Do you get the best from your Accountant

For many small and medium size business owners having a professionally qualified person to manage their finance is always in the back of their mind but seldom in forefront while planning and budgeting. Most business owners look at a finance department as an administrative burden. The dilemma of hiring full time employee or part time employee is onging as hiring a part tiem employee has its own challenges. A partimer is ongoing as hiring a full time employee can be an expensive solution and hiring a part time employee has its own challenges. A parttimer may have conflict of interest in terms of efficiencies, if paid on an hourly basis, their dedication to the job, as the employee may have other jobs as well, and may not be the best-qualified person for the job.

Many of the small and medium size businesses across the world use the services of a bookkeeper to manage their books and an external accountant for managing compliance issues such as taxation. For most of these organizations this is an affordable solution but whether it is the best solution needs to be looked into.

Here I.ll share some tips can help you assess whether or not the current solution for your accounting is the bestt for you. If th answer to the following questions is yes, then it is time to act.

• Your bank accounts are not reconciled for every bank statement period and are not in written format.
• Your bank reconciliation is showing a different balance than your financial statements or general ledger.
• Your bank reconciliation includes un-reconciled amounts for a period over a month.
• Your financial statements are slow to be prepared, behind one or two monthly accounting periods
• You don’t get monthly balance sheet reconciliation
• Your accounts receivable and account payable ageing or listing reflacts different balance than your general ledger.
• Do your customers complain about payments not posted in their accounts?
• Do your suppliers complain about their invoices not posted in their accoounts?
• Do you have debit balances appearing in your supplier accounts?
• Does your accountant charge you additional hours for clearing up the mess?
• You don’t receive any update from your accountant on significat changes in the tax regime and other accounting issues, which may have an impact on your business.

There are many other symptoms, sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious and for each of these questions, there may be potential problems.
Finding the right person or service firm can save you a lot of money and trouble. Here are some questions that you must ask before hiring an accountant / bookkeeper.

• What are the qualifications of the person managing your accounts?
• Are they a member of any professional accounting body?
• How would the add value to your business?
• What kind of reporting structure would they follow and what reports will they provide?
• What experience do they have in the industry?
• Who will be responsible for the rectification of work in case they make a mistake?

There are many other questions that you may ask before hiring an accountant or bookkeeper like what accounting software they can use, how they can help in strengthening your internal controls and so on. A good professional accounting service in many cases will pay for itself by spotting mistakes, Providing valuable business insights, saving on tax. It would be wise for businesses to hire a qualified and proactive accountant rather than low-priced accountant whom you see only at end of the financial year.

Visit our website at www.dsvpartners.com.au and see how we can help you