.  Being able to forecast and model can provide you with a robust framework for strategic decision-making for your business.

BETTER MANAGEMENT REPORTING

Management reporting is a structure and schedule set of reports that allow you to track performance, identify trends, analyse data and align your business performance to your goals. Accountants should be able to provide detailed management accounts and breakdowns of key metrics suitable for your business. Having accurate information helps you make more accurate and data-driven decisions for your business as early and as quickly as possible.

Rather than running your business with only last year’s information to hand, work with your accountant to regularly get a clear and current picture of your business financials. Accountants can help you identify problems early, cut unnecessary costs, optimise the most profitable part of your business and increase your overall profits.