Accounting - A Taxing Issue? (Part 1)

Hi there, it’s great to be back after some time away, thanks for finding your way to Write Away – the blog for small businesses, freelancers, and anyone with a healthy desire to cut loose from paid employment and work for themselves.

 
In this post we deal with engaging and using an accountant for your small business.

A lot of small business owners start their business armed with a specific set of skills, knowledge or experience. One of self-employments biggest challenges is how to plug a gap in that knowledge in areas you may have never needed to understand or be involved in.

For a large proportion of small business owners and freelancers, the financial management of the business, specifically matters relating to tax and accounting would probably be the area most likely to induce a cold sweat! Unless you are an accountant by trade, why would you need this knowledge anyway!

So now you’re up and running, you need an accountant, right?

Well, yes is the short answer, but you need to ask yourself what your specific needs are, because that’s what any accountant you contact will ask you.

Some business owners only use an accountant once a year, to help calculate their tax liability, others use their accountant as a trusted advisor and involve them in key business decisions.

Often, as small businesses start to grow, tasks such as bookkeeping, which didn’t use to be a big job, grow, and a business owner’s time should be spent building their business rather than raising and posting invoices into their accounting software.

There is no right or wrong answer, but key, regardless of how much or little you plan to use them, is finding an accountant who will take time to understand your business, your needs, and make themselves available when you need them.

There are a lot of accountants out there, some are specialists in regulatory and tax areas, others focus on management accounting and providing business owners with analysis of key financial management areas such as cash flow and overdue debts.

Links to finding an accountant from the main professional bodies are below, next time we will look at useful information you might look to your accountant to provide, to help you manage your small businesses finances.

http://www.cimaglobal.com/Members/member-network/Find-an-accountant/

http://www.accaglobal.com/us/en/member/find-an-accountant.html?isocountry=GB

 

Until next time…..