While there’s no denying the way in which a professional accountant can be a valuable asset to any business, it’s often not until the proverbial really hits that fan that smaller business owners consider taking on an accountant of their own. The reason is of course an obvious one – they’d rather not spend the additional money on the kind of jobs they feel that can take care of themselves. After all, why shell out for anything that can be covered with a little DIY effort?
According to the team at choose-your-accountant.co.uk, the problem with this theory is the way in which it overlooks the fact that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. In this instance, there may be certain bits and pieces the business can take care of without the assistance of an accountant, but at the same time there are so many benefits that may come the office’s way were a professional to be taken on-board.
Here’s a quick look at just a few examples to illustrate the point:
1 – Better Use of Resources
First of all, every second you or anyone else around the business spend looking after accountancy is a second that could have been used to do what it is that you as a business do best. When taking care of accounts in-house, it generally tends to be a case of just ticking all the necessary boxes for the sake of remaining above board which means that no matter how much of your time is eaten up in the process, the benefits taken back are largely non-existent. By contrast, when you take on a professional accountant you’re able to make best use of all resources you have around the office and make sure that the box-ticking is left to those who do it best.
2 – Improved Efficiency
Something else to bear in mind is the way in which the professional small business accountant has the potential to increase your overall efficiency in a big way. The reason being that the kind of job that takes you or your team a couple of hours each day to keep tabs on could in the hands of the professional be a simple once-a-week 30-minute task of little to no concern whatsoever. These are the individuals that live and breathe accountancy every day, so it’s of course a no-brainer to state that they’ll not only do a better job, but a faster job to boot.
3 – All Legal Bases Covered
As a business progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to remain in-line with UK laws when it comes to taxation and all other matters thereon. The problem here being that when you make the slightest mistake having had the best intentions at heart, you can still find yourself with the mother of all legal headaches and a sizeable penalty to boot. For small business in particular these kinds of troubles can prove fatal, which is why it’s always worth paying the minor premium necessary to have all legal bases covered by those who know them best.
4 – Strategic Advice
One of the biggest and most commonly overlooked problems that are associated with DIY accountancy in small business settings is the habit of spending far more than necessary having not properly understood what it is you’re doing. When it comes to things like taxation, investments, banking and so on, there’s an easy way of going about things and a clever/financially beneficial way of going about things. In the case of the latter, this is where every move made is carefully mapped out in accordance with how to spend as little money as possible and how to maximise income – something you cannot expect to get right if you are not a trained and experienced accountancy professional.
5 –Real Savings
Last but not least, while it’s safe to say that accountants aren’t in the habit of offering their services free of charge, you can’t realistically say that it’s 100% free to take care of things in-house either. First of all there’s the manpower involved as every hour you spend on the personnel sorting the accounts represents a pretty steep cost. Then of course there’s the equipment and the software you’re going to need to take care of everything, along with the printouts and physical filing systems that take up the kind of space you really should be using for more important things. When added up, the chance of you actually spending any more in real terms on an accountant are pretty low – the service you’ll receive in return however can be priceless.
