Changing your accountant


…. It’s easier than you think.

Your accountant, should be a valued advisor, not just someone who bills you once a year and sends you a copy of your accounts. The right accountant should be a key component in the growth and success of your business. Unfortunately many businesses don’t think about their accountant in this way, but that is not their fault, it is just that many accountancy practices are happy to just be number crunchers, that’s not the Magpie Accountancy way, we like to be seen as a vital resource to all of our clients.

Are your accountants providing that level of support and input? If not you need to ask yourself why not and consider that it might be time to say GoodBye and look elsewhere and find a different firm. If your accountant is guilty of all or any of these then it’s time to move on and doing so couldn’t be easier:

Is your accountant reviewing the past instead of looking to the future?

When an accountant provides a set of accounts, it inevitably will be using historical data, reporting on what has already happened. What you really want your accountant to focus on is the future, to look ahead and make sure that future performance is maximised. What you need are sales targets, cost budgets and plans to help you reach your objectives. At the end of the day your accountant is there to help your business be more successful, which is normally shorthand for making more money.

Is your accountant on top of cloud accountancy?

To prepare your accounts and to properly understand your business, your accountant will need to work with your figures. The question you have to ask yourself is how good is your data and this normally comes back to the quality of the accounting systems you use. If your accountant charges you more than you think they should, it may be because their time is being used inefficiently, trying to decipher your data and clean up your accounting records. A good accountant will encourage (and more commonly now, insist) that you use cloud accountancy software, to enable them to share with you your day to day numbers in real time and to be able to flag up any issues as they happen now when it is too late.

Is your accountant offering you more than just bookkeeping, and tax returns?

While of course these services are the bread and butter of accountancy, in today’s highly competitive world, you need to be getting so much more from your accountant. Expert tax advice, outsourcing routine admin tasks, corporate finance, business acquisition or disposal or more broadly based business development consultancy, these are the things that are going to make significant differences to your business.

Is your accountant acting like a supplier rather than a member of your team?

Your accountant prepares your statutory accounts and may do your bookkeeping or even your payroll. Basically they provide a service to you just like any other supplier. Right? Wrong – To be honest if your accountants lets you treat them like any old office supplies company, that should sound a warning note in your brain. A good accountant is someone who understands your business and your objectives and who proactively offers you support and advice.

So if it’s time to say GoodBye to your accountant, then it’s time to say Hello to us, after an initial consultation and upon your agreement to take on our support we will ensure your accounting records are transferred from your existing accountant – there’s nothing more you need to do. As we said, it’s easier than you think.

Come onboard with Magpie Accountancy we are always happy to talk numbers, so feel free to contact us info@magpie-accountancy.co.uk or 07957 245 760

 

MagpieAccBlog-Changing Your Accountant