Why Every Small Business Needs An Accountant

When you’re starting a business, or if you’ve had one for a while, the inclination of many business owners is to keep costs as low as possible. Everything stays in house and accountants are often only used for the must-have things like lodging your BAS. We’re here to tell you why that approach isn’t the best for the health of your business, or you (shocker we know)!

Let’s start with the basics: yes, every small business needs an accountant. The list of ‘whys’ is a long one but we’ve summarised the most important points for you here.

Getting the legal structure of your business right is crucial

Are you a sole trader? A company? A trust? A company operating under a trust? A franchise? There are so many ways to cut the same pie and knowing which knife to use takes an accounting degree. Ensuring your business is structured correctly has a lot of ramifications, mostly on your tax bill. If you aren’t convinced about an ongoing arrangement with your accountant, make sure you engage someone good for this bit at the very least.

Business budgeting and tax planning is pretty damn hard to do by yourself

We wrote about business budgeting last week, and since we’re sure you read that too, you’d know that doing it yourself and doing it well is hard. If numbers are your thing and you’ve got epic spreadsheets and complicated formulas happening – amazing! Go for it. Or, if you want to start out small and let Xero keep you on track, that’s also valid. But! If you want excellent budgeting, cashflow forecasting and tax planning so you can make even better business decisions, then (you guessed it) you need an accountant. 

Growth means outsourcing

Business owners may be organised, smart and very determined – but one person cannot do it all. At some point, you have to start outsourcing so you can focus your attention on where it’s most needed, and where your strengths lie. Can we do social media marketing? Yeah but it’d be crap and it’d take us 10 hours to do what a professional does in 2. It’s smarter – time and money wise – to outsource. Accounting is one of the first things you should be outsourcing. Doing the numbers right from the beginning will set your business up for success in the long time, and it’ll mean you’re compliant.

If you’re applying for an overdraft, or a business loan, you need an accountant

Overdrafts and loans are two words you’ll be familiar with; many business owners need one or both at some point in time. If you wait ‘til you need a cash boost ASAP and you don’t have an accountant to organise it for you, you could find yourself in a sticky situation. 

We’re a shoulder to lean on! And we’re more than accountants, we’re business advisors with bucketloads of business owning experience

Business ownership is hard, it’s stressful and it can be very lonely. Having a team around you to lean on for support, who understand exactly what you’re going through, is priceless. Accountants are business owners too and they have numerous other business clients that they look after everyday – they know business! People who can mentor and advise you through situations you haven’t dealt with before, or help you circumnavigate big mistakes that they might spot before you saves a whole lot of unnecessary pain. You can bounce ideas off us, and even get us involved in culture days or act as your CFO to turn it up a notch or two. 

As always, we’re here to help you. Any questions? Slide into our DMs or shoot us an email.