In Pursuit of Profit
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 When you’re searching for an accounting provider what should you look for exactly? What’s a true need versus a want? What is worth paying more for if you can get it? Obviously, every organization will have unique needs to consider, but we’ve put together our top five list of accounting provider must-haves to serve as a quick guide for business owners:
 Do you really need to document accounting policies and procedures, or are there times when formalized accounting procedures just aren’t necessary? The answer is probably what you’re expecting, but don’t really want to hear.
Formal accounting policies are always necessary! (And we’re not just saying that because we’re accountants.) Many small business owners think they don’t need to write down their accounting processes and procedures because with limited staff they may only have one person doing everything bookkeeping-related and that person doesn’t need to tell themselves what they do regularly. However, even small companies open themselves up to significant risk if they don’t document their accounting policies because doing so is a fundamental element of doing business regardless of the size of the organization.
Typically, it’s followed by questions like:
 These last few years have created unprecedented demands for the accounting and finance teams of small companies (and larger ones, too!). As a result, we have seen many clients come to us looking for assistance in getting their accounting tasks caught up to enable both internal and external reporting.
Let’s take a look at what kinds of requirements exist this year and who should be responsible for meeting them!  Should you outsource a bookkeeping/accounting role or handle it in-house? This is a question that we help potential clients with every day! Unfortunately, there’s not one single right answer for every organization.
Exploring your needs and expectations around the role will help to determine whether you should keep it in-house or whether it would be best to hire a third-party accounting provider to do it for you. Ultimately, the answer will depend on several factors – time needed, functions needed, and of course cost!  Architecting and building a successful accounting department is critical to a company’s growth and success. One of the keys is ensuring your accounting team has a thorough and complete accounting manual to instruct them on how, why, and when to account for all financial transactions within the business.
Just like a general contractor needs an official set of complete plans from a professional architect to ensure a successful build, so an accounting department needs a professional and complete accounting manual to ensure accounting operations are run with integrity and efficiency while maintaining all universal compliance requirements. I have been in many accounting environments across various companies throughout my career and the best and most efficient accounting environments all have one thing in common – best-in-class accounting manuals. Why? Let’s look at the ways an accounting manual brings value to a company.  As we talk internally as a team and externally with our colleagues, there seems to be one common thread across the conversations we’re having: slowness!
Everything related to bringing in accounting help has slowed down. The prevailing trend right now is business leaders being more cautious with hiring and dragging their feet when it comes to outsourcing. Part of this reduced pace isn’t their fault. A worsening talent shortage in accounting is stymieing the hiring process. But a dearth of accountants isn’t the only factor leading to a slower hiring process. Business leaders are also taking longer to make hiring decisions and/or decide to outsource their critical accounting activities due to concerns of an impending economic slowdown.  An organization’s fiscal calendar is not set in stone, but it’s often treated like it is. Why? Because it’s extremely cumbersome to move it! And yet, circumstances may arise where an organization really has no other option but to move its fiscal year. A change may be strongly recommended by a trusted advisor, or even required due to major organizational changes.
There are many reasons why an organization could decide to shift a fiscal calendar, but the most common instances are to:
Undoubtedly, when a business owner, financial leader, or executive team is considering making a fiscal year shift, there is a valid reason to do so because the headache that results is not worth undertaking without good reason!  Accounting company vs CPA firm – what’s the difference? There’s a lot of confusion regarding this topic among non-accountants, so we’re going to answer it for you by breaking down the differences and explaining the similarities.
While they may sound similar (and some people may even use them interchangeably), an “accounting company” is distinctly different from a “CPA firm.” Often, the confusion results when people refer to a CPA firm as an “accounting firm,” which makes it sound very similar to an “accounting company.” So, how do they differ? The main differences are seen across credentials, regulations, services, and price.  The biggest challenge we hear about every day is being behind in ongoing accounting activities!
We hear it over and over, “We’re so behind on _________. I feel like we’re never going to catch up because we just don’t have the people or time to do it all!” You can fill in that blank with almost any bookkeeping or accounting activity and it would describe the kinds of conversations we have with prospective clients. Whether it’s payables, receivables, close, reconciliations, reimbursements, payroll, or reporting, we have heard it all! |
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