Why Hire an Accountant?

When you own and operate a small business, it’s easy to take the DIY mindset to heart.  Doing things yourself is a terrific way to preserve capital and can be a very good practice.  However, there come times when it ceases to be efficient to try your hand at something and makes more sense to hire a professional.  After all, you wouldn’t remove your own tonsils or have your business partner do it for you, unless of course your business happens to be otolaryngology!  If that’s the case, maybe a better example would be repairing your own engine; you get my drift.

And the accounting for your business may well be one of those things that it makes sense to turn over to someone who really knows their stuff.  Here are three signs that it’s time to consider hiring an accountant, whether a full time employee, a consultant, or an outsourced accounting firm.

When the books become a real chore.  Many business owners don’t mind handling the accounts when a business is new or relatively small.  However, as the company expands and demands on your time grow, it is that pain-in-the-behind chore of daily record keeping that can be easy to push aside for “later.”  That’s when bad things can start to happen; receipts are lost, bills are paid late, tax forms aren’t sent on time.  There are real, and sometimes expensive, repercussions of these oversights.

Hey, revenue is up!  Why aren’t profits too?  An accountant can help you figure out the disconnect.  There may be overhead costs or other adjustments that can be made to improve profit margin.  They are expert at digging in and figuring out what others miss when it comes to money.

Uncle Sam wants to talk.  If you received the dreaded letter from the Internal Revenue Service stating that you are facing an audit, you better make sure you have your ducks in a row.  An audit isn’t quite as scary as most people believe, and having a professional accountant who works with your books and has all your documentation in order and ready to produce, will make the process even easier.  In fact, it is even better if you have that relationship in place before an audit is ever on the horizon.

The bottom line is, a professional accountant will take a lot off work off your plate, and a lot of worry off your shoulders.  So consider the different options, full time, part time consultant, or outsourced accounting firm, and see what fits in your budget.  You might just be surprised how affordable it is.