Accountant: Running a small business successfully is not easy; it takes your attention to day-to-day tasks, managing finances, including cash flow, and growing business. Sometimes, it becomes difficult to make a profitable business decision.
As a small business owner, you may not have knowledge or time for handling accounts. That’s when accountants come into the picture.
Not just that, small business accountants can help a business in many ways, such as minimizing tax bill, provides guidance for VAT registration, and the list goes on.
So, it’s worth saying that there is a major role of an expert number cruncher – an accountant behind every successful business.
Hire small business accountants
Work with a UK-based accountant for tax, accounting, payroll, & EIS/ SEIS needs.
Here, let’s explore 15 ways an accountant can help small business owners,
1. Guide you while incorporating business
So, you have finally decided to establish a small business. Congratulations!
But what about business structure – sole trader or limited company? Which business structure you should choose? How to register with the company’s house? Confused!
An accountant can help you figure out this.
Your accountant will suggest and recommend the best structure that suits your business objectives, finances and other circumstances.
Your accountant will also make sure that you have field incorporation papers correctly to safeguard you from unnecessary delays and errors.
Visit our guide Definition of a sole trader for more details about the sole trader business structure.
2. Help you decide the business plan
There are chances of a small business failure if the forecast and figures have not been tested rigorously when you draw your business plan.
Here, an accountant helps you put a strong foundation for your business.
An accountant will guide you while drawing a business plan by providing expert advice and constructive input into key areas such as which business model is best for you etc.
A business plan with a signature of an accountant is ready to roll as it attracts investors also.
3. Provide smart budgeting tips
Smart budgeting can give you an honest and accurate picture of the costs of your small business.
Without proper budgeting, your business might eat up all your money.
An accountant on hand can help you identify what eats money and what does not. This is how you will get an idea about how much money you’ll have to spend and how much you can take for yourself.
4. Sort out your debts
Debts are common as most of the business starts out with somewhat debts, but the difference here is that there are good and bad debts.
An accountant by your side will help you identify bad debts and keep you away from building up more.
There are chances of spending more while navigating business borrowing without the help of an expert.
A small business accountant will safeguard you from bad debts by helping you choose least expensive borrowing plans as per need of your business.
An accountant will also help you decide whether you should focus on repaying or should invest extra funds into your business instead.
5. Cash must be Flowing
Management of cash flow is a very important task for the good health of your small business.
With poor cash flow management, there might be chances of not having enough balance in your business accounts to make important payments you need to.
As business starts running, you will have an idea that money is coming overall, but keeping things organised to avoid running out at the wrong time is most important.
Your accountant will make sure that you have the funds you need and potential cash flow issues are managed effectively. Saving Tax
No matter how you see, taxes are never straightforward and easy, plus regulations change on an almost continuous basis.
You can work out and pay tax by your self, but there are chances you end up paying more than you owe due to lack of information.
A small business accountant will help you legally reduce your tax bill by avoiding HMRC’s tax penalties.
An accountant will make sure you use all the government incentives and allowances to minimise your tax bill.
Visit our guide about self assessment tax return to know more about it.
6. Compliance with government regulations
Whether you are a start up or in a growth phase, you need to comply with government regulations.
And if you miss anything or end up doing in the wrong way, then it can result in penalties or huge damage to your business.
Once again, an accountant in your team can take this burden away from your hand.
7. The growth phase & golden guidance
Everything is going fine, and your business moves from startup to growth phase, but this is the phase when most of the business fail.
And this is the time when your accountant will add more value to your business.
At this point, there are chances of collapsing your carefully planned business structure, or it can not grow in the right way.
During the growth stage, your accountant will draw your attention to the areas you can go forward and help you figure out how far to go.
An accountant will help you budget for new targets, guide you through the tax changes that come with growth and so on.
An accountant will ensure that the excitement of growing your business can not take over by keeping thing legal and well organised.
8. Funding for growth
When you plan to grow your business, you will need funds – a major bridge to cross to grow.
Though getting money from lenders and investors is not an easy task as they expect a return on their money.
An accountant by your side will present a strong financial case to the relevant stakeholder and help you get fundings.
9. Management of growth
Both the sudden growth and slow growth can lead your business towards many problems and difficulties related to cash flow, employees, office space, tax etc.
This can even spurt your business backwards.
An accountant on hand will help you react and tackle effectively to unexpected growth and turn into an advantage.
10. Buying or selling a business
If you are looking to expand your small business by merger and acquisitions, an accountant should be the first port of call.
When it comes to buying a competitor business, an accountant can help you with everything is satisfactory by assessing practicalities and looking into the target company’s accounts.
11. Business advice
Generally, small business owners are so ‘in the weeds’ handling the daily activities of their business that ignore the full financial portrait.
Accountants act as the best business advisors.
An accountant carries a wealth of financial knowledge and has seen most of the issues you may encounter throughout your business journey.
That’s why an accountant fits perfects as a sounding board for your ideas and warns you of potential risks, and notifies you when the opportunity comes.
Meeting an accountant is like taking a step back, looking at the bigger financial image, gaining a fresh perspective, and coming up with the next big move.
12. Give you peace of mind
When your business takes off, you must give most of your time to the daily business operations rather than being busy with financial tasks.
And as your business grows, your business finance can be more and more complicated.
An accountant by your side will take over all the financial work from you so that you can peacefully be focused on the job you do the best.
13. Go-to person for information
The UK tax code is quite complicated, and as you cannot reap the tax benefits unless you understand those tax codes.
Also, tax rules often change, so even if you know something now, it may be different in a year or two.
An accountant on hand will act as your go-to person when it comes to understanding tax rules as they stand up-to-date on changes and will make sure you get maximum benefits.
14. Accountants bring financial information to life
Suppose your data is just ‘sitting’ somewhere in the database, and you are not analysing, interpreting or using it to help meet your business objectives. In that case, you are probably missing out on some best opportunities.
An accountant will help you dive into this information and use them to propel your business growth with profits in the future.
Hire small business accountants
Work with a UK-based accountant for tax, accounting, payroll, & EIS/ SEIS needs.
Final thought
In short, accountants add tremendous value to a small business. Do you think your small business can survive without the guidance of a professional accountant? Maybe! But the extra insight, knowledge and expertise offered by an accountant can be the catalyst that could actually make your business thrive.
