5 Signs It’s Time to Find a New Accountant for Your Business
As a business owner, you likely want to do whatever you can to keep your company’s finances in check.
They Don’t Provide Financial Statements Each Month
You need to analyze these statements each month to locate areas in the business that may be draining overall profits. Looking over these statements will also help you better budget for next month’s initiatives and project future sales and profits. That all said, if your current accountant doesn’t share these financial documents every month, it may be time to look for a new one.
You Find Many Inaccuracies in Your Financial Statements
So if you notice all kinds of errors in your statements, it would be in your best interest to consider finding a new accountant. Or, if you don’t have the resources to hire a full-time CFO, then you should consider hiring a fractional CFO who can provide you with the same level of expertise but on an as-needed basis.
They Don’t Regularly Reconcile Your Accounting Books
They Take Way Too Long to Get Back to Your Questions
This is a big one. When running a business, there will likely be instances when you have a critical question for your accountant that must be answered right away. Maybe you need to know if you have enough leftover budget to pursue a promising new sales strategy. Or, you might need to quickly verify if you were overcharged when purchasing bulk raw materials to produce your company’s products. Whatever the case may be, does your accountant take forever to get back to your emails/calls, or do they simply not reply to some of them? Not only is this incredibly frustrating, but also it can cause you to miss out on business growth opportunities.
Don’t you want to know that your accountant wholeheartedly values your business? That they truly care about helping your company grow and succeed? I bet. Yes, your accountant could just be insanely busy, as we all are, but there is no reason why they can’t send a quick email to let you know that they will be able to fully get back to you a little later. So if your current accountant takes forever to get back to your questions, it may be time to start looking for a new one.
They Don’t Document Expense Receipts Accurately
As a company owner, you likely have a ton of expenses that you write off every tax season. These could include the costs of your products’ packaging supplies and shipping, bulk raw materials, digital marketing costs, project management software, billboards and other advertisements, business dinners, and the list goes on. It is your accountant’s job to ascertain that all of these expenses’ receipts are properly documented. This will be vital in the event that your business is audited by the IRS — having proper documentation of all the receipts will make the audit much more streamlined and a lot less stressful.
Therefore, if your current accountant doesn’t properly record these receipts, it is time to start looking for a new one. Trust me, the last thing you want to happen is for your business to be audited and you realize that your accountant didn’t bother to record any of your receipts. This could lead to hefty fines and worse.
They Don’t Help With Financial Analysis
The accountant you hire needs to be the finance expert for your business — they should be giving you an in-depth analysis of your accounting books and statements to help you fully understand your company’s financial health, overall costs, and profit margins. This financial analysis is so pivotal for keeping you informed on the current state and potential future of your business’s finances, which will help you make sound business decisions.
Therefore, if your enterprise’s current accountant doesn’t help with any financial analysis at all — they only keep the books updated and call it a day — it’s time to find a new one. I recommend looking for an accountant who makes a point to walk you through each statement at the end of the month and show you areas in the business to cut costs, allocate more budget for, etc. This will help you run your business much more efficiently.
To Wrap It All Up
As a business owner, you will want to entrust your company’s finances to the best accountant possible. It’s time to find a new accountant if your current one doesn’t provide financial statements every month, do monthly reconciliations of your business’s books, or help with financial analysis. Other telling signs that it’s time to find a new accountant are if they don’t help with financial analysis and you find a lot of inaccuracies in your books. Start looking for a new accountant now if any of these signs apply to your current one.
Nathan Liao is the founder of CMA Exam Academy, a top Certified Management Accountant exam review program. As a CMA and CMA coach, Nathan mentors accounting and finance professionals in over 80 countries to earn their CMA certification in as little as 8 months. The unique review framework in CMA Exam Academy has proven to be the key to his students’ outstanding success in attaining their dream of earning the Certified Management Accountant certification.